Baidu's facial recognition reunites Chinese family after 27 years
What's the story
Sources have now revealed that Baidu's facial recognition software helped reunite a Chinese family after 27 years.
The software was being used on a Chinese website that helps children and parents who were separated, find each other. Fu Gui managed to find his parents after 27 years after Baidu matched them.
Baidu said it has helped several other families in the same way.
Abduction
The problem of abduction in China
Thousands of children are abducted every year in China.
Male children fetch a lot of money for kidnappers who sell them to foster parents. Some are event sold off into prostitution.
According to various statistics, anywhere between 10,000-70,000 children are abducted in China every year.
The government has imposed harsher legislation to tackle the menace of abduction in the country.
Baobeihuijia
Baobeihuijia, helping families reunite
Baobeihuijia was set up as an online social service to help parents and children find each other.
They collect pictures that are sent to them by children as well as parents and then compare images to find a match.
Fu Gui had uploaded pictures of himself from his childhood, and so did his parents.
Baidu's AI immediately matched the pictures and alerted Baobeihuijia.
Information
Pictures used to be compared manually
For years, volunteers at Baobeihuijia would manually compare pictures that were sent to them to find matches. However, in March'17, Baidu offered their facial recognition AI to Baobeihuijia, and it saw an instant success.
Baidu
Baidu's facial recognition
Baidu has been testing its new facial recognition AI since Nov'16.
The technology incorporates a cross-age recognition feature which can recognize signs of aging.
However, so far, the technology can only match pictures which are taken 6 years apart.
The technology has already been implemented in a Chinese town to recognize tourists. KFC is looking to implement it in a smart-restaurant in Beijing.