Face recognition technology goes wireless

<p>SAN FRANCISCO – Real-time wireless facial recognition may soon be available on mobile phones. Motorola, Visionics and Wirehound have recently unveiled a technology-enabled mobile phone with a color display designed specifically for law enforcement agencies during the 2002 JavaOne Developer Conference in San Francisco. The FaceIt ARGUS system automatically finds faces in a field of view and searches them against a mug shot database. Upon finding a match, the Birddog component generates a wireless alert to the phones used by mobile law enforcement officials, who are then able to verify the identity of the subject. The phones can store multiple images and are alerted when a new image arrives. Non-matched images are automatically discarded from the system. Plans are underway to incorporate the technology beyond the law enforcement community.</p>