Cutting-edge body recognition software which identifies people based on their physical shape and even clothes is set to be rolled out next year. Everyday facial recognition technology has been refined to the extent that cameras can match an image in a database to someone's height, width, hair and apparel. This will allow an individual to be identified even if their face is obscured - by a balaclava, for example. Or they will still be able to be spotted if part of their body is hidden by another person or an object. Technology titan NEC Global is pioneering the body recognition software and hopes to apply it to busy security-controlled sites such as sports stadiums and airports.

A police department in Orlando has terminated its trial of Amazon's AI-powered facial recognition for the second time, citing costs and complexity. According to a report from Orlando Weekly, the department ended its trial of the technology, called Rekognition, after 15 months of glitches and concerns over whether the technology was actually working. 'At this time, the city was not able to dedicate the resources to the pilot to enable us to make any noticeable progress toward completing the needed configuration and testing,' Orlando's Chief Administrative Office said in a memo to City Council, as reported by Orlando Weekly. A police department in Orlando has ended its pilot of Amazon's facial recognition software after being unable to get its system working properly. The decision marks the second time in just 10 months that the department decided not to proceed with using the technology.

An Upstate New York school district will turn on its controversial automated surveillance software that can detect guns and identify faces on June 3, 2019. Lockport City School District was the first in the nation to install the enhanced Aegis camera system in its schools back in October 2018 and will now begin testing it. The security system is intended to become broadly operational across the district's high school, middle school and six elementary schools by September 1, 2019. The Aegis surveillance system can identify guns in the video footage it records and cross-reference people's faces against its security databases. The controversial development has attracted pushback from local parents, privacy advocates and some legislators, who say it could invade students' privacy. Each client who installs the system is able to choose which information is loaded into its database.

Facial recognition is increasingly used as way to access your money and your devices. When it comes to policing, it could soon mean the difference between freedom and imprisonment. Faces can be scanned at a distance, generating a code as unique as your fingerprints. This is created by measuring the distance between various points, like the width of a person's nose, distance between the eyes and length of the jawline. Facial recognition systems check more than 80 points of comparison, known as'nodal points', combining them to build a person's faceprint.

From 2012 to 2016, the New York City Police Department supplied IBM with thousands of surveillance images of unaware New Yorkers for the development of software that could help track down people'of interest,' a shocking report claims. IBM's technology was designed to match stills of individuals with specific physical characteristics, including clothing color, age, gender, hair color, and even skin tone, according to The Intercept. Internal documents and sources involved with the program cited by the report reveal IBM released an early iteration of its video analytics software by 2013, before improving its capabilities over the following years. The report adds to growing concerns on the potential for racial profiling with advanced surveillance technology. From 2012 to 2016, the New York City Police Department supplied IBM with thousands of surveillance images of unaware New Yorkers for the development of software that could help track down people'of interest,' a shocking report claims According to the investigation by The Intercept and the Investigative Fund, the NYPD did not end up using IBM's analytics program as part of its larger surveillance system, and discontinued it by 2016.

Many stalls and urinals are also outfitted with television screens. As of last year, over 68,000 public toilets had been refurbished, which is 20% higher than the country had hoped, the South China Morning Post explained. For many years, China has suffered from sanitary issues in its public bathrooms.

Creepy plans for creepy state-wide surveillance in China have moved a step closer, thanks to one of the country's leading tech firms. SenseTime, which works in partnership with Honda on automated vehicle research, has developed facial recognition CCTV technology already in use across China. The firm has tripled its worth in less than a year after a funding round, led by Alibaba, valued it at about $4.5 billion (£3.2 bn), people with knowledge of the matter said. SenseTime raised a record $600 million (£420 m) in the latest funding round, hot on the heels of a government push to make China an international leader in AI by 2025. Creepy plans for creepy state-wide surveillance in China have moved a step closer, thanks to one of the country's leading tech firms.