The use of reliable facial recognition software, developed in-house by Metro Security’s R&D team, is enabling our customers to take advantage of the wide-ranging and increasingly practical opportunities this technology provides, in a variety of commercial contexts.
These cost-effective and tangible benefits include on-site loss prevention, operational management gains and marketing exploitation to boost profitability.
Facial recognition technology offers a valuable new tool, which can be used to address either a site-specific issue, or simultaneously rolled out across multiple locations to scale up the benefits. Using sophisticated analytical software, the still facial images produced by high-resolution megapixel CCTV cameras, working in conjunction with appropriate lighting to help ensure consistent image capture conditions, provide useful comparison reference points.
Real-world Use-case
Commercial Vehicle Operations & Facial Recognition Software
A commercial vehicle operator, for example, can provide reference images of all its drivers so that when they visit an unmanned depot the CCTV cameras remotely monitoring this facility can facially compare and identify any visiting driver – providing them with various levels of access, as pre-set by the company when implementing their facial recognition system.
Their movements around the site can also be observed by using the facial recognition software and any issues of concern are fed back to the company’s managers.
Real-world Use-case
Facial recognition technology for Retail Security
In less controlled conditions, such as retail environments or external locations, percentage recognition thresholds can be set, to reduce ‘false positives’ (incorrect matches). Once the digital camera outputs have been processed by Metro Security’s facial recognition software, meet the specified match criteria and have also potentially been verified by a monitoring centre operator, store managers can be alerted.
The advantages of camera facial recognition technology include, for example, awareness of a known shoplifter’s presence – or even a criminal gang. Similarly, CCTV images can be automatically sent to additional stores in the area to make other managers aware of any security risks in advance. In this way, generic ‘Retail Watch’-type schemes, involving retailers collaborating to share information and liaise with the police, can scale up the preventive benefits, obtain evidence for prosecutions, and maximise their collective deterrence value across a wide geographic area.
Real-world Use-case
Facial Recognition System Software For Retail Marketing
Other configurable responses to facial recognition matches provide valuable marketing opportunities, by maximising the opportunities from identifying a returning customer. One practical way to achieve this involves interfacing a store’s facial recognition software with a customer relationship management system database profiles of customers, built up through stored details from previous transactions. In this way, returning customers can be immediately identified and targeted with appropriate advertising messages at the till.
Staff can also be alerted to helpful details ranging from the customer’s impending birthday through to the type of suggestible merchandise they may wish to make an impulse purchase of.
