Facial recognition tech to be used on Olympians and staff at Tokyo 2020

Automated facial recognition systems from Japanese biz NEC will be used on staffers and athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The technology – which is not without its detractors in the UK – was demonstrated at a media event in the city today. It will require athletes, staff, volunteers and the press to submit their …

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Accuracy

There is a small difference between training it on a set of mugshots of predominantly black suspects and then letting it loose on cctv of the Notting Hill carnival - and training it on high quality full-face ID cards and then comparing them to well lit full-face scanning machines.

If they are allowed to take samples of your piss and watch to make sure you have the right set of dangly bits for your sport - I don't think civil liberties are really a concern

[Justicesays]

99.7% eh. Going to suck

For the 32 or so athletes who cant get into the venues...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 99.7% eh. Going to suck

Based on prior Olympic turmoil...

What are the chances the ".3" will be Russian athletes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 99.7% eh. Going to suck

What are the chances the ".3" will be Russian athletes?

Zero, because the Fancy Bears will hack and subvert the systems. I know this for a fact because the FBI and GCHQ have publicly said that's the sort of thing they do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't wait to buy this Biometric goldmine on Dark-Net

Must set an extortion price for not abusing the data-set.. 3 Gold Medals?

[spold]

Just distill this down...

"When the events are happening, we expect many people to come and the weather will be very hot. This is why we introduced this facial recognition."

= Our security staff don't want to be standing out in the sun (what no little Olympic Parasols?) and prefer to be in an airconditioned room with a screen. You think there is any fancy real software involved? - Just watch the screen and if you see anyone dodgy hit the red button, have another iced sake.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Just distill this down...

Assuming all Gaijin don't look the same to them.....

[Kaltern]

Such a non story - it's accurate tech being used to streamline the safety and security of participants and those watching - and I am unable to see how taking pictures of people they probably already have many pictures of is of any concern.

Obviously if this was to be used on the general public through normal high street CCTV, I could see it being a problem - but that is an entirely different situation and cannot be compared.

Sometimes privacy laws simply do not apply to every situation.

[JohnFen]

The state of the tech

The state of the tech right now is such that it qualifies as "snake oil".

[Shugyosha]

Re: The state of the tech

Is it much different, if at all, from the tech that allows me to pass through UK immigration by having me stand in front of a camera and then matching me to my passport photo, with no human interaction?

If it's complete snake oil, it seems unlikely it would be used for international border control? (I realise I'm leaving an open goal here for someone to slot in an easy one about the state of the aforementioned).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The state of the tech

If it's complete snake oil, it seems unlikely it would be used for international border control?

Given the success rate I have when using those ePassport scanners, I'd say the failure rate is a heck of a lot more than the 0,3% they're quoting for the Olympics - unless they're not nearly as worried about false positives as the immigration gencies are.

[Anonymous Coward]

Insane Clown Posse

Time to put my Juggalo makeup on ... that'll screw with it.

[Wellyboot]

tokyo - Space issue - saw that coming!

>>"Tokyo's venues don't always have enough space for the security check or even space to wait for the security check,"<<

If they can't handle venue security for Athletes & staff what are their plans for spectators?

This is just for the 'As used in Tokyo olympics' (so it must work!) marketing spiel.

Will they still be banning t-shirts with the 'wrong' logos?

[Pascal Monett]

So it's 99.7% accurate now

We'll see just how accurate it really is when the Olympics are in full swing.

My guess is that that accuracy rating is going to go down a notch or two, or maybe more.

And if we hear about facial recognition being abandoned . . although that obviously won't happen. If there is any real problem they'll just trot out more security people and pretent that the system is working fine, it's just for protection purposes.