A Chinese university is using face recognition technology to ensure students attend class.Students in six classes at the Communications University of China in the eastern city of Nanjing are being told to stand in front of an interactive screen when they arrive for lectures, reports the Beijing News. Photos are matched against those in the university's database within a couple of seconds. The device is highly accurate at identifying students from their appearance, even if they change their hair or wear makeup.Professor Shen Hao says it has proven effective in helping lecturers to identify students who regularly skip classes.”The new system saves time and reduces the workload of teachers,” he adds, noting that the system is a shift from from the traditional paper registers used in Chinese universities.One student in Mr Shen's class tells Beijing News that it's a “novel idea”, and another says: “It's quite convenient; our teacher doesn't need to do a register.”But there is some concern online about the introduction of such technology into schools.Earlier this month, reports emerged that China is developing a biometric database using face recognition that could identify any one of its 1.3 billion citizens within three seconds.The goal is for the system to able to match someone's face to their ID photo 90 per cent of the time, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.Last month, Chinese banks including the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and China Merchants Bank (CMB) also applied face recognition technology to ATMs for user authentication.
Chinese university trials face recognition for absence
