Group items tagged

1. Security and Access

One of the main ways facial recognition can be deployed within the hospitality industry is for security and access purposes. Within a hotel setting, this might mean using the technology to grant guests access to their hotel room,

When it comes to security, the technology can also be vital in helping to identify troublesome guests, or guests who have previously been removed from the premises.

2. Customer Service

The technology can also be used by those within the hospitality industry to deliver a greater level of customer service. For example, facial recognition can allow employees to quickly identify guests, perhaps before they even check-in, and deliver more personalised greetings and a more tailored service.

3. Payment Authorisation

Facial recognition also has a role to play in helping to authorise payments, making that process more efficient. Companies like MasterCard have already implemented systems powered by facial recognition, where a customer can confirm a payment using the camera on their phone, or a camera supplied by the vendor.

4. Research and Information

The technology can be set up for market research purposes, helping companies to know exactly how many people are in a location at a particular time. Additionally, it can be used to draw conclusions about customers too, reading their expressions to ascertain their mood, or their facial features to ascertain their age or gender. Most impressively, this data can be gathered automatically, at any time of the day or night.

One of the challenges for hotel managers and others within the hospitality industry looking to introduce facial recognition is balancing the benefits with privacy for customers. Indeed, many people have concerns about facial recognition, due to the fact that it means even more data about them being collected and stored.

Furthermore, many people fear their data being sold on to other companies against their will, and dislike the idea of businesses being able to track their every move. It is, therefore, important that the hospitality industry takes these concerns seriously and takes steps to avoid misusing data. In some cases, one of the best solutions may be to make facial recognition an opt-in or opt-out service, so that users have a choice in the matter.

If a company has a customer reward scheme, members may be given the option to upload a photo during the sign up. Facial recognition can then allow that company to instantly identify members and provide them with rewards. The technology may also identify returning customers, allowing them to be rewarded too.

To date, one of the most effective uses of facial recognition within hospitality management has been as part of the hotel check-in process. In two different Marriott hotels in China, for example, guests now have the option to bypass the traditional check-in desk and instead head to a kiosk. There, facial recognition technology scans their face, identifies them and provides them with a key card, all in the space of around one minute.

imagine a hotel where guests go to a kiosk, check out using facial recognition and confirm their payment in the same way, with no need to interact with a single hotel employee. Kiosks can also be used in restaurants, allowing customers to pay seamlessly on their way out.

Finally, in order to understand customers, improve services and optimise processes, hotels and other companies need to be able to gather feedback and data. This is an area where the uses for facial recognition may be less immediately obvious, but where those uses can be extremely beneficial.

The technology can also be used more generally to recognise certain things about faces, such as whether a face belongs to a man or a woman, or what age range the person is likely to be in. Facial recognition is used by security services, law enforcement and technology companies, and is becoming more prevalent in the hospitality industry.

Facial recognition technology can help hotel owners and others in the hospitality industry to improve the customer experience, make processes more efficient and enhance security. In particular, it allows for queues to be avoided, check-ins to be automated, and security and research to be more comprehensive.

2D technology is also widely used due to its low installation cost and operational ease as it uses 2D appearance

Among the component segments, hardware accounted for the maximum revenue share in 2015, owing to high cost of 2D and 3D cameras. The facial recognition software market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 23.9% during the forecast period. Development of effective and efficient facial recognition software applications is expected to drive this market.

In the year 2015, homeland security contributed the highest revenue share, accounting for around 21% of the overall market revenue. From a growth perspective, intelligent signage is likely to be the most prominent application of facial recognition, anticipated to witness the highest CAGR of 25.1% during the forecast period.

North America offers lucrative opportunities for market growth, exhibiting a huge demand of facial recognition technology for homeland security and criminal investigation.

Some of the leading players in the facial recognition market include Cognitec Systems GmbH, NEC Corporation, FaceFirst, Inc., and 3M amongst others.

These players have adopted product development, acquisitions, agreements, and partnerships as their key strategies to strengthen their market position and expand their geographical presence. For instance, in 2015, Cognitec Systems GmbH launched and incorporated a superior version of the face recognition algorithm B9 in FaceVACS-DBScan, one of the its leading facial recognition products.

