Beijing police are now using facial recognition glasses

These glasses aren't exactly easy on the eyes

With the 2018 National People’s Congress currently taking place in Beijing (you may have heard something about a certain controversial constitutional amendment), security measures have unsurprisingly ramped up over the last week with the cancellation of all Airbnb bookings and the temporary banning of any changes to WeChat profiles.

In other words, same old same old.

What's new, however, is that reports are now emerging that Beijing police are currently testing out new facial recognition glasses at highway checkpoints in the capital's outskirts.

Facial recognition glasses used by Henan police.

According to an article by Reuters, these new high-tech specs are able to not only check car registration plates, but can also pick up facial features and match them in real-time with a database of suspects – all within milliseconds. Powered by artificial intelligence (yes, we're officially in The Matrix), the smart glasses then display a red box and warning sign whenever a match is made to someone on the Government's 'blacklist'.

The company behind these glasses, LLVision, are also responsible for similar facial recognition spectacles used by railway police in Henan during last month's busy Chinese New Year travel period. Speaking to Reuters, chief executive of LLVision Wu Fei stated that concerns over privacy infringement were unwarranted, before concluding with 'we trust the Government'.

So really, it's all good guys. Nothing to see here.

To read about the previous security measures in Henan, hit 'Read more'.

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