Major League Baseball said the computer face-matching identification technology, which in one second can match the mug of an individual with that of a wanted criminal, has never been used at an MLB game. Similarly, the Denver Police Department said it did not use the fledgling technology at the NHL All-Star Game yesterday. Word that high-tech spying, approved by the NFL, was used at the nation's No. 1 sporting event has spread across the country like wildfire and is forcing other sports leagues to confront the issue.
Police departments welcome the help while civil liberties group are up in arms.
Caught in the middle is Littleton, Mass.-based Viisage, which owns the biometrics technology used at the game. Viisage's facial identifaction cameras, posted at turnstiles, can capture an image, scan a police department's database using 128 characteristics and come up with a match - in one second. There were 19 matches at the Super Bowl, Colatosti said. My system is much less intrusive and is without bias to race or income level, compared to human methods. Colatosti sees big things for his biometrics division.