Surveillance in China is Seeping into the City Streets

A camera with a tripod stands on an office table, projecting what it records on the wall.

At first glance, the camera looks ordinary, but once you look into the lens, it analyzes your face and projects details on a screen including your heart rate, breathing patterns and age in just three seconds.

Based on this data, a computer running in the background calculates your emotions and personal details.

The emotion recognition system, using a camera, sensors and a visual 3D reconstruction system, was developed by a start-up called Glimlab based in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

Miaodong can be used in a variety of sectors including health, security, and childcare.

As it can recognize one’s heart rate, blood pressure, and other health indexes, the system can be used to help assist one’s health status, according to Li. He said the technology has been warranted to a hardware manufacturer in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, which produces childcare products to be exported to the US. Xiang Yang, an industry expert at Beijing-based CCID consulting, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the technology is an innovative product of internet visualization in China.

Data security

Nowadays, the leak of user information is a serious issue.

In Guiyang, several companies interviewed by the Global Times said that they can use big data shared by local bureaus and companies or purchased overseas.

US tech firm Intel provides computing resources for Glimlab, including servers and big data.

If the data has been washed with data masking technology to eliminate sensitive information such as names and addresses, then companies can use this data, according to Xiang.

Data masking refers to the process of changing certain data elements within a data store so that sensitive customer information is unavailable beyond the permitted production environment.

At Glimlab, Li also showed the Global Times the big data the firm purchased overseas, which he said is used to train algorithms.

Despite data masking, people may still be shocked to find out that images of their faces could be used to train such systems without them knowing.

Miaodong uses the neural network computing chip of Intel, which is put on mobile terminals, reducing reliance on cloud computing, Li said.

With increasing importance attached to privacy, domestic internet companies should strengthen compliance and regulate their businesses, he said.

Source: ecns

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