In a first in South Korea, AI locates missing person by analysing camera footage
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Police said that if humans had searched manually, it could have taken more than 10 hours.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – South Korea reported its first case of artificial intelligence (AI) being used to analyse security camera footage to locate a missing person within hours, the local media said on Sept 7.
According to the Anyang Dongan Police Station in Gyeonggi province, police received a report at around 1.24am on June 25 that a man had vanished after sending his girlfriend a text message and turning off his phone.
Officers were dispatched to the last pinged location of the man’s phone and found him at home with his family. However, shortly after, the family reported that he had gone missing again.
Police then began tracking him using the Advanced Integrated Intelligence for Identification system, a pilot programme that allows AI to analyse public security camera footage when given a person’s photo and description of the clothing.
Officers entered the man’s photo and details of his outfit that day – a grey T-shirt and black pants – and limited the search area to his neighbourhood. The system identified him in a nearby park, allowing police to locate him within three hours of the report.
It marked the first case in South Korea where an AI-based system successfully found a missing person.
Police said that if humans had searched manually, it could have taken more than 10 hours. The man was found safely in much less time. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
