Facial recognition is now being used to ID and publicly shame jaywalkers, like you
Not that you shouldn't already think twice before jaywalking, but now, you have yet another reason to wait for your light.
Cities in four Chinese provinces are shaming jaywalkers by posting their personal information on public screens, according to state-owned Xinhua.
The system's been installed at cities in Shandong and Jiangsu in east China, as well as Fujian and Guangdong in south China, and it uses facial recognition to trace the identities of jaywalkers.
Cameras take several snapshots of errant pedestrians, as well as a 15-second video which is then displayed on a large screen:
Facial recognition software matches the faces of errant offenders with those in a provincial police database. A police officer then checks them for their accuracy, and if they pass muster, the offender's photograph and personal information (like portions of their ID number and home address) gets displayed.
In some cities, like Jinan, Shandong, traffic police post the identities of errant offenders on social media:
The public shaming has very visible effects -- Jinan police told The Paper that being publicly shamed could impact a person's credit rating, as well as their insurance and pension premiums.
Offenders get to choose between three forms of punishment -- a 20 yuan ($2.93) fine, a 30-minute long traffic safety course and or 20 minutes of assisting police in traffic control. Repeat offenders could be fined up to 100 yuan ($14.64).
Police could also inform errant pedestrians' employers and residential communities, said Xinhua.
The public shaming's been naturally effective.
Jinan police have caught over 6,200 jaywalkers in the city since the system was set up in May this year, according to The Paper.
The number of errant pedestrians has also fallen from 200 per day, to 20 per day, the city's traffic police told Xinhua.
"I'll take note and remind myself the next time I cross the road," one resident told The Paper. "After all, it's not a good thing to cross the road while the light is still red."
Jinan wants to install the system at 50 more major intersections by the end of June. Each unit will cost the city 100,000 yuan ($14,637).
This isn't the first time China's taken, uh, slightly unusual steps to stop jaywalking before.
In April, turnstiles were installed in Wuhan, central China, to stop pedestrians from dashing across the road. The country's also deployed dancing aunties to promote road safety at crosswalks, and in January, a robot police officer was deployed at a traffic junction in Xiangyang, central China to stop errant pedestrians, and tell them off.
Topics Facial Recognition
I am an intern with Mashable Asia, focusing on viral news, lifestyle news and feature news in the region.
