NEC introduces biometric facial recognition system for Mitsui Fudosan hotels

NEC will be supplying a “Smart Hospitality Service” leveraging its biometric facial recognition technology for “Sequence,” a new hotel brand by Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsui Fudosan Hotel Management, the company announced.

The “Smart Hospitality Service” uses facial recognition technology to match pre-registered facial images with customer reservations to improve safety and security, and boost customer experience by enhancing hotel services such as check-in, entering rooms and entertainment facilities, and enabling cashless payments. Guests can use a facial recognition-equipped tablet to unlock the doors to their room, for example, which will make traditional keys or cards obsolete.

NEC’s biometric identification portfolio is built around facial recognition and includes technologies such as Bio-IDiom and NeoFace. NEC says its facial biometrics have topped the leaderboard in NIST testing.

The service will not be used on guests who do not give their consent for the use of facial recognition, not will the information be stored or used without explicit consent.

The hotels that will be equipped with facial recognition are Miyashita Park in June 2020, Kyoto Gojo in July 2020 and Suidobashi in the fall of 2020. Miyashita Park will only have facial recognition for check-in.

Future plans include adding new capabilities for the “Smart Hospitality Service,” such as using facial recognition at the airport to check-in and then go sightseeing while the bags are sent to the hotel. The service collects information about people, things and processes and then shares it across the value chain for “NEC Value Chain Innovation.”

Article Topics

access management  |  biometric identification  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  hospitality  |  NEC  |  NeoFace