Tapway launches facial recognition solution for brick-and-mortar businesses

PETALING JAYA, Selangor: Tapway has launched FaceTrack, a facial recognition solution for businesses that have physical locations such as retail stores, banks, and hotels.

With FaceTrack, businesses can detect faces and have the images processed so they can gain insights to help them improve customer experience, enhance security at their premises, and streamline operations.

Currently in beta version, FaceTrack is suitable for smalland medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large enterprises in any industry including retail, banking, hospitality, and healthcare.

Offered as a package that consists of camera devices, software, a server hardware, services, and online subscriptions, FaceTrack is available only in Malaysia at this time.

Lim Chee How, CEO of Tapway said, “We’re leveraging on facial recognition technology because of its capabilities to address certain issues surrounding customer experience, security at physical locations, and their operations. What’s interesting is that FaceTrack is available for businesses in any industry. Its release further strengthens our commitment as a provider of behavioral tracking solutions in the country.”

Currently, FaceTrack is being tested at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur for tracking demographics such as the age range and gender of people in front of an advertising screen.

The Company plans to conduct more pilot tests in other locations in the coming months.

“Included in the FaceTrack solution package are camera devices. However, if a customer already has sufficient surveillance cameras installed, those can be integrated easily with Tapway’s software system provided they support Real Time Streaming Protocol ( RTSP).

“This is an advantage we are offering to customers – a system that is interoperable with a variety of camera devices,” explained Lim.

Tapway has also partnered with Amazon WebServices (AWS) where images that have been detected and qualified using Tapway’s own artificial intelligence software are sent to Amazon Rekognition to be analysed. This process is to determine the age range, gender, and emotions in addition to having the faces identified.

All faces that go through the identification process at AWS will receive their own face ID that are encrypted to protect the privacy of the individuals.

FaceTrack can benefit businesses in a variety of ways. For example, in retail, a brand can use a Whitelist feature to alert a store assistant when a VIP customer steps into the store, so he can react accordingly such as make personalised greetings and offer product recommendations based on the customer’s interest.