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The not-too-distant future may well have all of humanity under surveillance 24/7. Which is why the prototype for a new facial recognition system appears unnerving (video above).

It starts with cars, but the video moves on to demonstrate how faces captured on CCTV can be matched with a database to provide identification. While we have already seen face recognition systems on social media sites like Facebook, the ability to pick out a face in a crowd and give it a name is disconcerting – even if it’s helpful to combat crime.

The brainchild of the Chinese company SenseTime, the recognition suite is called, appropriately enough, SenseFace. It’s impressive – and worrying. Someone is bound to ask sooner or later whether it breaks the right to privacy.