UK School Introduces Facial Recognition 214
Penguin_me writes "A UK school has quietly introduced new facial recognition systems for registering students in and out of school: 'HIGH-TECH facial recognition technology has swept aside the old-fashioned signing of the register at a school. Sixth-formers will now have their faces scanned as they arrive in the morning at the City of Ely Community College. It is one of the first schools in the UK to trial the new technology with its students. Face Register uses the latest high-tech gadgets to register students in and out of school in just 1.5 seconds.'"
Why do this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Misleading summary (shock!) (Score:5, Interesting)
"A UK school has quietly introduced..."
If by "quietly" you mean, "telling everyone about how good it is and getting it in the press" then yes I guess so. Ahem. Did the submitter actually read the article they submitted?
It's worth RTFA and watching the short little video to see what the system does (I know, this is /. etc).
This is not some Big Brother style camera system covertly watching the students. This is a box on the wall which the students have to actively use to sign themselves in and out. They have to actively press buttons (well a touch screen) to use it.
While I am nervous about using biometrics for this sort of thing, the data being collected is exactly the same as would be recorded by the class register, the only difference is that it uses a computer rather than a teacher. Some schools have been using swipe-card systems for a few years, this is just a step up technologically.
There is a wider argument about the way schools are run, and the creeping use of biometrics, but this is primarily used to see who is in the building if there is a fire, so I'm not really sure that the "OMG, BIG BROTHER!1!!!!1!!" spin is warranted.
Especially since they have not exactly kept it quiet.
Re:CCTV in schools (Score:4, Interesting)
And there is no money to renovate the buildings or hire more/better qualified personnel. But, there is money for tech to watch^H^H^H^H^Hspy. Says something about the priorities nowadays...
Re:Why do this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I guess face recognition isn't AI anymore... (Score:3, Interesting)
...Every time AI researches find a working algorithm for something that the human mind does, the ability coded on that algorithm stops being thought of as "Intelligence" and becomes "just a calculation that any computer can do".
So I guess pattern recognition in images is not AI anymore, right?
1.5 seconds.. how many millions did this cost? (Score:4, Interesting)
I can sign my name in 1.5 seconds, and type it even faster.
I can depress my thumb onto a (now 2 decade old) biometric reader for the same result in the same amount of time.
This is an excellent example of stupidly wasted money.
Heck, even if its tied to stimulus spending, the new deal wasn't just about putting people to work, but putting people to work building infrastructure which would improve the efficiency and cut the costs to businesses in the long term.
This does not do either.
If it's not tied to stimulus spending this school should be chastised for buying this expensive system in a time when a few more jobs would be more valuable to the community.
You guys are missing the point... (Score:5, Interesting)
It is ONE school. How useful could data from only one school in the entire UK be for a forming of some BigBrotherTM database?
Nah... It's something much simpler.
Same reason the face-recognition companies practically gave away their hardware to selected locations in India so they could get better at recognizing the "darker" faces.
Fine tuning.
Teenagers have a tendency for two things more than any other age group.
Growing up and changing their facial structure very quickly in a matter of months AND they "play" with their faces more than anyone else.
Makeup and cosmetics for girls, facial hair for boys, piercings etc. for both.
The point of this "experiment" is to teach the machines how to successfully identify people even if they change their hairstyle, hair color, eye color, grow a beard or a mustache, do some light plastic surgery or heavy makeup to alter their faces, etc.
Now, when they put this in every school - THAT is for making the Great Britain's Good Citizens Glorious Database or GBGCGD.
Re:they're surveilling the teachers too (Score:3, Interesting)
You certainly couldn't - I worked in another school in Essex that does exactly the same. I assure you it is not only real, but *nobody* in the school understands the problem with it except the bad teachers who accept it but get tetchy that their bad teaching is being recorded... not the fact that they are bad teachers, or that they/the staff/the students are being recorded - but the fact that they might have thier gravy-train ended.
I was asked to design and build systems to do just this too, because I could CCTV up a room cheaper than their suppliers. I built one to cover the ICT office which *we* turned on and off overnight or during the holidays to help spot where our laptops were disappearing to, and had no further part in anything else. Not only does it exist - it is happening, it is accepted and it's not being questioned by ANYONE, staff, students, parents, heads, local authorities, etc. even when they are made aware of it. That's more scary than merely "it's possible" or "it exists".
Re:I wonder how it copes with twins? (Score:2, Interesting)
i wonder how it copes with the catastrophic outbursts of acne and spots that afflict
people in the 6th form college.
It would be serious embarrassing to have to
be scanned again and again because of your
spots.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why do this? (Score:1, Interesting)
Don't be silly. You aren't fit to govern yourself, you need the government to do it for you. This starts in school, for you need to be conditioned that big brother is a good friend.
Ranting? Off my tea? Me? You bet. But besides that, recall that kids from 6 on up are to be fingerprinted for their ID cards (and put in large leaky databases for their own protection), and schools like to use fingerprints for paying for lunch too. Easy!
Some parents protested. The data protection watchdog said they couldn't, because this was between their kids and the school. Think about that one for a moment. Parents have no say because as being the legal guardians of their kids does not actually make them a party to this sort of thing, sayeth the data protection watchdog. Brilliant.
Re:Wearing a berka sounds like a good idea, (Score:2, Interesting)