Tech start-up trains beady eye on domestic violence and sex offences

domestic violence
Facial recognition system. Young man on dark background, face recognition concept

In Australia, a woman is murdered every ten days as a result of Domestic and Family Violence. For men, the figure is even higher with 69 deaths being recorded in 2018. Over 2016-2017, 80,200 people over the age of 18 were victims of sexual assault, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Hundreds of millions of dollars is being spent to support and prevent such attacks, but the fact still remains: how does one really know if a potential life partner is someone to be trusted or feared?

A Melbourne Tech Start-Up has developed a new solution that promises to do exactly that.

Developer of the Leelou platform and Leelou Private Eye Glasses “LPE”, Jerry Farsoun said, “Sadly, and without admission, people are living in fear more than ever before. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair, but it is our current reality. We relied on our local community network to provide a character reference over the back fence. We knew our neighbours and the people who lived down the end of the street. Times, however, have changed. We don’t know people the way we once did. And that’s why we developed Leelou”.

Leelou Private Eye is an advanced character check, one that takes place right there before one’s eyes. Facial recognition through wearable smart-glass technology and a fusion of the Leelou App and Leelou Private Eye Platform manages images and convicted criminal profiles.

It is not a public register of offenders. The information is crowd-sourced and checked by Leelou against publicly available court and media information. Leelou Private Eye users can scan in real-time or from a photo to determine whether a person has a record on the platform.

Where a match is detected, users are immediately notified. This could prove critical given the recent tragedies that have unfolded from meetings facilitated by popular dating apps.