BRITAIN is about to embark on a future where facial recognition technology will be used throughout everyday life – at home, schools, shops and hospitals.
The super-smart tech, predicted to be worth £15billion by 2032, is set to replace house and car keys and will even be used to take school registers.
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Within the next five years we could ditch boarding cards and passports at airports and tickets on buses, Tubes and trains.
And our faces will help to confirm our medical records to GPs and hospital staff for added security.
It comes as Germany and France this week warned the EU’s new biometric border checks, due to go live on November 10, are not ready.
The untested Entry Exit System will require non-EU citizens, including British holidaymakers, to queue at immigration to log details, including fingerprints and facial images.
Jake Moore, of cyber security firm ESET, said: “Facial recognition will be in almost every part of our life in the years ahead.”
But referencing 2002 Tom Cruise sci-fi film Minority Report, he went on: “There are lots of pros about it but, used badly, facial recognition technology is terrifying and poses great danger.
“If it falls into the wrong hands, we could see a Minority Report-style future, where people are arrested before they commit a crime, or stores know who you are before you enter.”
The tech takes a 3D scan of a face, then measures the distances between the eyes, ears and nose.
It then uses the data to create a biometric profile that is unique to each person.
Apple recently launched biometric tech on phones, while face recognition could soon be used in schools.
Jake continued: “In the future the register could be taken via facial recognition.
“All it takes is one school to say that they’ve reduced crime or truancy by using this new technology and it could take off.”
In hospitals and other healthcare environments, facial recognition could add to security.
Nicole Martinez-Martin, assistant professor at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics in California, said: “Facial recognition technology is being used for monitoring in long-term care homes for older people to see comings and goings.
“The tech can identify patients, match medical records and secure and audit people’s access to certain areas within a hospital.”
Software called Face2Gene can scan a face to detect signs of rare diseases. It is already used in America and could soon be rolled out here.
Hi-tech security
As for replacing house and car keys, the Lockly Visage system has been launched in the UK.
For around £300 it replaces your front door’s deadbolt and offers a hi-tech security system.
Lockly says it can store up to 100 facial profiles of people who it can then let in without a key.
Meanwhile, the Genesis GV60 car scans your face as you get in and sets the temperature and music to suit you.
A fingerprint sensor starts the engine. Within the home, such systems can scan your face and tailor TV shows and apps for you.
French firm Atos Origin is launching a self-service coffee machine that recommends drinks based on your past preferences.
WHERE IT WILL BE USED
YOUR face could soon be your passport into everyday life.
It will help doctors access medical records, while transport access will also change with face ID used to allow you on trains, planes and buses.
Accessing the car and home will be done through facial recognition.
Even trips to the supermarket will see your face scanned to deter known thieves
Not even a trip to the football, bookies or casino will be free from it and it may even be used to take the register at school.
Similar tech could stop young children accessing social media.
Delta Air Lines is testing facial recognition technology so it can replace boarding cards and passports.
Passengers register their faces at home, then at the airport.
Bometric software then analyses faces and matches them with user details.
Face recognition is already being trialled on UK transport systems. Thousands of rail travellers at eight stations, including London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly, have had their faces scanned during trials over the past two years aimed at tackling fare evasion.
Japanese firm NEC is trialling tech at some UK restaurants that can match facial recognition with customer information such as favourite menu items, past drink orders, special occasions such as birthdays, or food allergies.
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The science is so advanced that during Covid, tech was developed that identifies people even if wearing a mask, with a 99.9 per cent success rate.
Personal attention
California company FaceFirst is now offering systems for shops that use cameras at the entrances to identify people as they come in.
When “important” customers are spotted, a text message can be sent to appropriate sales staff to ensure they provide personal attention.
And security company Facewatch has started selling technology to shops to replace security guards.
The tech analyses a face and matches it against well-known shoplifters.
HOW IT WORKS
FACIAL recognition will be a new phenomenon to many.
Jake Moore, Global Cyber Security adviser at ESET, says: “It is a clever piece of technology and it only needs to be pointed at your face for a second.
“By scanning the images, it uses points that will look at the distance between your eyes, ears and where your nose is.
“All of these will be unique to you. All of those different points are at different focal lengths from the camera, so it knows it is a 3D image and this is your actual face, so it cannot be used on a photograph of you.
“It can then identify the image as being uniquely you. If used against a database, this biometric analysis can immediately be compared to many millions of other images to match it as yours.”
Sports Direct, Co-Op and Boots have all started to use it.
The Government has just pledged £55.5million for more police vans with face ID tech in High Streets to clamp down on shoplifting.
Jake said: “Retail is a world where lots of this tech is being used. I know Asda has started using face technology.
“We already have store cards like Nectar so it will be interesting to see if they start analysing our faces for our previous shopping habits.
“But if that happened they would have to state that as you walked into a shop.”
Bookies and casinos have also trialled facial recognition to stop problem gamblers.
Though there is no democratic or legal mandate for this biometric surveillance, millions of innocent people have been scanned by facial recognition cameras in the UK
Mark Johnson
Ladbrokes and Coral have begun to install Omnia, an AI ID system which alerts staff if you have bet too much or are at “high risk”.
But there is an argument that AI-powered surveillance could put all our privacy at risk too.
And with this brave new world comes peril, as gangs could target face ID access for cars and homes.
Jake said: “We have seen people accosted at knifepoint and made to present their face in front of their phones by gangs, then forced to swap their face ID for the attacker’s face.”
Mark Johnson, of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: “Though there is no democratic or legal mandate for this biometric surveillance, millions of innocent people have been scanned by facial recognition cameras in the UK.
“While common in Russia and China, live facial recognition is essentially banned in Europe.”
Read more on the Scottish Sun
Jake added: “Facial ID has great value and it will bring convenience to us all on the whole.
“But we should make sure we go into the brave new world with our eyes open.”
Pros
- Convenience – no more hunting for car or house keys
- A huge barrier against cyber crime, your data safer than ever
- Safer for the real world too – face ID helps police catch more criminals
- End of queues and long waits at airports and stations
Cons
- Many feel uneasy about the 4.5million faces already scanned by police
- Police data says 70% of ‘matches’ are false, ID-ing innocent people as suspects
- Criminals could exploit it to get into cars, homes and apps
- 65 MPs want an ‘immediate stop’ to live facial recognition
