NWO: The Cops Want to Digitally Read Your Lips

Not content that every square inch of urban space is under surveillance by video cameras, researchers at the University of East Anglia have embarked on a project to develop computer lip-reading systems in the name of crime-stopping. The three-year project will collect data for a lip-reading data base and use it to create machines that automatically convert videos of lip-motions into text, building on work already carried out at the UEA to develop state-of-the-art speech reading systems.

The university is teaming up with the Centre for Vision, Speech & Signal Processing at Surrey University, where accurate and reliable face and lip trackers have been built, and the Scientific Development Branch of the Home Office, never happier than when it is pushing something that it thinks will enhance police powers.

The team also hope to carry out computerized lip-reading of other languages. Arabic, say?

Besides police work, there could be other potential uses for the technology, such as, to take one example, using the technology in a mobile phone or on a dash board for speech recognition under difficult conditions. Other uses are not what is driving funding, however.

The question is, as it has been since long before 9-11, how much freedom and privacy are we willing to sacrifice in the name of order and security?