With Chinaˇs economy policy gradually becoming more market-oriented over the last 20 years, many national policies and strategies are also following this trend. Therefore, right around the 1990s, the Chinese government started reducing financial support of some research institutes strategically, especially some government-owned ones. This drove some research institutes to transform into privately-owned enterprises. Moreover, professors at universities were also required to cooperate with private companies in order to take national research projects or receive continuous financial support from the government. This atmosphere significantly influenced the development of many industries in China.
Take the security industry, for example. Some well-known research institutes, such as the Peking University, Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, Zhejiang University, the Chinese Peopleˇs Public Security University and the Chinese Academy of Science have been resources of fundamental research for many security companies for some time. Moreover, the Chinese government has just included security as a key national industry in the latest five-year national projects from 2006 to 2011. It is also the first time that the security industry is separated from other industries in the national project.
The Chinese Peopleˇs Public Security University even offered an undergraduate degree in security from 1996, added a masterˇs degree from 2003 and established a security department in 2005, providing comprehensive education and research in security. This is one of the first universities in China and the world that provides education and fundamental research especially for security.
In the biometric industry, the cooperation between research institutes, universities and the industry is even closer. While research and application of fingerprint recognition algorithms is still popular in China, many experts have started to notice that facial recognition, as a less intrusive identification method compared to fingerprinting, may become the next blockbuster. Therefore, some companies are actively cooperating on related research of facial recognition at universities or research institutes. For example, Isvision in Shanghai and the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Science jointly developed a technology for facial recognition products that are able to work under any amount of visible light. Hisign in Beijing cooperated with the Tsinghua University to build up a large database of human faces. AuthenMatric in Beijing and the Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Science developed an IR facial recognition technology.
In the past, the development of facial identification technologies was not supported by governments or any particular industry. It was not until the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2005 London bombings that the technology started to enjoy the worldwide limelight. ¨In 2001, we got more support from the government. We received financial support from the five-year national project from 2001 to 2005. With this support, we got the chance to test theoretical knowledge against reality and were able to design the products for different actual applications,〃 said Guangda Su, the professor at the Tsinghua University. ¨We can make facial identification technology easy to adapt for different environments. The technology was influenced largely by many factors, such as light, faces in different angles, ages and expression. We are able to provide solutions with more stability and high suitability to different variants.〃 He now cooperates with PSI Technologies in Beijing to market the technology.
Even though some facial recognition technologies are still in the theoretical status, in 2007, 3,000 ATMs will be embedded with facial recognition, as well as networked with the police system in China. There will be an increasing number of projects in transportation and public safety, especially the Safe City projects using facial recognition. Driven by large domestic product demands and the involvement of research institutes, Chinese facial recognition technology can be expected to be as mature and stable in a short amount of time to be competitive with overseas technologies.
For Chinaˇs DVR industry, the convergence of research groups and industry has also been a crucial factor to its rise. This influence is seen in the backgrounds of some major DVR vendors. Due to their success, the Chinese DVR and CCTV industry became well-known in the worldwide market.
In addition, Hikvision, the current No. 1 DVR vendor in China, also used to be the company under the 52nd Research Center of Ministry of Information Industry. It enjoyed high profit growth of 105.4 percent for 2005 to 2006, beating the gross profit growth of many current worldwide security companies. For seeing the multiple opportunities in security, Hikvision was separated from the research center in 2000 and formally entered the security industry. Another example is Skyvision, now part of the CSST Group, writing DVR software and also developing management software. The founder of Skyvision is also from the 52nd Research Center. Until now, Skyvision works closely with some national research centers for the Safe City projects.
For IP video solutions, the cooperation between research institutes and the industry becomes more fundamental. Take CSST, the biggest total solution provider in China, for example. Its product planning and development center at its headquarters is now focusing on research and development in intelligent video, biometric identification and most importantly, the total solution for securitythe multimedia platform.
Jetcom, one of the major distributors and system integrators in China, is also another typical example. The founder of Jetcom, Lei Yang, is also the current professor in the Bejing Chinese Communication University. Yang gets involved in many national security projects and establishment of standards. Recently, he is involved in the establishment of multiple standards used for one nationwide police networking system.
Compared to other countries, the system to connect research resources with the industry still has room for improvement in China. However, the efforts coming from the government, research groups and the industry to promote the convergence of all the resources are notable. One should keep in mind the original solid research behind high technology in China. As soon as the system is well-constructed, the overall enhancement of Chinese R&D in many industries will be coming soon.