After being postponed for a year, the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics continued to be held without spectators and swayed by the new coronavirus infection. However, there must have been a legacy that led to the development and growth of sports and society. The “face recognition system”, which was used for the first time in the Olympics to identify the people involved in the competition and the press at competition venues, is controversial for its merits and demerits, but it is not one of the “legacy candidates”. Is it? (Yomiuri Shimbun Online, Yasuyuki Kowa)
Face pass of only 0.3 seconds, the basis of Tokyo tournament security
At the Tokyo Games, the reporter was in charge of on-site coverage of the Paralympics. I often went to different competition venues every day and went to multiple venues. It was about two weeks when I was busy with time and had an impatient interview.
For that reason, I was grateful that the identity verification at the time of admission was completed in an instant at any venue. All you have to do is stand in front of the camera-equipped machine installed at the entrance and hold the admission pass called the “AD card” that was distributed when you registered for the tournament. I didn’t have to spend time face-to-face with the guards, and the “face pass” was very helpful.
According to NEC’s public relations department, which developed the face recognition system for this tournament, it takes only “0.3 seconds” per person to verify the identity. It was not approved with the mask on, and it could not pass even with the hat on, but it was an operation for the tournament organization committee to tighten the check, so in reality, the person himself with high accuracy even when wearing the mask There is also a system that can identify. I was amazed at its accuracy and convenience.
About 300 of these terminals were deployed at the Tokyo Games, and media and volunteer staff from all over the world used them a total of 4 million times during the period. Considering the time and effort required by the guards to compare the faces of the visitors with the face photo of the size of the ID photo on the AD card for 4 million times, there is no doubt that it greatly helped the security of the tournament.
Police officers and security guards were on the lookout at each competition venue and media center, making us realize that it is a world-class competition. One of the systems that forms the basis of such a strict security system is probably face recognition at the time of admission. In terms of eliminating the need for conversation between visitors and venue staff, it seemed to be a system that was suitable for the times in terms of measures against corona infectious diseases.
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