A BRAIN might well be added to those all-seeing eyes along streets, train stations and shopping centres.

The Home Affairs Ministry wants those surveillance cameras put to more pro-active use, with new technology that can detect a face in a crowd, for example.

Last month, it made public two 'request for information' (RFI) documents asking about two similar types of technology: one that can recognise suspects by their facial features and another that can pick out objects of interest - from video footage.