(ANSA) - Police in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador identified and
arrested criminals during the recent Carnival season with the
help of video cameras with facial-recognition systems.
The use of this type of technology in security programmes in
Brazil is still at an early stage, but sector operators report
that there is growing demand for biometric solutions.
James Miranda, a consultant specialised in facial
recognition, said that it is possible to see an increase of
"between 20% and 30%" a year for the market, when taking account
of the expansion of the use of this technology in residential
and commercial complexes and for business activities.
"A significant increase in the demand for this technology has
been registered over the last four years, independently of
needs," added the expert.
The systems are split into two main types: devices that have
integrated facial biometric technology and software analysis
that is used with other devices, such as cameras and cell
phones.
"The use of this technology is growing exponentially," said
Fernando Terzian, the director of Terzian, a company that
provides facial biometric solutions.
He cites two factors to explain the "gigantic increase" in
demand: on one hand, there is the development of the quality of
face evaluation, which requires greater processing power and
algorithms, and, on the other, the significant reduction in
prices.
"All the software analysis, and facial recognition in
particular, make it possible to have greater control by a
smaller number of people," Terzian said.
"It won't stop growing. It's be like smartphones, something
incredible.
The company will present biometric face cameras with
internet-access points in May in Sao Paulo at Exposec, an
international fair organized by CIPA Fiera Milano and the
Brazilian Association of Company Electronic Security Systems
(ABESE), along with another model powered by solar energy that
is capable of giving off a wi-fi signal.
Terzian believes that most of the demand will come from the
public sector at first before spreading to the private sector,
for example, retailers and shopping centres.
For his part, Miranda stressed that simply installing a
facial-recognition system at a shopping centre "automatically"
provides "an agent that inhibits robberies and thefts".
Rio - Monitoring by Rio de Janeiro's military police took
place from March 1 to March 6. Video-camera images were
transmitted to the Integrated Command and Control Centre (CICC),
where a biometric system compared the faces recorded with
photographs of fugitives. The software activated an alarm when
there was a match.
The system was tested during the Copacabana Carnival, with 28
video cameras installed in strategic positions.
"The video cameras enabled us to capture four criminals that
arrest warrants were out for, to arrest an adolescent who should
have been doing educational-social work and to recover a stolen
vehicle," the military police said in a statement.
"What was more important that the result in terms of numbers
was what the team involved in the project learned and the
verification of the system's applicability".
Indeed, as expected, the software only froze the image and
activated the alarm when the video cameras captured the features
of people wanted by the judicial authorities and the number
plate of a stolen car, basing itself on the data base of the
civil police and the transport department (DERAN), the statement
added.
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