NEC Wins the 2015 Gold Award for Field Innovation from the Japanese Society for AI

Tokyo, June 24, 2016 – NEC
Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701)
NEC Informatec Systems, Ltd., together with TAPIRS Co., Ltd., have won “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.

Main
features of the system are as follows:

1.
Uses face recognition to identify ticketholders, preventing the
use of resold tickets to gain illegal admission

The facial image of a purchaser that is
registered on a website at the time when a ticket is purchased is compared with
the facial image of the concertgoer photographed using a tablet terminal at the
event venue to confirm that the ticketholder is the purchaser.

2.
Supports large-scale events

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.

3.
30% reduction in the time it takes to confirm the ID of
ticketholders

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

The
system will be presented on July 22nd at the 18th International Conference
on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI International 2016) in Toronto, Canada.

For
more information, visit http://2016.hci.international/posters.

***

*The
Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence: