SCHOOL students in China reportedly work under the watchful eye of an artificial intelligence camera that measures their concentration.
Chilling footage claims to show how pupils’ every move is meticulously tracked by the high-tech surveillance systems.
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Snooping spy cams are supposedly installed in classrooms to score schoolchildren on their attentiveness and monitor their movements.
One bizarre clip showed how the system displays data about each person and categorises them into groups with coloured banners.
Each colour is believed to represent different movements, while the numbers flashing above the students’ heads keep changing to indicate the degree of the movements.
The cameras are understood to keep an ever-evolving log of a child’s behaviour in the hopes of nipping distractions in the bud.
But it has also raised concerns about China’s Big Brother-like surveillance state that now seems to be scaring kids into compliance in the classroom.
Jennifer Zeng, a journalist who shares uncensored first-hand information from inside China, described the footage as “scary.”
She shared the clip to Twitter while attempting to break down the intricate components of the AI cameras reportedly intimidating pupils.
The former government researcher turned whistleblower wrote: “This is how Chinese students are monitored in their classroom. Every single slight movement is detected by the surveillance camera.
“The labels on their heads say, ‘raising head, 0.89’, ‘lowering head, 0.88’, ‘Standing up of another kind, 0.90’, ‘Lying hand on the desk’, ‘Lowering head and holding the desk, 0.71’, etc.
“The numbers keep changing to indicate the degree of the movements.
“Seems to me that different colors are also for different movements. The green one is for ‘standing up of another kind’. Looks like that person is the teacher.
“Red color for ‘raising head’, pink color for ‘lowing head’, yellow ‘for lying head on desk’, orange color for ‘turning head’, blue color for ‘lowering head and holding the desk’, etc.”
But others said the data was merely boring analytics that are collected by online platforms people use everyday, such as Zoom and Moodle.
A Chinese high school revealed they had equipped several classrooms with AI cameras to keep an eye on students and take attendance in 2018.
Hangzhou No. 11 High School said the data they obtained then split students into six behaviour categories regarding their learning.
Vice principal Zhang Guanchao explained: “We have a minimum score.
“If a student’s classroom score is lower than that, it means this student is failing to focus during class time.”
The system then notifies the teacher – which is a threat of punishment that prompted students to “voluntarily change their behaviours and classroom habits,” Guanchao claimed.
The system also reportedly tracked pupils’ emotions and expressions to supposedly ensure their well-being.
A similar concept hoping to instill obedience in schoolchildren was rolled out in 2019, which saw primary school kids wear brainwave-detecting headgear.
The head-mounted device made by BrainCo. monitored attention spans and shared the data with teachers as well as parents.
But after videos of the gadget were shared online, concerns were raised about privacy issues and they were quickly scrapped.
However, teachers claimed they aided “real-time student engagement feedback” as well as improving concentration in class.
One educator claimed their students were “louder than usual” when answering questions and said the headgear “successfully improved efficiency during lessons.”
Students were less impressed, with some saying it “felt like they were being controlled” when they wore the bizarre device.
AI technology is expected to be at the forefront of classrooms and education in the future.
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