[LINK] Here comes the Panopticon

[Karin Geiselhart]

long article, but interesting, discusses current face recognition 
technology in the UK:
 > >
> > >
> > >The New York Times, October 7, 2001
> > >BEING WATCHED
> > >A Cautionary Tale for a New Age of Surveillance
> > >By JEFFREY ROSEN
> > >
> > >http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/magazine/07SURVEILLANCE.html
> > >
> > >A week after the attacks of Sept. 11, as the value of most American
> > >stocks plummeted, a few companies, with products particularly well
> > >suited for a new and anxious age, soared in value. One of the
> > >fastest growing stocks was Visionics, whose price more than tripled.
> > >The New Jersey company is an industry leader in the fledgling
> > >science of biometrics, a method of identifying people by scanning
> > >and quantifying their unique physical characteristics -- their
> > >facial structures, for example, or their retinal patterns. Visionics
> > >manufactures a face-recognition technology called FaceIt, which
> > >creates identification codes for individuals based on 80 unique
> > >aspects of their facial structures, like the width of the nose and
> > >the location of the temples. FaceIt can instantly compare an image
> > >of any individual's face with a database of the faces of suspected
> > >terrorists, or anyone else...
> > >
>... By
> > >one estimate, the average Briton is now photographed by 300 separate
> > >cameras in a single day.

> > >Jeffrey Rosen is an associate professor at George Washington
> > >University Law School and the legal affairs editor of The New
> > >Republic. He writes frequently on law for The Times Magazine.
> > >

Karin Geiselhart
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Electronic Commerce
School of Business Information Technology
RMIT University  Melbourne
ph 03 9925 1352
fax 03 9925 5482
http://www.bf.rmit.edu.au/kgeiselhart