Singapore patrol robots stoke fears of surveillance state

A man gestures to an autonomous robot named 'Xavier' as it patrols a shopping and residential district during a three-week trial by the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) in Singapore. The country has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in bad behaviour. — AFP

SINGAPORE: Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behaviour", adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fuelling privacy concerns.

From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants.