US Military Signs Contract to Put Facial Recognition on Drones
Summary
According to a contract between RealNetworks and the U.S. Air Force, the facial recognition software will be used on small drones as part of special operations missions. “Through this effort, we will adapt the SAFR facial recognition platform for deployment on an autonomous [small unmanned aircraft system] for special ops, [intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition] , and other expeditionary use-cases,” the contract said. This contract does not describe putting facial recognition software on large Predator and Reaper drones that will make decisions about who to assassinate in a war zone. Larger drones identify targets through a combination of high powered cameras and cell phone tracking. At a glance, it sounds like using facial recognition software would help the people who operate drones make fewer mistakes.