NAGOYA – Japanese police and a university in Aichi Prefecture, in collaboration with NTT Data Group, have developed a system that uses artificial intelligence to create composite drawings of suspects, with the aim of saving time and allowing non-artists to create reliable sketches.
The system is scheduled to be operated on a trial basis from April 2026 to September 2027, but police in the Chubu region have not yet announced a schedule for its implementation.
In mid-December, students from the University of the Human Environment tested a prototype at police headquarters in Nagoya, where they stared at the face of a police officer posing as a suspect for about 30 seconds, then entered information such as gender, approximate age, nose size, and hairstyle.
Then, from among the four composite images created by the system, they selected the drawing that most closely resembled the face they saw and made slight changes to it. The sketch was completed in about 10 minutes.
Kaho Hibino (22), a fellow student, said, “It was difficult, but I was able to create a sketch that is close to a sample.I hope it will be used to quickly apprehend suspects.''
Yoshihiro Aoyama, head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's cyber countermeasures team, said, “We aim to improve the efficiency of police operations by introducing AI.''
