How facial recognition is set to replace keys, passports, tickets within 5 years
Technology
Is new tech breach of privacy?
(Web Desk) - 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.
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.
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.