Facial recognition technology helps with social distancing and capacity measures by identifying the proximity between individuals

facial recognition technology reduces physical contact

makes the experience more efficient by instantly scanning a guest

's face for verification and payment.

safest technology in identity verification, dramatically reducing the risk of payment fraud.

2. Social distancing and capacity requirements

1. Contactless payments

keeps track of the number of people in the store

3. Customer loyalty programs and personalized dining experiences

allows restaurants to create personalized experiences for loyal customers, and encourage first-time guests to return.

recognized as VIPs,

weekly regular who likes his burger rare with no lettuce or tomato, thus increasing customer satisfaction

4. Fast-food restaurant transformations

with facial recognition

customers

don’t need to remember a password or log into an app

Facial recognition t

turns these kiosks into interactive experiences by recognizing loyalty program members and presenting pe

ased on

Facial recognition

past orders

also being employed in drive-through lines

saving time

5. Employee systems: access control, time and attendance clocks, and ordering terminals

Advanced technologies like FaceMe® can be installed at staff entrances to check body temperature and mask-wearing while accurately identifying employees

simplifies clocking-in/out

accurate login capabilities without the need for keys or cards.

FaceMe SDK

FaceMe

facial recognition engine

to create personalized and efficient customer experiences

FaceMe Security

It can also display body temperature (when connected to a thermal camera), identify opted-in VIP customers, clock-in/out employees, flag block-listed individuals, and send real-time alerts to security personne

software solution that performs facial recognition even if users are wearing a mask.

FaceMe Health

installed on a PC connected to a camera with thermal imaging capabilities.

The hotel says the system can aid customers who've reported an item has gone missing inside the hotel

derail potential dangers before they happen by, for instance, uploading a digital image of someone who is banned from the hotel and letting the system send an alert when the person shows up.

the system can find relevent surveillance footage in seconds

bility to recognize repeat customers," the

release says. Moore says that they'll tie in the system with its front-office systems to "flag our Gold Card members in

order to be able to blow them away with service."

speeds up the check-in process, prevents registration fraud, and adds an extra level of security to an event or conference by ensuring that the person who registered for the event is actually the person attending

Of the more than 250 guests that attended, most of whom were in-house corporate event planners, 126 used the facial recognition check-in, resulting in a process that was five times quicker than the barcode or QR system used at the previous year’s events.

“insanely cost-effective” option,

facial recognition can drive down the costs of check-in to less than a dollar per attendee.

You can use a basic Android phone or an iPhone or tablet to work with the process, so you don’t have to invest a lot of money to make that work for you,” Wynant said.

Hampton Hotels partnered with agencyEA to create a vending machine that used facial recognition technology to dole out “smile swag.”

I think brands are starting to see it as having a really good opportunity to broaden what some of their goals are and engage audiences in new ways

"I think that you will begin to see more hotels going to RFID and smartphone entry before using biosystem recognition," says Wolfe. "These systems are expensive, and there are many consumers who just don't want this information stored somewhere -- for a variety of reasons."

Systems that track the other qualities that make each human unique are in development as well.

Yet more card-free security systems are on the way.

Many industry watchers are keeping an eye on Houston's largest hotel, the vast 1,200-room Hilton Americas–Houston. The hotel has a facial recognition system that can identify and track guests, employees, and even suitcases. With 700 employees and an annual $16 million payroll, the system offers benefits such as employee time-theft monitoring and prevention for the hotel. But travelers aren't that concerned about employees taking an extra cigarette break. What it means for you is that the system includes alerts if unwanted people are on the property and a response time of mere seconds if there's an incident. Customer service is heightened as well: Returning guests will be recognized and greeted by name. And with 1,200 rooms worth of luggage in transit, the system makes it a lot easier to find lost or misdirected bags.

not everyone wants to be on-camera, all the time. With concerns about "snooping" and a Truman Show-like lack of privacy, might guests feel that systems such as this are too intrusive in our hotels? "

