NEC Wins Gold Award for 'Field Innovation'

NEC Corporation, NEC Informatec Systems, Ltd., together with TAPIRS Co., Ltd., bagged "The 2015 Gold Award for Field Innovation" from the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence for their development of a ticket ID system using face recognition software.

The award is presented to individuals or groups that promote social innovation and practical methods for solving social problems through research and development of artificial intelligence technology.

"In recent years, the purchase of event and concert tickets through online auctions or private individuals has become a widespread practice. At the same time, resale problems and unlawful resale are on the increase. This ticket ID system efficiently identifies the ticket purchaser at the venue using face recognition software, preventing admission with illegally resold tickets," said Akitoshi Okumura, Associate Senior Vice President, NEC Informatec Systems.

This system is being used at concerts in Japan by performers that include Momoiro Clover Z and Babymetal, helping to prevent fraudulent concert ticket resale and to ensure that concertgoers are admitted into the venue efficiently.

This ticket ID system was developed by NEC Informatec Systems using a tablet terminal equipped with NEC's face recognition software "NeoFace ®" together with a camera. The system's effectiveness was confirmed in collaboration with TAPIRS.

It uses face recognition to identify ticketholders, preventing the use of resold tickets to gain illegal admission.

A database of ticket purchasers' facial image information is registered on a tablet terminal in advance of an event.

This enables support for large-scale events from several hundred people to 100,000 people.

Compared with the existing method of visually identifying holders of photo IDs, the system reduces the time it takes to confirm an ID by as much as 30 percent.

This means that even at large-scale events, concertgoers can be admitted into events efficiently.

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