The Bidvest Protea Coin group has provided further details about the advanced facial recognition technology it’s using to track and catch criminals in South Africa\u00a0 –\u00a0 a system known as ‘Scarface’.<\/p>\n
Scarface is a platform that uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to help security teams identify what it refers to as \u2018persons of interest\u2019.<\/p>\n
The group said that the technology was originally developed as an early warning system that could identify potential threats and prevent assets or criminal attacks before they happened.<\/p>\n
“Since we know that crime often involves scouting, which takes place over a period, Scarface stops that process at the early stages before it matures with detailed and often classified information, by allowing early detection and\/or apprehension of transgressors. Overall the system provides increased risk mitigation through a proactive approach to suspect identification.”<\/p>\n
The technology is fully autonomous and requires no user intervention to function as a recognition platform.<\/p>\n
High-resolution cameras are linked to a credible database that is used to boost the accuracy of identifying suspects on-site, with the group noting that it uses the highest levels of recognition rates possible to ensure that persons of interest are detected accurately.<\/p>\n
It added that identifying a face occurs rapidly and the system is incredibly efficient in the verification of a person of interest.<\/p>\n
One of the practical ways that the technology is being used is to identify illegal miners, known colloquially as ‘zama zamas’ that have occupied abandoned mines.<\/p>\n
An estimated 14,000 zama zamas are estimated to be involved in illegal mining in the country, at some 6,000 abandoned mining sites across the country.<\/p>\n
Using its Scarface technology, the Bidvest Protea Coin is able to identify persons of interest who might have intentions of engaging in criminal activity in mines.<\/p>\n
The system tracks activities by linking the person of interest to prior incidents and updating their unique profile. When required, Scarface can also provide visual evidence in criminal cases.<\/p>\n