Singapore plans to test facial recognition on lampposts
singapore — In the not too distant future, surveillance cameras sitting atop over 100,000 lampposts in Singapore could help authorities pick out and recognise faces in crowds across the island-state.
The plan to install the cameras, which will be linked to facial recognition software, is raising privacy fears among security experts and rights groups. The government said the system would allow it to “perform crowd analytics” and support anti-terror operations.
GovTech, the Singapore government agency in charge of a “Lamppost-as-a-Platform” pilot project scheduled to begin next year, has given companies until May to register their interest in providing technology for the network.
“As part of the LaaP trial, we are testing out various kinds of sensors on the lampposts, including cameras that can support backend facial recognition capabilities,” a GovTech spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
“These capabilities may be used for performing crowd analytics and supporting follow-up investigation in event of a terror incident.”
Singapore says the project is part of a broader “Smart Nation” plan to use cutting-edge technology to improve people’s lives and has pledged to be sensitive to privacy.
Video surveillance networks are common in cities like London or New York. But Ian Wilson, a security lecturer at Australia’s Murdoch University said he believed that Singapore’s would be different in that it might involve extensive facial recognition technology.
Such technology has become commonplace in Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Some top officials in Singapore played down the privacy concerns.
The spokesman for GovTech said: “The need to protect personal data and preserve privacy are key considerations in the technical implementation of the project.”
The government also hopes to use other sensors on the lamp posts to monitor air quality and water levels, count electric scooters in public places, and collect footfall data to aid urban and transport planning, GovTech said.
Yitu Technology, a Chinese company that has recently opened its first international office in Singapore, said it was weighing a bid with its partners.
The company says its facial recognition platform is capable of identifying over 1.8 billion faces in less than 3 seconds. Singapore has a population of 5.6 million people.
“We see a big potential in this country. They are ready for the AI revolution” said Lance Wang, Yitu’s general manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau. — Reuters
Xjera Labs, a Singapore-based company, said it was putting in a bid with partners.
“The scope we are bidding includes most video analytics related components, such as facial recognition, crowd monitoring and human attribute detection,” Ethan Chu, Xjera’s co-founder, said.