The Brazilian city of São Paulo will see facial recognition technology applied to the surveillance systems of its subway network.
The company operating the majority of the city’s subway network, Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo (METRO), has launched a tender for a new set-up to replace its current legacy system and a non-integrated estate of 2200 cameras, of which only some are digital.
Under the new contract, the old equipment will be phased out and replaced by 5200 digital cameras to be controlled centrally – cameras are currently operated by individual stations. Station areas will be covered as well as other areas such as tracks and maintenance centers.
Bids for the 69.5 million reais ($18.4 million) contract can be received until August 20.
With more cameras producing high definition images, the company expects to quickly detect and prevent situations such as accidents involving passengers accessing dangerous areas as well as depredation of assets.
In addition, it is expected that an integration between the new system and the police database will enable the identification of wanted criminals as well as missing persons. About 6.5 billion people used the São Paulo subway system in 2018.