Note to robbers: Wear your ski mask.
A new surveillance camera system developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric can search through data on 36 million faces in one second, Tokyo video news site DigInfo TV reported Thursday.
The system detects a face from a regular photo or a surveillance video -- such as those made on six pack pick-ups at the corner convenience store -- and searches for it.
Search results appear instantaneously. Select a thumbnail image and the system will show its associated context in a surveillance video. Not the person who pilfered the chewing gum? Go to the next candidate.
"The high speed is achieved by detecting faces through image recognition when the footage from the camera is recorded and also by grouping similar faces," a company representative told DigInfo.
To work, faces must be turned with 30 degrees of the camera and be 40 by 40 pixels in size.
Hitachi Kokusai Electric expects the technology to be attractive to companies with relative large surveillance systems, such as railroads, big box stores, and law enforcement agencies.
The system should be available for purchase in fiscal year 2013.
-- Via DigInfo, Gizmodo, and The Verge
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
