Hanwha Techwin develops facial recognition recorder

Hanwha Techwin’s latest network video recorder, far left, and its surveillance cameras. [HANWHA TECHWIN]

Hanwha Techwin developed software for surveillance cameras to analyze human faces.

In partnership with Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the surveillance camera maker released a network video recorder (NVR) embedded with this feature, Hanwha said Tuesday. An NVR is a computer system that can record videos and save them in a digital format.

Facial recognition was first developed in the 1960s and has been developing rapidly in recent years.

According to Hanwha, the memory system is capable of saving more than 100,000 different faces, which is enough to cover an entire mid-sized city, outside the Seoul metropolitan area. This means even in crowded places, the software would be able to find individuals.

The software can transfer image sources, like text on store signs and car plate numbers, to digitalize format, making it easier to look up when needed. This means investigators won’t have to spend hours running through surveillance camera videos to track vehicles of a specific car plate.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]