Can Technology Preempt Crime?

Emotion reading technology could be used to spot criminals before they act.

17:01 17 May 2017

A Russian tech company has created an emotion reading technology that can identify people in a crowed and tell if they are angry, stressed or nervous. NTechLab said that it could be used to pre-emptively stop criminal and potential terrorists.

 

The firm’s chief executive, Alexander Kabakov, said: "The recognition gives a new level of security in the street because in a couple of seconds you can identify terrorists or criminals or killers,"

 

The emotion recognition tool is part of the firm’s NTechLab’s facial recognition software, which was used last year to power the FindFace app that can track down anyone on Russian social network VKontakte from a photo. It has been claim that the identification app has played a role in solving two cold cases and have successfully reconnected long-lost friends and family members.

 

The same technology has already been created by other companies but Moscow-based NTechLab has already won two university awards for accurate face and emotion recognition beating competition from the likes of Facebook and Google. Most recently, it also won the University of Ohio’s EmotionNet challenge.