Facial recognition software is nothing new as developers have been working diligently to develop faster and more accurate version of the system for years. The technology has never truly taken off, but Japanese firm NEC hopes to change that with their $880 per month service that lets retailers in Japan profile customers utilizing facial recognition within the cloud. All a merchant needs is a computer and a video camera at their venue along with NEC’s facial recognition service running on the cloud in order to extract a customer’s bio data including gender and age. Since the service is online, the client can be recognized at a retailers many locations.
NEC worked on their service in house and came up with the “NeoFace” product which utilizes cloud computing. The Japanese firm claims that their service is “the highest ranked facial recognition system in NIST.” The technology can serve a multitude of uses including “intruder surveillance” or employee check-in for large work environments.
As with any technology that stores or accesses data and personal information in the cloud, security is a major concern. NEC has made sure to address the issue head on, claiming that it has encrypted all the data for faces so that it will not be “inadvertently disclosed.” NEC also claims that the system will only be used by retailers to develop a better marketing strategy and get a better idea of the type of customers that visit their stores. However, it is not hard to see how the technology could be abused and why privacy advocates and science fiction fans will have a field day with the technology.
Source: Engadget
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