“YITU Dragonfly Eye Intelligent Security System is built upon machine vision technology to operate an intelligent security system designed for safe cities, intelligent transportation, and smart finance.” is how the company describes their intelligent facial recognition software on their website. What makes it special is that the software already has hundreds of arrests under its belt.
Yitu’s Dragonfly Eye is a platform that has 1.8 billion photographs to work with and according to the chief executive and co-founder of Yitu. “Our machines can very easily recognize you among at least 2 billion people in a matter of seconds”. These photographs come from all the people logged into the national database and from all those people who enter and exit China.
320 million of the photographs have come from ports, airports and the borders. Pictures of all the individuals are taken on entering and leaving the country. Yitu claims that its platform is also in service with more than 20 provincial public security departments. It is also used as part of more than 150 municipal public security systems across the country.
Dragonfly Eye proved its worth on the very first day as it went into operation on the Shanghai Metro in January, a wanted man was identified as he entered the station the software alerted the policeman with his photo and location and he was able to successfully make the arrest.
In the months that followed, 567 people of interest were caught on the city’s underground network by the software. The system is now hooked up to security cameras at various events. One example is the Qingdao International Beer Festival where 22 people arrested.
All the cities where the Dragonfly Eye algorithm is operating have reported a lower statistics of crime. Yitu says it gets its figures from the local authorities directly and reports the following stats after its implementations.
- Pickpocketing on the Xiamen’s city buses decreased by 30%
- 500 criminal cases have been solved in Suzhou since June 2015
- 9 suspects have been arrested by the police during the 2016 G20 summit in Hangzhou
- The skull of a victim murdered 5 years ago was identified in Zhejiang province
The CEO of Yitu says that in cities like Shanghai, that has a population of 24 million, it impossible for the police to patrol all the streets without using technology. This new technology means that no criminal whose face is in the database is safe from the clutches of law and everyone will have to think twice before committing a crime.