Facial recognition eyed in Tokyo Olympics

While the jury is still out on the extent to which facial recognition technology will be used globally years from now, many tech firms are continuing to push ahead with its development, with big players like Apple going so far as to incorporate it into its flagship iPhone X handset.

Now the organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics is taking notice of the technology, and wants to use it on a huge scale at the global sporting extravaganza, sources told the Japan Times recently.

Developed by NEC Corp., the committee said the system would aid security by eliminating the problem of forged or stolen ID cards, and also speed up the flow of athletes, officials, and media personnel entering the various venues. It’s estimated the system will manage up to 400,000 people, marking the biggest ever deployment of facial recognition technology at an Olympic Games.

To set up the system, photos of faces will need to be submitted to a database so the technology can compare them with the faces of athletes and workers when they arrive at a venue.

The logistics of the system have been deemed too challenging to operate for spectators, who will be asked to show their tickets at venue entrances as usual.

With the Olympics still more than two years away, the technology is expected to be refined through testing to prevent any delays at the gate that could cause inconvenience and stress to athletes preparing for possibly the biggest moment in their sporting careers.

NEC has been developing facial recognition technology for many years, and in 2014 hit the headlines with a system called NeoFace that apparently helped the Chicago Police Department to track down a suspected criminal. NeoFace analyzes faces in live-streaming security footage and searches for identical faces in its database, alerting the authorities to any matches.