A Canadian company will install a system that uses biometrics and cameras to identify faces in the real world, potentially helping Canada’s immigration system become more efficient.
In a statement, SGI Canada said the system will be able to detect faces in photos, videos, and other media that can be digitally captured.
A facial recognition system in the future will have the capacity to identify individuals based on their features such as eye colour, skin tone, height, and body shape, said the company.
SGI said the technology will work with existing immigration databases that have already been used by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada Border Services Agency, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
SRI International, a Canadian company, will install the facial recognition software and will provide it to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The company is the only Canadian company working on facial recognition for immigration purposes.
“The system will enable Canada to more efficiently and reliably detect potential criminal suspects and to prevent potential human rights violations at the border,” said SGI in the statement.
Sgi has a history of working with the immigration and refugee system in Canada, with applications like the facial detection system and facial recognition application.
In 2013, SRI began working with Canada’s Immigration and Citizenship Services on a facial recognition program.
“Canada’s immigration and border control system has a long way to go, and we are proud to work with SGI to accelerate our progress in this area,” said Canada Border Control spokesperson Jamey Wiebe in a statement.
The immigration system relies on the use of face recognition software to identify people in photos and videos taken at the borders, as well as other locations like airports.
In September, the government said it was testing a facial identification system to help detect and prevent people from trying to cross the border illegally.
Sri International said it is also working with Immigration and Border Control Canada to create a facial-recognition system for people seeking asylum or immigration relief.
Sigmund Pohl, a professor of computer science at McMaster University in Ontario, said biometric facial recognition is a useful tool to help border control authorities identify and identify suspects.
“It’s like facial recognition on steroids,” said Pohl.
“This is a very novel and very powerful piece of technology that you can use to identify and capture individuals.
If you know what you’re looking for, and what the facial features look like, it’s not very difficult to use it to identify someone.”
The technology is still in the early stages of development, and the company says it is still testing facial recognition to identify “a small number” of people at the moment.
But Pohl said it could be a significant leap forward in the field.
“I would like to think that this will be the beginning of a big push by the immigration authorities and governments to develop more biometric identification systems, and this is something that we’re very excited about,” he said.
In February, the Federal Court of Canada rejected a request by the United States to stop the implementation of a facial biometric system in its immigration system.
