Law enforcement technologyBrazilian police get biometric "Robocop" glasses

Most people are aware that the science fiction of the past is today’s reality.

The devices and adventures of the fictional heroes and villains of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, and Star Trek have spawned many of the things we use or access daily.

Now, we can add the 1987 film Robocop to that illustrious list.

Policeone.com reports that Brazilian police have deployed a head-worn facial recognition system that will be used for crowd control and patrol leading up to the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament.

The technology is capable of scanning 400 faces per second, at a distance of fifty meters. The effective range can be increased to as much as twelve miles, though there is an attendant degradation in the speed of recognition.

The system consists of a display and camera mounted to a pair of standard protective glasses. One lens is left unobstructed, while the other is covered by the display/camera module. Up to 400 faces can be scanned per second, and the scans are then related to a central database of thirteen million faces. When a match occurs, the viewing screen lights in red, alerting the officer of the need to take action.

During the comparison operation, 46,000 biometric points are compared to establish the match.

Writing for aolnews.com, Lauren Frayer quotes Sao Paolo’s chief of military police, Maj. Leandro Pavani Agostini, in praising the system as being minimally intrusive. “It’s something discreet because you do not question the person or ask for documents. The computer does it,” says Agostini.

The system is being deployed for testing in Sao Paolo and other cities, and will be used at soccer matches, concerts, and other public events leading up to the World Cup tournament.

Policeone.com has posted a Portuguese-language video report from Brazilian media demonstrating the system in operation.