Guiyang flexes its muscles with big data face technology

High-tech company Guiyang Sensing Technology Co - located in Guiyang - has made great strides in its face recognition technology and its applications, helped by the city's favorable investment, industrial environment and its strong support for developing its big data industry.

Founded by parent group Beijing Sensing Technology Co in September 2017, Guiyang Sensing Technology is an innovative company dedicated to artificial intelligence research, their applications and services.

The company's core competency is face recognition technology, or face big data technology - capable of recognizing more than 40 kinds of facial features and widely used at key monitoring sites, including airports, train stations and internet cafes.

Lu Zhen, president of the parent company, said the reasons why a Beijing-based company chose to establish a key unit in Guiyang were straightforward.

"The officials at Guiyang government departments have an in-depth understanding of and gave strong support to the big data sector and artificial intelligence industry, far beyond my expectations.

"We have a high level of efficient communications with each other."

The company said that in addition to its cooperative officials, the city's determination to develop and consolidate its big data industry had given it a strong sense of purpose to develop its operations in Guiyang.

The city's district of Nanming, where Guiyang Sensing Technology settled, has a development strategy of prioritizing the big data industry, aiming to make breakthroughs in data sharing and exchange, data processing, intelligent manufacturing, digital logistics and in blockchain - the fast-evolving sector focused on secure financial records, called blocks, linked using cryptography.

Operating in tandem with the district's development plan, Guiyang Sensing Technology developed well last year, generating an output value worth 20 million yuan ($2.9 million), and becoming a new economic driver of Guiyang, according to local officials.

They added that by employing its cutting-edge intelligent security and protection expertise, Guiyang Sensing Technology has made a significant contribution to building a secure and safe society in Guiyang.

"We expect to help Guiyang forge itself into a safer city with our face recognition technology," said Lu.

The company installed face recognition cameras at Zhucheng square, a landmark in Nanming district, at the start of 2018. This helped local public security officers detain more than 20 criminals as well as hundreds of drug addicts, according to Situ Yuxing, sales director of Beijing Sensing Technology.

Utilizing AI face recognition cameras deployed in Guiyang, the company has helped police arrest a total of 4,094 suspects to date, according to local officials.

Liu Changchun, an officer at Nanming district public security sub-bureau, said the intelligent security system offered by Guiyang Sensing Technology could help with crackdowns against criminals, boosting the ability of police officers to accurately control and handle cases.

Statistics showed that from January to November in 2018, the daily average number of cases involving robberies was reduced to 0.64, marking a record low.

Beijing Sensing Technology's Situ Yuxing said more progress for the wider community was coming.

"Based on experiences gained in intelligent security and protection, Guiyang Sensing Technology is also about to develop the intelligent community, intelligent finance, intelligent transportation and intelligent medicine, facilitating Guiyang's establishment as a smart city."

Nanming district is set to provide further support for Guiyang Sensing Technology, in the form of preferential policies and first-rate services, aimed at forging the company into a famous brand nationwide in 2019 and a unicorn company in the Chinese big data industry, local officials noted.

Unicorns refer to successful startup companies that are valued at $1 billion or more.

In fact, Beijing Sensing Technology is holding discussions with Nanming district about moving the company's headquarters from Beijing to Nanming and establishing an artificial intelligence lab in Guiyang, according to officials.

zhangdandan@chinadaily.com.cn