Wolfcom, Body Cameras, and Facial Recognition
April 5, 2020
Facial recognition is controversial topic and is becoming more so as the technology advances. Top weapons and security companies will not go near facial recognition software due to the cans of worms it would open. Law enforcement agencies want these companies to add it. Wolfcom is actually adding facial recognition to its cameras. Techdirt has the scoop on the story, “Wolfcom Decides It Wants To Be The First US Body Cam Company To Add Facial Tech To Its Products.”
Wolfcom makes body camera for law enforcement and they want to add facial recognition technology to their products. Currently Wolfcom is developing facial recognition for its newest body cam, Halo. Around one thousand five hundred police departments have purchased Wolfcam’s body cameras.
If Wolfcom is successful with its facial recognition development, it would be the first company to have body cameras that use the technology. The technology is still in development according to Wolfcom’s marketing. Right now, their facial recognition technology rests on taking individuals’ photos, then matching them against a database. The specific database is not mentioned.
Wolfcom obviously wants to be an industry leader, but it is also being careful about no making false promises or drumming up bad advertising:
“About the only thing Wolfcom is doing right is not promising sky high accuracy rate for its unproven product when pitching it to government agencies. That’s the end of the “good” list. Agencies who have been asked to beta test the “live” facial recognition AI are being given free passes to use the software in the future, when (or if) it actually goes live. Right now, Wolfcom’s offering bears some resemblance to Clearview’s: an app-based search function that taps into whatever databases the company has access to. Except in this case, even less is known about the databases Wolfcom uses or if it’s using its own algorithm or simply licensing one from another purveyor.”
Wolfcom could eventually offer realtime facial recognition technology and that could affect some competitors.
Whitney Grace, April 5, 2020
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
