How should face recognition technology be used in railway companies?Security and privacy issues, or "face pass"?

Face recognition or face recognition techniques have been used in many places in recent years. While it is attracting attention as a technology for security, the balance with personal privacy is also an issue.

The news that caused the ripples was the "Yomiuri Shimbun" recently.

Detect by registering face information such as the source in station crime prevention

The morning edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun dated September 21 reported that JR East has been taking security measures since July to detect prisoners using facial recognition cameras. It is said that it will detect people who have committed serious crimes in the station premises of JR East in the past, have been sentenced to prison, suspects who are wanted, and people who have taken suspicious behavior.

After this report came out, it announced that it would stop detecting the source and the person who was paroleed.

Originally, JR East announced on July 6 that it would introduce a face recognition camera to detect suspicious persons and suspects who were wanted for the reasons such as the anti-terrorism measures of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The person who committed a serious crime in the station yard of JR East was not disclosed. Information on this was to be provided by the Public Prosecutors Office under the "Victim Notification System", and there were no registrants yet.

In response to the media reports, many pointed out that it would limit the behavior of the source and the right to privacy. Face detection of suspects and suspicious persons will continue.

There were various opinions on the internet about this. Many agree with JR East's face detection policy. The main reason is that the station cannot be used safely unless such a thing is done.

The author thinks that the use of face detection technology in the station yard as a crime prevention measure is beyond the framework of a private company. The detection of suspicious persons is nothing more than monitoring, and the face detection of suspects who are wanted is also considered to be excessive as a "public transportation" that requires some kind of neutrality. Of course, it's not that the police who are trying to arrest the suspect are installing many surveillance cameras in the city, but it is impossible to ask the railway company to take such measures. Neither "public" equals "country" nor "police", but the area covered by the word "public" is broader. It is unavoidable that this makes it difficult to obtain social consensus.

Shouldn't face recognition or face recognition techniques be used where they are more useful? It is important to leave the crime prevention measures to the police who have the authority. There is also a railroad police force on the railroad, and they are doing their best to prevent crime on the railroad. The division of duties should be important here, and it is impossible for JR East to prevent crime.

On the other hand, some railway companies utilize face recognition technology for railway-like purposes.

Is it possible to pass the ticket gate with a "face pass"?

On September 30, JR Tokai conducted a demonstration experiment of "face pass" technology at some ticket gates at Shinagawa Station and Nagoya Station on the Tokaido Shinkansen to verify the feasibility of services utilizing face recognition technology. It was announced that it will start on November 12th for club employees.

In the experiment, when using some ticket gates, face recognition is used to check whether or not they are some employees, and whether or not they are registered. This time, the usage will be determined by the IC card, and the entry / exit of the ticket gate will be determined based on the information of the usage date and section reserved in advance.

In this demonstration experiment, face recognition is performed even when a general passenger passes within the range of face recognition, a face image is acquired, and the facial feature amount is calculated. These data will be deleted immediately.

Why do you conduct such a demonstration experiment? According to the announcement by JR Central, in order to verify the feasibility of passing through the ticket gate by face recognition, we are currently selling users-only products that require the submission of discount certificates and the presentation of certificates online and making them ticketless. It is said that this is to acquire necessary data and extract issues. "Zipangu Club", discounts for people with disabilities, student discounts, etc. are expected.

Rather, this is more appropriate for face recognition as a railway company or for utilizing face recognition technology.

Panasonic and Yamaman are conducting a demonstration experiment on a railway boarding system that uses face recognition technology. An authentication system will be installed at the ticket gates of all 6 stations on the Yukarigaoka Line, and the identity will be verified before passing through the ticket gates. The demonstration experiment started on September 15. The system uses the ticket management system of Jordan, a major route search company.

Register your face image etc. in the dedicated smartphone application in advance and go through the ticket gate. Yukarigaoka Line cannot use transportation IC cards, so until now, we had to buy paper tickets.

In addition, a tablet-type face recognition system has been introduced for local buses in this area, so a similar system can be used.

Isn't this more appropriate for using the face recognition system of public transportation? It would be more positive to think of utilizing new technology to improve passenger convenience as a way to use the technology.