Technology is opening new doors to hotel safety, and the way we navigate hotels is set to change in the blink of an eye. Or the swipe of a cellphone. Or the print of a finger. With futuristic systems like scent and iris scanners and digital facial-recognition, hotel security is being taken to the next level. #plain_module { width: 590px; height:170px; border: none; float:left; margin:0px; font-size:12px;} #plain_module img {border:none; width: 13px; height:14; border: 0px; margin:0px; } #plain_module .mini_main { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:585px; height:220px; repeat scroll 0 0} #plain_module .mini_item_header {padding:10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px; font-size:16px; color: #555555; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;} #plain_module .mini_item {padding:5px 0px; margin: 0px 0px;} #plain_module a { color: #49A3CA; text-decoration:none; } #plain_module a:hover { color: #F98419; text-decoration:underline;} span.gray {color:#949494;} .mini_main li{list-style-type: none;background-image: url(http://www.aolcdn.com/travel/bullet);background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: 0 1px;padding-left: 10px;} Those plastic key cards that once seemed so innovative will soon go the way of the actual key. The new thing is contact-less Smartcards and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) cards that need just be waved to allow room access. Much like the cruise world's one card system, these cards may soon make hotel stays easier by allowing guests to pay for services, as well as to check-in and check-out, through a single device. Travelers may even be able to save preferences on the cards, from pillow type to floor choice. RFID cards are already in use at New York's Plaza Hotel, and Starwood Hotels are considering introducing them into their hip Aloft and Element properties. But travelers worried they will constantly have to traipse back to reception every time they lose their card need not despair. Security systems in some hotels do away with cards altogether. "In addition to Radio Frequency Identification, there are also systems that use a smartphone, such as an iPhone," says Frank Wolfe, CEO of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals. "When a guest checks into a hotel and provides their phone number, they get an encrypted sound code via text message." You can then play back the code to unlock your room door.

Systems that track the other qualities that make each human unique are in development as well. Movement-activated video-capture systems were showcased in New Zealand in September 2010. Researchers are at work on devices capable of recognizing an individual's gait or walk and even their DNA. Frank Wolfe says, "If you want to go 'way out there', there are some systems being explored that can allegedly sniff someone, and also systems that can recognize the pattern of blood veins on a human being which are apparently unique to the individual," says Wolfe. Quite common in Japan, vascular-recognition systems such as this are still "several years off," according to Wolfe. "I think that you will begin to see more hotels going to RFID and smartphone entry before using biosystem recognition," says Wolfe. "These systems are expensive, and there are many consumers who just don't want this information stored somewhere -- for a variety of reasons."

the next generation of technology is moving across the hospitality industry, with facial recognition, virtual reality and biometrics expected to be mainstream by 2025.

anticipated to increase hotel revenues by over 10% and reduce costs by more than 15%…”

Marriott, Hilton and Accor, for three, are already investing in this transformation

“I’ve had loads of people come to talk to me about robots and all sorts of things, but for me it takes the personality out of hospitality,”

 believes there is “absolutely a place for automation”

updated facial-recognition algorithm predicts age by looking at indicators such as wrinkles and skin texture.

an attributes box will list your age, mood, gender — and how genuine your smile is.

technology can be integrated into parental-control apps or be used by companies to restrict content based on user age or interest.

facial recognition will be 30% more accurate.

Many crimes committed in a certain area of Chongqing were committed by non-residents, so facial recognition cameras were seen as a way to combat this.

But critics warn such widespread surveillance violates internationally guaranteed rights to privacy. To meet international privacy standards enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both collection and use of biometric data should be limited to people found to be involved in wrongdoing, and not broad populations who have no specific link to crime. Individuals should have the right to know what biometric data the government holds on them. China’s automated facial recognition systems violate those standards.

“These systems are being developed and implemented without meaningful privacy protections against state surveillance. The depth, breadth and intrusiveness of the Chinese government’s mass surveillance on its citizens may be unprecedented in modern history.”

Cities elsewhere may not be too far behind China’s mass surveillance.

