Chinese police used facial recognition to catch escaped criminal

Chinese police have recently used facial recognition technology to catch an escaped criminal who was traveling to Wuzhen, a scenic tourist town near Hangzhou.

In November 2016, Wuzhen started installing Baidu-made face-recognition cameras across the town to identify tourists staying in its hotels. The data collected will then serve as entry pass through face scanner-equipped gates to the town’s various attractions.

Wuzhen, a historic water town, has metamorphosed into the so-called “Internet Town” after becoming the permanent venue for the World Internet Conference (WIC) in December 2015. The summit is held annually by the nation’s cyberspace government agencies to discuss internet related issues and policy.

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