George Orwell's Chinese Police Optics
As we progress closer to 2020, all of the cliches and 'future age' ideas that are depicted in all everyone's favourite sci-fi and/or children's action movies are supposed to become real; though we might need to ask Elon Musk how he is getting on with his flying cars, or with Mark Zuckerberg and/or Donald Trump in creating a 'single nation' (sorry, we had to mention the guy).
Despite neither of these ideas are remotely possible by 2020, one thing that the Chinese Railway Police have introduced are facial recognition glasses that are certainly one gadget out of Will Smith's i.robot. Taking everything a step further - too far, you might argue - the Chinese Railway Police are to equip all their service men and women with glasses that include edge-bleeding optics that have the ability for advanced facial recognition, supposedly capable of recognising and identifying any desired individual within 100 milliseconds, especially spectacular in crowded spaces such as commuting hubs. As busy place's surveillance continues to rise in light of terrorism and increasing crime, is this all a step too far? Working by being connected to an offline database that is housed in a small tablet, this quickfire computer can figure suspected criminals instantly. Rolled out in Zhengzhou (China), the glasses are said to have already helped catch seven major-criminal fugitives and twenty-six fake identity personnel.
SATORI & SCOUT cannot help but think of George Orwells' 1984 - there's a building in Barcelona (Spain) that we always think of when it comes to cameras (it has something like 100 of them on a single wall alone. Art of course) - and does such a device infringe the human race's right to privacy? As Sophie Richardson of China's Human Rights Watch questions, "Chinese authorities seem to think they can achieve 'social stability' by placing people under a microscope, but these abusive programs are more likely to deepen hostility towards the government." Our studio agrees to be honest. Discover more about the original article online at: SCMP.com