§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide details of the Wisard computer recognition systems; how the company has been paid by Her Majesty's Government for its feasibility study; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggWisard computer recognition systems were developed by a team from Brunel university to permit electronic recognition of patterns and images. The Home Office has a contract with the university to cover the cost of a demonstration of a system capable of matching photographs of faces correctly from a large database. No demonstration has taken place to date and therefore no money had been paid to the university.