Israeli surveillance companies are currently developing drones equipped with facial recognition capabilities, leading American law enforcement to consider adding the controversial tech to their fleet as well. An Israeli startup called AnyVision filed a patent application, which was published earlier this month, detailing technology to help a drone find the best angles to conduct facial recognition. The technology then finds a match to the target by referring to faces stored in a massive database. Adding biometric technology to drone fleets might have disastrous consequences on both privacy and public safety aspects. Facial recognition technology has drawn criticism for racist patterns and lack of oversight in public consent.
The patent is seeking to resolve some issues that come with identifying faces from a flying machine. Various issues arose in the development process, such as acquiring an angle at which a face can properly be captured and being able to obtain high-quality visuals while moving. US military agencies have been trying to come up with their own solutions through various government-funded projects.