An Israeli biometrics startup with a history of defense contracts has applied for a patent on technology that repositions drones to get a better shot of a person on the ground. [...] The patent application, titled “Adaptive Positioning of Drones for Enhanced Face Recognition,” describes a computer vision system that analyzes the angle of a drone camera in relation to the face of a person on the ground, then instructs the drone on how to improve its vantage point. The system can then send that image through a machine-learning model trained to classify individual faces. The model sends back a classification with a probability score. If the probability score falls below a certain threshold, the whole process starts over again. [...] “Facial recognition with drones is a technology that may be used in the future for package delivery,” AnyVision CEO Avi Golan said in an email statement to Fast Company. “Any major player in the delivery business is looking at ‘last mile’ solutions including facial recognition for fast and easy personal identification.” Golan says drone facial recognition technology might also be used in mines to keep track of employees for safety purposes. “AnyVision is not involved in weapons development and is focused on the many opportunities in the civilian market,” Golan wrote. But the company’s technology is being used in defense applications [...] Even though several tech giants have stepped away from selling facial recognition to law enforcement, a wave of smaller companies like AnyVision have been quietly but aggressively pursuing contracts with police, military, institutions (such as hospitals), and retailers. Biometrics is a quickly growing business, and its growth has been further accelerated during the pandemic as contactless identification has become very important. The research firm Markets and Markets (that’s really the name) reported in late 2020 that sales of biometric systems will nearly double from $36.6 billion in 2020 to $68.6 billion in 2025. [...] even if the system is accurate, critics say that it continues to push us toward a future of mass surveillance and could have a chilling effect on legitimate dissent and protest—especially when there is no transparency or accountability about how facial recognition systems are built, who gets to use them, and for what purpose. And after all, watching for suspected terrorists at the border is one thing, but it’s not hard to imagine AnyVision’s positioning system being used for drones that aim more than just cameras. https://www.fastcompany.com/90606400/facial-recognition-drone-patent-anyvisi... Giacomo