Face Scanners To Catch Underage Drinkers

Daily Mail
May 13, 2008

Underage drinkers who attempt to buy alcohol may be thwarted by the technology that police use to identify suspected criminals.

A supermarket chain is introducing face recognition cameras to prevent staff mistakenly selling cigarettes and alcohol to under-18s.

The biometric technology is being piloted by Budgens at one of its London branches.

If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol.

The system alerts a cashier if it ‘recognises’ someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18.

It is believed to be the first time a British retailer has used the technology in this way.

The software takes measurements between key points on the face to make a template of a person’s features that is stored as a “token”.

Customers’ images are monitored and relayed to a control centre to be compared with under-18s already on record.

Future options include other retailers linking the scheme to their shops to create a giant database.

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