a facial recognition system for taking the train has just been inaugurated

This new system allows travelers to board their train by being recognized by cameras attached to the gates. This system was inaugurated on Saturday in a city near Tokyo, in the neighboring prefecture of Chiba.

Is the end of metro cards and tickets coming soon? In Japan, in the town of Sakura, east of Tokyo, passengers have been able, since Saturday June 15, to board their train without any means of transport. Cameras recognize the faces of regular users who have registered in the new system. It’s extremely smooth and that’s a lot of savings for the carrier.

It was the operator of a local train line, Yamaman Yukarigaoka, which introduced this new technology for all passengers. It had been tested before, for a few months, with volunteers on six stations and everything went very well. The solution is now available to everyone.

The process to access it is very simple. It is done either online, on the carrier’s website, or directly at the counters of one of the line’s stations. In both cases, you must register your face and associate it with a credit card. And then we can get on board. On the side of the entrance gates near the platforms, tablets constantly film arriving passengers. And when a face is recognized, the door opens automatically. The person enters and is charged the cost of a normal journey or with a discount if they have registered in advance with a preferential rate. It’s very fast, very fluid. No need to swipe your card, smartphone or paper ticket at the entrance gate. The same system will be deployed in city buses, the person will then be able to travel everywhere without ever having to take anything out of their pocket.

The line operator says it will be very profitable for him in the long term. He explains that it was necessary, roughly speaking, to invest 355,000 euros in the new system, but that he will save on traditional gantries, which are very expensive to maintain and renew. It will also be able to remove cards and paper tickets with magnetic strips. In total, it plans to reduce its costs of issuing transport tickets by 30%.

Other cities have since considered this type of solution. In Osaka, a large station is preparing a somewhat similar solution without a gantry. You walk between screens lined with cameras and if your face is automatically recognized, your credit card is charged immediately. This technology is expected to be put into service next year. Consumers seem rather favorable to it. There was no debate about data protection or privacy.