Chinese scientists have unveiled a new 500 megapixel ‘super camera’ that can spot a single person among tens of thousands of people.

The camera was revealed at China's International Industry Fair, designed by Fudan University and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Its designers say it can capture the facial details of each individual in a crowd of tens of thousands of people.

The camera's resolution is five times more detailed than the human eye, and it is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition, real-time monitoring and cloud computing technology.

It can detect and identify thousands of human faces or other objects at once, and pick out specific targets even in a crowded stadium, says Xiaoyang Zeng, one of the scientists who worked on the new technology.

With the Chinese state already having amassed huge databases of people's images and the capability to connect them to their identity, the technology is expected to fuel criticism of a country already criticised for heavily monitoring its citizens.

Chinese media reports say Mr Zeng has called for laws and regulations to standardise the application of the camera.

Some doubts have been raised about how realistic the capabilities of this camera actually are, due to the massive amounts of data it collects.

Experts say processing 500-megapixel images, let alone video footage, is a huge, processing intensive task.

However, most expect it will not be long until data centres in China catch up and become capable of offering the resources required to produce results in seconds and minutes rather than hours.