Tokyo Olympics to get facial recognition

MUMBAI: In order to provide enhanced security and to prevent unauthorised elements from getting into the venues, the organisers of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo will employ face recognition system to verify identity of athletes, officials, staff members and media representatives.

This will be the first time such technology will be used at an Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Organising Committee for Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced in a release on Tuesday.

Local tech giant NEC Corporation will provide the face recognition system. The facial images of every accredited person will be collected beforehand and stored in a database. These will then be used to verify identities at accreditation check points, the release said. NEC is a global leader in such technologies, including identification using facial images, iris scans, fingerprints, palm prints, finger vein, voice and ear acoustics, and has supplied more than 700 systems in over 70 countries and regions.

The price tag on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games is expected to be around $15 billion with security being the biggest outlay. The London Olympics wound up costing about $800 million in the security budget alone while the Rio Olympics cost around $600 million with about 85,000 personnel involved in providing round-the-clock security with the Brazilian government involving the army and its sophisticated security systems.

By employing face recognition system the organisers can cut down on the total number of security personnel involved at the check points and also reduce use of paper for identity and accreditation cards, thus reducing costs for the Olympic Games.