Have you ever wondered how many people use public transportation daily in your country?
The Brazilian National Association of Urban Transport Companies (NTU) conducted a survey demonstrating that the public transportation sector in Brazil carried about 189.8 million passengers in October 2020 alone.
In the city of São Paulo alone, 5.3 million people use public buses every day to go to work and move around in general.
In addition, 27% of these passengers do not pay bus tickets due to the 1988 Constitution and the Elderly Statute which provides fare exemptions or discounts for children and people over sixty years, guaranteed by law.
However, to maintain order and make sure the offer of these benefits does not represent costs for operators and companies, it is necessary to police and ensure the sensible and individual use of these elements, because it is estimated that about 25% of these gratuities are used improperly.
Consequently, the value of tickets also increases due to the decrease in revenue and the impact may be even greater due to the change in passenger preference for other types of transportation.
Facial biometrics as an ally
Facial biometrics is a tool used to validate a person's identity based on their facial characteristics. It is included in the field of biometric security, and can be developed to recognize voice, iris or fingerprint.
Starting from the fact that our face has about 80 facial points, a good system can track certain aspects such as:
- Marks
- Mouth
- Distance between eyes
- Nose shape
- Head size
We can list several other items involved in this technology that makes more than 3.3 billion dollars worldwide, and may double in 2022.
How can facial biometrics help?
Applying this cutting-edge technology can prevent potential fraud and decrease financial loss due to misuse of access tools. To do so, facial biometrics is one of several biometric options that can be used to validate and identify the carrier of a benefit, such as free access to public transportation.
It is noteworthy that it is an AI (Artificial Intelligence), with the possibility of recognizing in detail a person based on their technology and their database.
This happens after registration, with the gathering of the photo taken from the beneficiary, so that a comparison can be made at the time of the entrance of the passenger on the bus.
In the market we can find sources with authority and good results in the subject, such as BioPass ID, a modern cloud-based platform that can be used to develop applications like this.
Facial biometrics in global public transportation
This is already a reality in Spain. Through a pilot project created in 2019 by the Madrid Municipal Transport Company (EMT) with technology company Saffe and Santander bank, bus fares are charged from an image of the passenger as they pass through the turnstile.
Through a free application from EMT itself, the passenger can register by themself, take a self-portrait and record their information. The company's manager, Alfonso Sánchez, voluntarily tested the system on one of the bus lines as soon as it was implemented and published in EMT Twitter.
But it's not just Spain that has adopted facial recognition. This time, the world leader in online transactions, China, also joined the fashion, applying the technology for payments.
As a next step, China may no longer need the assistance of any manual device. Since 2019 the country conducts tests in the Shenzen subway to pay for the passage through this tool that recognizes faces and validates the entry and exit of people.
Meanwhile, in Futian, China, tablets with 5G technology, combined with facial recognition, have been installed at the station's turnstiles and virtually discount the value of the ticket on users' financial data as soon as they are recognized.
Recently, as in some parts of Europe, 1,000 surveillance cameras have been installed by the city of Belgrade, connected to a facial biometrics program in order to monitor traffic and ensure people's safety.
How can BioPass ID aggregate in public transport?
Just as BioPass ID is used by Transit Departments (Detran) in user authentication with the creation of SuperPrático, it can also be used to develop passenger identification projects that use public transportation, facilitating data management and reducing the number of frauds.
Its technology captures the face with high quality, supporting multiple camera models using the ISO/ICAO standard.
To better understand and have a BioPass ID facial biometrics experience, access its demos and its DevCenter.
