School installs £9,000 facial recognition cameras to stop students turning up late

[frontrange]

Source: Daily Mail

It could make the time-honoured tradition of taking the school register a thing of the past.
Cutting-edge cameras are being used to scan children’s faces as they enter school.
The face-recognition technology makes sure they have turned up, records whether they were on time or late and keeps an accurate roll call.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1317520/School-installs-9k-facial-recognition-cameras-stop-students-turning-late.html

[mikelgb]

1. guinea pigs

[Turbineguy]

2. And I'm putting a brand new GE LM 2500 gas turbine

in my old pick-up truck.

There really doesn't seem to be much point in doing something that makes sense anymore.

[Spike89]

3. Dumb idea

I can see the benefits and they are real, but aside from the "big brother" issues (which are a red herring in an environment where students have been logged by hand for centuries). The real issue is that biometrics is a horrible idea for ID and other cyber-security issues. As one wag said in the comments, a good photo might fool the system, an identical twin obviously is a problem, but the real problem doesn't come from what is in front of the security camera--it is the database of faces.
Just like any database, the records aren't "real" objects, the machine is comparing your data record which includes a "picture" of your face (or sometimes, a picture of a fingerprint). That picture is a record like any other in the database, it can be hacked, copied, put into another record. If you think it is a hassle replacing your credit cards and such after an identity theft, imagine having to replace your face.

[Rage for Order]

4. Coming soon to an employer near you

:thumbsdown:

[puebloknot]

5. Schools are already too much like prisons. We ask children ...

... to endure, in their schools, what we adults could not bear in a job setting.

And this kind of thing is more fodder for home schoolers who teach fuzzy math and phony science, and maybe a little readin', writin', and 'rithmetic to their offspring, and keep them home and away from the evils of the world. Though they are often delusional, they have a point with regard to not wanting to send their children off to school where there is *real* danger in terms of school shootings and bullying.

Unfortunately, those steeped in fundemantalist religious dogma are more likely the ones doing the bullying.

Keeping attendance records is a bit of tyranny, also, in certain circumstances. If a parent wants to take a child out of school for a day or a week, to take them to a museum, or the trip of a lifetime to some other country, the school is concerned over lost revenue for absences.

Years ago, my daughter woke up feeling poorly and with a very stiff neck. I sent her off to her high school, and then I learned within the hour that a student in that school had died from spinal meningitis the prior week. In a slight panic, I arrived at the school to collect my daughter and take her to our doctor. I had major problems getting past the guard at the front door of the school, having to explain to him several times that I had a medical emergency with my daughter.

Finally, the guard conacted the school nurse who told me that *they* would take care of the problem, and would check my daughter out. It took a threat of a lawsuit to finally get in the building and retrieve my daughter. On the way out, the guard had some sarcastic words to say to me.

My daughter did not have spinal meningitis. She merely had a cold and a stiff neck to go with it. But it was my right to have a qualified doctor make that determination, not some school nurse on a power trip!

Let us be vigilant that we don't allow our children to become pawns of the State, and of an unfeeling and coldly institutional entity that is serving in too many cases to discourage young people away from the joy of learning, and away from a feeling that they matter, that their teachers and the administrators of their schools are more than just wardens, putting in their hours -- also controlled, I would assume, by this same draconian attendance system.

And let me end with a major tribute to the many dedicated teachers who give more than their all in service of educating our children. They, too, need respect and nourishing.

[JDPriestly]

6. What a waste of money.

Why not have food available at the door to the classrooms. That would get the kids to school on time. Food attracts flies and kids.

[phantom power]

7. I think it is important that we all understand this is coming.

This technology is getting better. It's crossing the threshold into real usability, it's getting smaller, cheaper and faster.

I have mixed feelings about that (I've worked in the field), and I don't know what we should decide to do about it, but I do doubt we are going to stop it.