You've probably heard of Transitions lenses that can adapt to changing light conditions. Now, get ready for facial recognition lenses. Police officers in Zhengzhou, China have been spotted wearing sunglasses equipped with facial recognition software that allows them to identify individuals in a crowd. These surveillance sunglasses were actually rolled out last year, but a recent report from China's QQ published a series of photos of the glasses in action. China has consistently been ahead of the curve in terms of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) for surveillance. The country's CCTV system tracked down a BBC reporter in just seven minutes during a demonstration in 2017.

Picture this: you're sitting in a bar and a creepy stranger keeps trying to talk to you. The next day you get a text from that stranger. Not only do they know your phone number, they know where you live; in fact, they know everything about you. They were wearing Facebook smart glasses, you see. The moment they looked in your direction the glasses identified you via facial recognition technology.

The glasses are being used to check people and registration plates against a centralized "blacklist" that the government compiles. Along with the facial recognition glasses, the government is also using facial scanners to monitor those entering the venue for the meeting. Many are concerned with the growing use of ever-more sophisticated surveillance technology throughout China and many worry that the blacklist will contain not only criminals, but political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists as well. "(China's) leadership once felt a degree of trepidation over the advancement of the internet and communication technologies," David Bandurski, co-director of the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, told Reuters. "It now sees them as absolutely indispensable tools of social and political control."

You've probably heard of Transitions lenses that can adapt to changing light conditions. Now, get ready for facial recognition lenses. Police officers in Zhengzhou, China have been spotted wearing sunglasses equipped with facial recognition software that allows them to identify individuals in a crowd. These surveillance sunglasses were actually rolled out last year, but a recent report from China's QQ published a series of photos of the glasses in action. China has consistently been ahead of the curve in terms of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) for surveillance. The country's CCTV system tracked down a BBC reporter in just seven minutes during a demonstration in 2017.

Police in China are now sporting glasses equipped with facial recognition devices and they're using them to scan train riders and plane passengers for individuals who may be trying to avoid law enforcement or are using fake IDs. So far, police have caught seven people connected to major criminal cases and 26 who were using false IDs while traveling, according to People's Daily. The Wall Street Journal reports that Beijing-based LLVision Technology Co. developed the devices. The company produces wearable video cameras as well and while it sells those to anyone, it's vetting buyers for its facial recognition devices. LLVision says that in tests, the system was able to pick out individuals from a database of 10,000 people and it could do so in 100 milliseconds.