With 2.58m cameras covering 15.35 million people – equal to one camera for every six residents – Chongqing has more surveillance cameras than any other city in the world for its population, beating even Beijing, Shanghai and tech hub Shenzhen.

“With the rise of things like facial recognition, that is why we need new legislation that decides what is in the public’s interest and the legal structure within which they can be used. We shouldn’t drift there by accident.”

And part of that is building trust with the community based on good community information, not on Big Brother technology.”

Since then, two more Californian cities, Oakland and Berkeley, have also passed bans on all government use of facial recognition technology. Somerville, Massachusetts, passed a similar law this summer.

Some people support facial recognition on the basis that technology has always driven change and is a force for good if used responsibly and proportionately.

Omanovic argues that live facial recognition fundamentally threatens free societies. “It might start with the monitoring of just a few thousand people but it definitely won’t end there,” says Omanovic. “Authorities need to permanently ban its roll out now before it’s too late.”

“Singapore has plans to install 100,000 facial-recognition cameras on lampposts, Chicago police have asked for 30,000 more, and Moscow intends to have 174,000 by the end of this year.”

Hotels are also embracing the Internet of Things for the benefit of guests, to adjust room temperature settings, lighting, voice-controlled room service, operate adjustable beds and other appliances.

Many properties are combining augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for entertainment, convenience, and administrative purposes. AR-powered signage, for example, can help direct guests to check-in or pick-up locations, based on their mobile fingerprint and biometrically-verified identity.

The closer the connection between biometric methods and the user, the greater the security. Since a user's personal mobile device is effectively a "closer" link to the individual than a hotel's facial recognition system, one of the benefits of going mobile is increased security of data, employees, guests, finances, and facilities.

Mobile biometrics, like any other technology, opens the door to the risks of cybercrim

Research from SmarterHQ shows 72% of consumers will only engage with marketing that is personalized to their interests, while 86% don't want to provide their personal information because of privacy concerns. This creates a major conundrum for the hospitality industry.

Systems that track the other qualities that make each human unique are in development as well.

here are some systems being explored that can allegedly sniff someone, and also systems that can recognize the pattern of blood veins on a human being which are apparently unique to the individual,

new thing is contact-less Smartcards and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) cards that need just be waved to allow room access.

Kimpton's 190-room Nine Zero Hotel in Boston was the first hotel to install a biometric iris scanner back in 2004

we navigate hotels is set to change in the blink of an eye. Or the swipe of a cellphone. Or the print of a finger. With futuristic systems like scent and iris scanners and digital facial-recognition, hotel security is being taken to the next level. #plain_module { width: 590px; height:170px; border: none; float:left; margin:0px; font-size:12px;} #plain_module img {border:none; width: 13px; height:14; border: 0px; margin:0px; } #plain_module .mini_main { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:585px; height:220px; repeat scroll 0 0} #plain_module .mini_item_header {padding:10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px; font-size:16px; color: #555555; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;} #plain_module .mini_item {padding:5px 0px; margin: 0px 0px;} #plain_module a { color: #49A3CA; text-decoration:none; } #plain_module a:hover { color: #F98419; text-decoration:underline;} span.gray {color:#949494;} .mini_main li{list-style-type: none;background-image: url(http://www.aolcdn.com/travel/bullet);background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: 0 1px;padding-left: 10px;}

Another way the tech can be deployed is to reduce queuing to pay for food, drinks or merchandise by scanning people’s faces at check-out and automatically charging their registered payment method.

The possibilities for the development of facial recognition is certainly exciting, but perhaps even more interesting, from an event planner’s perspective, is what you can do with it right now.

The core application that Zenus has been focused on is event registration and check-in. The tech can be used to replace ticket scanning and speed up the entry process

In terms of accuracy, Zenus’ software is extremely high. “Our system can search the database of 1,000 faces and find the most likely match 99.4% of the time. The attendee or host can then tap on the face to confirm it is correct,”

“All the registration company sends us is anonymous images,” he explains. “This happens over securely encrypted channels. When we receive the images we are processing them to extract the face measurements and then we immediately delete the image. We then send back a unique identifier that’s associated with each image without ever having accessed personal information. It gives the event planner peace of mind that the data is being handled properly. After the event, we completely delete the entire database associated with the event.”

