China has stepped up surveillance known as “emotion recognition technology” to monitor human feelings – and help them enforce the law, according to reports.
Emotion recognition technology tracks features such as facial muscle movements, vocal tone and body movements to deduce a person’s feelings, the state-run Global Times reported.
“Recognition of emotions is certainly the direction of humanity’s future technological development,” said Ma Qingguo, who is the head of the Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement at Ningbo University.
Some Chinese experts boast that the new technology has an accuracy of up to 95% in detecting people’s emotions.
The state-of-the-art tool is being used more and more in various fields, including health, anti-terrorism and urban security, sources told the press.
For example, the artificial intelligence system can monitor the occupants of cars passing through a crowded intersection, state media reported.
Security officers could then stop a vehicle in which a passenger appears nervous to look for drugs in the vehicle, the report said.
Chen Wei – who is CEO of Taigusys, a technology company – said the tool also has the ability to predict dangerous behavior from prisoners, students with problems in schools and the elderly who face dementia in nursing homes, the Guardian reported.
“Ordinary people here in China are not happy with this technology, but they have no choice,” Chen told reporters.
“If the police say that there must be rooms in a community, people will only have to live with it. There is always this demand and we are here to fulfill it. ”
Chen said Taigusys systems are already installed in about 300 prisons, detention centers and prisons across the country, connecting 60,000 rooms.
He said that only the existence of systems has an impact on the behavior of prisoners.
“Because they know what the system is doing, they will not consciously try to break certain rules,” he said.