Facial Analysis Technology: Core applications in retail, gaming and banking

Shopping, banking and gaming are all part of everyday life where facial analysis technology for age verification & facial recognition applications have a positive role to play.

Facial analysis technology uses algorithms to map facial features. Our ICU Intelligent Identification system performs non-intrusive facial analysis for age verification and face recognition.

Our edge solution uses local edge processing to give a fast response with a high level of assurance. Utilising our own algorithms this biometric solution offers a facial recognition accuracy of 99.88%* as tested by The Labeled Faces in the Wild public benchmark.  The technology has also been independently certified by the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) resulting in an average underestimation for ICU of only 0.19 years.

(*Source: Labeled Faces in the Wild, LFW)

ICU can benefit a vast number of industries

Now facial analysis is being put to a positive use in retail circumstances. A UK Government programme is looking at age verification technology for the retail sale of alcohol.

We provide a range of biometric solutions designed to estimate age and our ICU Intelligent Identification system is approved for use in the trial.

The system can be used at the checkout installed alongside Point Of Sale with the screen facing the customer and the outcome visible to staff. Once a customer’s face is analysed, the screen will flash green if above 25 or red if 25 or under, alerting staff that further age verification is required.

While the government’s five-month, regulatory ‘Sandbox’ trial still requires humans to check customers’ ages, the technology is helping retailers abide by the law to prevent alcohol being mis-sold to anyone underage.

Dr Andrew O’Brien, ITL’s ICU Product Manager, says: “We are delighted to be accepted into the UK Government Sandbox scheme and see all our hard work undertaken over the past few months come to fruition. Our team have liaised with local licensing authorities, local police officers and local councils to ensure our solution (ICU) is both safe, legal and meets the criteria of the scheme.”

“ICU performs anonymous age estimation completely offline, so no images or data are stored, maintaining privacy. We design and train our own algorithms to check age and the accuracy of our solution has been independently tested by the Age Check Certification Service (ACCS), which found that it underestimates age by only 0.19 years, which establishes ICU as the most accurate independently tested system worldwide.”

Tony Allen, Founder and Chief Executive of ACCS, says “Facial analysis software essentially uses different features of a customer’s face to evaluate and establish their age. The technology behind the ICU age verification device earned independent recognition from the ACCS during a series of accuracy tests which took place in April 2021, concluding that their solution is fit for deployment in a Challenge 25 policy area.”

The Sandbox trial provides an opportunity for age verification technology to be tested in a small, controlled environment. It tests the practical use of age verification technology in real world situations to gain a better understanding of the implications.

Helping to tackle the abuse of shop workers

Staff abuse is rife in the convenience channel, with the Association of Convenience Stores’ 2021 Crime Report highlighting that there were over a million incidents of verbal abuse and about 40,000 incidents of violence against people working in convenience stores in the past year alone. In addition, the British Retail Consortium wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, highlighting a 76% rise in the abuse of shop workers during the pandemic, and citing identity checks on people buying alcohol as one of the trigger points.

The technology has exciting potential use cases in retail, particularly when it comes to protecting staff from abuse.

Andrew continued: “A core objective is to understand the impact such technology can have in helping to reduce any potential abuse and aggression directed at staff who refuse underage customers attempting to buy alcohol.”

“We believe this simple tool will have a significant impact to support retailers in adhering to the 2003 Licensing Act. From large supermarket chains to corner shops, we have ensured our product is accessible for all with simple deployment and minimal resources required. Plus, ICU has no recurring transaction fees, we do not charge per age estimation making it a cost-effective solution.”

Other uses in the retail industry

Another use is what is known as frictionless shopping, which allows shoppers to pay for their purchases by scanning their faces. The most high profile example of this is the six Amazon Fresh stores in the UK, where customers scan a quick response code as they enter the shop then put their items in their bag. Cameras and sensors then detect what they have picked and shoppers walk out with their purchases, which are then charged to their account.

Although relatively uncommon, it has been reported that Amazon is looking to expand its Fresh estate to 260 stores over the next three years.

There are other potential uses in retail, although not particularly widespread at the moment. At the opposite end of the scale from shoplifters, facial recognition makes it easy to spot VIP customers, providing the opportunity for personalised shopping experiences.

Facial analysis even has the ability to make digital advertising more targeted by estimating people’s age and gender. In the US, companies like Tesco are already planning on installing screens at petrol stations with facial analysis built in. ICU can be used for targeted advertising to specific demographics by gender or age and can provide useful information such as how long a particular cohort engages with the advert. Again this is performed anonymously so avoids any privacy issues.

Taking the gamble out of underage gaming

In much the same way as facial analysis is used for age verification in retail, it’s use in gaming has a similarly positive part to play.

Our ICU Intelligent Identification solution offers age estimation and several facial recognition based biometric access control functions.

The technology works by scanning the faces of players signing in to age-related games to check their age. Anyone who refuses, or fails face verification, is treated as a minor.

The technology can be used to combat the growing issue of addiction too. A study commissioned by Gamble Aware – an independent charity tasked by the government to commission research into gambling – found there were 55,000 problem gamblers under the age of 16 in the UK.

If you want to read more about combating underage gambling, our ICU product manager, Dr Andrew O’Brien, shares his in-depth thoughts here. And ITL’s white paper titled ‘Age verification: determining age using facial features’ outlines the challenges in anonymously estimating a person’s actual age from physical cues in their appearance.

We are also showcasing our ICU technology at the International Gambling and Gaming Trade Show in Madrid.

Mustapha Hadj-Ahmed, ITL Sales Director, says: “Using non-intrusive facial analysis technologies customers can control access and perform age verification at entrances to gaming venues, at individual machines or betting terminals.”

Biometrics in banking

A survey by Experian, the consumer credit reporting company, last year found that consumers are embracing new methods of security, saying that biometric security is just as secure as passwords.

In fact, of the 9,000 consumers and 2,700 companies surveyed, passwords did not rank among the three most secure ways to protect identity. Instead, physical biometrics, such as facial recognition and fingerprints, were cited instead, as was voice recognition.

Our specially trained algorithms can detect photographs and videos/images on mobile devices to prevent fraud attempts adding an extra layer of security. ICU can be used for photo ID verification, where a face can be matched to a face on an ID, giving a secure, multi factored authentication approach. For example, cash machine transactions. New biometric technology has brought about machines that use iris or facial recognition technology that not only requires the debit card, but also an iris scan, before allowing you to complete the transaction.

Our Solutions

Our ICU biometric solutions use local processing to provide a fast response with a high level of assurance.

Visit Our Products page for the full details and benefits of our two facial recognition technology options:

ICU Pro – which performs age verification and facial recognition based functions on a machine, or a controlled entry such as electronic gates, barriers and restricted premises.

ICU Lite – which adds age verification and facial recognition based functions to a machine such as a self checkout, or a betting terminal.

Both use our proprietary algorithms, design, trained and fine tuned by ourselves.

We do not use publicly available datasets for training or tuning like many other systems, favouring our own extensive datasets especially chosen to reduce gender and ethnic bias. Our algorithms are not publicly available, which makes our system, and customer data more secure.

And both include spoof detection, the importance of which is featured in the blog ‘Spoof: A barrier to the acceptance of facial recognition systems’ by our ICU Product Manager Dr Andrew O’Brien.

You can request a free trial of our products by completing our contact us form.