International. With the growth of the facial recognition sector, some important aspects must be considered to select this technology in the retail environment.
HID Global presents five key factors to consider:
1. Match accuracy
It seems almost too obvious that match accuracy is one of the most important criteria for selecting a facial recognition solution. The right solution will be highly accurate and will not show disparities in the search for customers of different ages, genders and skin colors.
What to look for: Make sure your potential provider trains their AI-using facial algorithms with a large set of ethically sourced data, and constantly applies machine learning to keep it accurate and relevant. Look for matching algorithms that have been developed and trained using an extensive dataset that includes a wide variety of gender, age, and race characteristics to minimize demographic matching bias. Look for information from organizations like the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has conducted extensive testing on facial recognition solutions and vendors.
2. Anti-phishing
While facial recognition technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, bad actors have continued to perfect phishing techniques aimed at tricking a biometric system into giving a false positive. The best biometric solution will offer peace of mind over unattended self-checkout kiosks by using presentation attack detection (PAD) algorithms that are designed to determine life and detect fraudulent biometric credentials, such as 3D masks, printed images, or digital images.
What to look for: Look for a facial recognition solution with advanced PAD and life detection that uses a combination of hardware and software technologies to determine whether a submitted biometrics is genuine or not.
3. Camera hardware
Digital cameras play a critical role in facial recognition applications, performing key functions such as face detection and capture, image quality assessment, extraction, and comparison of facial templates. In retail stores, lighting can also create difficult combination conditions.
What to look for: Look for durable camera hardware that can work in extreme weather and lighting conditions. The camera should continue to deliver high performance under direct sunlight, total darkness, strong backlight, or dim light, no matter when or where you conduct business.
4. Data privacy
Privacy is a serious concern, and new regulations like GDPR and CCPA are emerging to protect consumers. That's why it's important to use technology that has privacy protection and compliance built into its foundation.
What to look for: Look for solutions that allow users to have the ability to participate and not participate. For example, by asking interested customers to sign up via a selfie photo and an image of a valid government-issued ID, explicit consent by the user is guaranteed. In addition, one of the best-in-class solutions will use encryption and secure endpoint data transmission to protect customer data, while also storing the customer's face as a biometric template that cannot be decoded or reverse-engineered, rendering it useless to hackers in the unlikely event of a data breach.
5. Profitability
Diving into the world of facial recognition sounds expensive, but it can be done cost-effectively. The costs of a facial recognition project are difficult to estimate. There are many variables that contribute to the cost of the project, including software and hardware types, connectivity requirements, database size, complexity of project scope and requirements, ongoing system maintenance and support, and user training.
What to look for: Look for a reliable provider that not only has the expertise in facial recognition technology, but also knows the retail business. It also makes financially and efficient sense to select a vendor that can provide a modular solution approach, rather than one with strict requirements of a complete and total overhaul.
Start the project strategically in one business area, make sure it is successful, then expand it to another business area or add more features as needed. For retailers, loyalty programs provide an excellent entry point. It would be faster and easier for customers to enroll their faces in existing loyalty systems. By adding facial recognition to loyalty programs, stores can validate member IDENTIFICATION and ensure compliance with any age-restricted purchases, as well as enable facial payment for fast, hassle-free, contactless checkout.
Here are five important considerations. While the most progressive retailers will be early adopters of facial biometric solutions, those that are more thoughtful in selecting the best possible options will outperform their rivals in the long run.
