Hockey fans in Washington state should smile for the camera on Saturday night - they're going to be an important part of a new facial recognition trial by the Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS is testing out its Biometric Optical Surveillance System, or BOSS, which aims to pick a terrorist, criminal or other person of interest out of a large crowd within seconds.
So the 6,000 people at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington, will provide the background as the technology looks for 20 volunteers in the arena.
The game is the season opener in the Western Hockey League as the Tri-City Americans host the Spokane Chiefs and the video will be recorded by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
As reported by the Tri-City Herald, a number of off-the-shelf cameras will be set up at the main entrance, in hallway and at a concession stand.
The system will then be employed to find the 20 PNNL employees whose likenesses will already be loaded in the database.
The success rate - and how often the cameras also mistakenly capture a random member of the hockey crowd - will then be calculated to see how the DHS technology is progressing.
The system has been tested before but reportedly was not quick enough as it could not identify faces from the biometric database in less than 30 seconds.
Biometricupdate.com explains that: 'BOSS is capable of capturing images of an individual at 50-100 meters in distance.
'The system can capture images of subjects participating from a specific distance, or be set up in a way that tracks and passively captures frontal face images of an individual as he/she moves in front of the camera.'
But PNNL have attempted to reassure hockey fans who don't want to appear on camera. No footage will be taped in the actual arena and signs will direct patrons to camera-free zones.
The Herald reported that PNNL has bought 46 seats to ensure that people don't have interact with the system if they don't wish to.
Nick Lombardo, a PNNL project manager, told the paper: 'If they (crowd members) didn’t want to be videotaped, they could very easily not be videotaped.'
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Quelle/Source: Daily Mail, 21.09.2013
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