Crowd analytics will be able to scan faces in a space and tell you how many people are in there. It is also possible to extract demographic data such as age or gender, and so forth. We are going to do all of these things in the future but we prefer to do one thing at a time and make it perfect before we move onto the next thing.

There are limits to the technology, which explains in part why the roll-out has been limited up to now. Tech analysts have pointed out since the unveiling of the first smartphones that can be unlocked with facial recognition that the technology is simply not as secure as a personal identification number.

This check-in system is not the first hotel use for facial recognition. The technology was added earlier this year as one of the capabilities of Agilysys’ rGuest Stay property-management system to help streamline operations

. The system can show any information saved about the recognized guest, including room preferences, arrival and departure time, and much more.

Advantech’s FaceView app, developed for smart security and visitor analysis, provides fast, high-precision, scalable facial recognition and can extract data on visitors’ gender, age and emotions. The resulting data empowers businesses to better understand and serve customers such as VIP or loyalty program guests, as well as facilitate loss prevention and area security.

he integration empowers the app to perform real-time facial recognition and analysis of visitors’ gender, age and emotions for IoT applications in scenarios such as retail, hospitality, transportation and commercial building management, among others.

In addition, whilst this may well serve high volume and ‘business’ hotels,

consumers’ increasing desire for personalised experiences is expected to continue for years to come.

use of biometric technology such as the facial recognition technology to speed up guests’ check‐in time and thereby improve the customer experience, make processes more efficient and enhance security.

By eliminating the process of performing manual checks on travel documents, the amount of check‐in time is expected to be reduced by up to 70%.

its use in luxury hotels, where the personal touch matters, may well have to be adapted to ensure it is seamless and less impersonal.

use of hotel robots may yield operational and cost efficiencies to hotels, it is however critical that a balanced approach is adopted by hoteliers to ensure that automation does not supplant quality service hence alienating hotel guests as a consequence

Voice assistants ‐ such as Amazon Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant – are one of the fastest growing technological fields today, becoming commonplace as a feature of the internet of things

According to Hospitality Technology’s 2019 Lodging Technology Study, nearly eight in 10 respondents named voice‐enabled technology as the top choice when asked to identify technology that has the most potential in the near‐future, and 62% of the respondents listed voice technology as a transformative technology that makes an impact.

voice assistants could potentially be used by hotels to gather actionable insights and feedback

the data gathered can be analysed and utilised to enhance the hotel offerings

Separately, hotels could potentially streamline operations processes and thereby improve operational efficiency and achieve cost‐savings through automating some of the daily hotel operations via the voice assistant.

The use of robots within the hotel industry is a form of automation that is becoming more prevalent as hotel chains and individual hotels have become increasingly cognizant that the concept of automation and self‐service is playing an increasingly vital role in the customer experience

pop‐up hotels have the agility of providing on‐demand accommodation in locations that traditional hotels could not and/or travelers would not necessarily have access or ease of access to alongside customisable accommodation settings, thereby delivering an entire bespoke guest experience.

it is imperative that hotels recognise and make it a top priority to address these privacy concerns and adhere to the applicable regulations concurrent to ensuring the quality of the stored data and system

Check-in via facial recognition is already active at hotels in China. FlyZoo, a 290-room hotel located in Hangzhou, allows guests to select their floor and room during booking on their mobile app.

The use of biometric data can help to ‘announce’ guests, their information, and their preferences without them having to provide any additional information.

Requiring the use of a fingerprint to authorize any additional payments during a hotel stay, such as food and beverage orders, spa treatments, or in-room entertainment purchases, makes check-out billing quick and accurate.

As the population becomes more comfortable with the use of biometrics in everyday life — such as using our fingerprints or faces to unlock our mobile devices — they will come to expect that same ease of identity verification for other purchases or experiences, like travel.

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