学进去

China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition systems. A Chinese company says it has created a new facial recognition system that can identify people even if they are wearing masks. Engineers at the Beijing-based company say their system is the first to be created to effectively identify people wearing face masks.

The company told a news agency that a team of 20 people built the system in about a month. The system is based on existing technologies developed over the past 10 years. The process involved adding a collection of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller collection of masked faces, the company said.

The company is now selling two main kinds of products that use the new technology. One performs “single channel” recognition, which is designed to be used at the entrances to buildings. The other product is a “multi-channel” recognition system that uses groups of surveillance (监视) cameras. It can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people within a second.

“When people are wearing a mask that covers the mouth and the nose, the recognition rate can reach about 95%, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” said Huang, vice president of the company. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5%.

However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.

People react to the new technology differently. While some citizens have been against using such tools, the majority have accepted the technology as an effective way to reduce crime and catch criminals.