China steps up surveillance with ‘gait recognition’

CHINESE cities are rolling out a “gait recognition” software that identifies people using their silhouettes and how they walk, even if their faces are obscured, in the latest tightening of the country’s security.

Developed by Watrix, a Chinese company, the technology can identify a person as far as 50 metres away by analysing how they carry themselves, regardless of whether their back is turned or their face is covered.

While the software is not yet capable of detecting people in real time, the company claims it can search an hour of footage in 10 minutes with a 94 per cent accuracy rate.

In the long run, such technology could supplement facial recognition, which relies on high-resolution images of a person’s face to work properly. It is widely used in China including on streets, public transport and airport immigration.

Officials have also expressed interest in the Watrix software in Xinjiang, a western Chinese province where the UN estimates as many as one million people are detained in a broad crackdown against Muslim minorities.

Yesterday, countries including the UK and the US raised concerns over the Muslim detention camps that Chinese officials have called “vocational training centres”.

Other nations also raised worries over freedom of expression in the fouryear UN review of China’s human rights record.

Similar biometric tools are extending China’s hi-tech capabilities.

Developments in AI, often from government-supported research, are helping to create a vast national surveillance system, known as the “Golden Shield Project”, to monitor the country’s 1.4 billion people.

Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch, told The Telegraph: “States have an obligation to provide their citizens with public security, but not at the expense of fundamental human rights.”