[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Cameras at Super Bowl scanned faces looking for crim

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

[auch http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/16561.html ]


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 01 Feb 2001 11:37:09 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Cameras at Super Bowl scanned faces looking for criminals
Copies to:      	trigaux@sptimes.com, info@viisage.com, wk@c4i.org
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


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Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 04:42:12 -0600 (CST)
From: William Knowles <wk@c4i.org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Cameras scanned fans for criminals

Declan,

Thought you might find this interesting.

William Knowles
wk@c4i.org


http://www.sptimes.com/News/013101/TampaBay/Cameras_scanned_fans_.shtm
l

January 31, 2001
By ROBERT TRIGAUX

TAMPA -- Were you one of the 100,000 fans and workers to pass through
the stadium turnstiles at Sunday's Super Bowl? Did you smile for the
camera?

Each and every face that entered Raymond James Stadium for the big
game was captured by a video camera connected to a law enforcement
control room inside the stadium.

In milliseconds, each facial image was digitized and checked
electronically against the computer files of known criminals,
terrorists and con artists of the Tampa Police Department, the FBI and
other state and local law enforcement agencies.

Sunday's Super Bowl was the first major sporting event to adopt the
face-matching surveillance system. But the designers of the system
expect other security-sensitive sporting events, ranging from the
upcoming 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to the
hooligan-plagued soccer leagues in parts of Europe, to express great
interest.

[...]

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http://www.viisage.com/january_29_2001.htm

Press Releases

GRAPHCO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Provides Surveillance for Raymond James
Stadium to Identify Known Suspects, Deter Crime

On January 28th, Criminals No Longer Another Face in the Tampa Stadium
Crowd

Tampa, Florida, January 29, 2001 -Graphco Technologies, Inc. (G-TEC),
a leading developer of technology and solutions for biometric
authentication, secure access, and expert information-sharing systems,
announced today that they provided a surveillance and facial
recognition system at both the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa and at
Ybor City, Florida. The system was in place from January 21 - January
28, 2001 to monitor potential criminal activities during the sporting
events and related activities at the two locations.

In cooperation with the Tampa Sports Authority, Graphco Technologies
partnered with Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTNA, RTNB) Linthicum,
Maryland office, Viisage Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: VISG), and VelTek
International, Inc., to provide its FaceTrac facial recognition system
to the Tampa Police Department and other federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies.

"Not everyone comes to sporting events with good intentions," says
David Watkins, G-TEC's Managing Director, "The multiple distractions
at the nation's premier athletic events provide criminals with
opportunities to engage in a variety of illegal activities. G-TEC's
facial recognition system provided the Raymond James Stadium with a
superior surveillance system that not only captures images of
individuals but also compares their facial features against a database
of known felons."

The FaceTrac core facial recognition technology provides the ability
to locate faces, to build 'face print' templates and to recognize
matches to images stored in a database. When integrated with G-TEC's
law enforcement database, FaceTrac allows rapid search, comparison and
identification of suspect facial photos within the database. FaceTrac
may be used for surveillance with multiple locations networked to a
high capacity site, for analysis and system-search results. G-TEC
installed FaceTrac at the Raymond James Stadium as a single site
system, integrated with a custom designed database and search result
notifications for tracking faces in a crowd and monitoring access to
secure areas.

Tom Colatosti, Viisage President and CEO said, "Places where large
crowds are present, such as sporting events, are tempting targets for
all types mischief, criminal behavior and larger threats. Using
patented Viisage technology, G-TEC has introduced a new generation of
tools for law enforcement officials to more effectively and
non-intrusively provide for public safety. As an integral partner in
the project, Viisage Technology provided G-TEC with the industry's
leading and most robust face-recognition technology."

Viisage Technology's FaceFINDER software drives the FaceTrac
surveillance and identification process. Viisage's industry-leading
face-recognition technology has the world's largest image database
deployment in surveillance and investigative applications. Viisage
also provided the project with image acquisition and integration
technology and services.

During the week of January 21st, G-TEC deployed the FaceTrac system
throughout the Raymond James Stadium to detect and identify
individuals who are wanted or suspect, and may present a danger to the
public. Using standard cameras to recognize human faces during entry
to the sporting event, FaceTrac continuously compared faces in the
incoming crowd to an extensive, customized database of known felons,
terrorists, and con artists provided by multiple local, state and
federal agencies. A law enforcement task force of local, state and
federal agency personnel monitored the system. Once individuals were
matched with photo files in the database, officers of the joint task
force, circulating throughout the complex, could be dispatched
immediately to make possible arrests, quickly and discreetly.

In addition to installing cameras supplied by VelTek International at
the Raymond James Stadium, G-TEC adapted its FaceTrac capability to
cameras in Ybor City, Florida to oversee the celebrations before and
after the athletic events. Raytheon Company, a global developer and
supplier of high-tech products and services, and a G-TEC partner,
provided sophisticated cameras and expertise to provide police with
exceptional night vision capabilities for poorly lit or darkened areas
in Ybor City.

G-TEC, headquartered in Newtown, PA, develops, manufactures, and
markets secure database and secure communications systems worldwide.
G-TEC combines information sharing, biometric authentication, secure
access, and secure data facility technologies to provide technical
infrastructure and applications in support of public and private law
enforcement, corporate security, manufacturing, and secure web-enabled
virtual communities. G-TEC's Intrapol Analysis Center offers
secure-access data storage, sharing, and secure virtual community
systems to corporate and law enforcement entities at the local,
regional, state, national, and international levels. Graphco
Technologies is located on the World Wide Web at www.graphcotech.com.

Viisage Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: VISG), Littleton, Massachusetts, is
a world leader in biometric face-recognition technology and in digital
identification solutions. Viisage's face-recognition technology is
widely recognized as the most convenient, non-intrusive and
cost-effective biometric available. Viisage's patented
face-recognition technology, originally developed at MIT, and its
systems integration and software design capabilities, improve personal
convenience, privacy and security while deterring identity theft and
fraud.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTNA, RTNB), based in Lexington, Mass., is a
global technology leader that provides products and services in the
areas of commercial and defense electronics, business and special
mission aircraft. The company is now successfully expanding its
defense technologies into non-defense sectors such as air traffic
control, data, image and information management, transportation and
communications. Raytheon's Linthicum, Maryland office has expertise in
network security and large system development and deployment for both
national intelligence and commercial customers, and is the primary
Raytheon branch that supported G-TEC's surveillance efforts at the
Raymond James Stadium. Additional information is available at
www.raytheon.com

Veltek International, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of Closed Circuit
Television and security related equipment. Veltek currently offers
over 250 different CCTV products through worldwide distribution
including standard and specialty video cameras, housings, video
signal, remote transmission, digital video streaming and digital
storage equipment.

FaceTrac is a trademark of Graphco Technologies, Inc. FaceFINDER is a
trade mark of Viisage, Inc,

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