British police are preparing to test a face recognition system that displays people's moods by analyzing videos.
Lincolnshire Police will be able to use the system to look for specific moods and facial expressions, the London Times reports. It will also allow searching for people wearing hats and glasses, or carry bags and umbrellas.
Funding for project comes from the Ministry of the Interior. A police representative said to the Times that all videos will be deleted after 31 days. The Ministry also said it would conduct an investigation to assess it protectionof human rights and privacy before the trial before giving the green light light.
However, there are already critics who say that the system will violate personal privacy.
"Huge sums of money are available from the Ministry of Interior for this technology facing legal problems as it violates human rights ", said Silkie Carlo, director of the Big Brother Watch civil liberties group.
Police have not yet explained how the system will work. The AI that enables emotional detection it is estimated to be a $20 billion market, but there is very little scientific evidence that this technology actually works.
In December 2019, the AI Now research institute called on regulators to ban technology from decisions that affect people's lives, as the field is "highly volatile".
"As these technologies evolve, a large number of studies show that there is no substantial evidence that humans have this consistent relationship between the emotion they feel and the way their faces look," said AI Now co-founder. Kate Crawford on the BBC at at the end of last year.