Ready-made biometric solution Id-Guard
The shopping center experienced difficulties with ensuring security: a large territory and limited human resources. The employees were unable to cover all areas – many thefts remained unnoticed. In search of a way out of the current situation, the management of the mall opted for improving the IT infrastructure by implementing software for recognition based on facial biometrics Id-Guard designed by RecFaces.
The ready-made solution operates with both video stream and archive. In the first case, real-time identification of undesirable people is implemented: suspicious persons from the list of unwanted individuals or stop-lists are recognized at the entrance to the mall, and the system sends a notification to the security officer to the monitoring screen, phone, email or tablet via a special mobile application. Id-Guard solves the problem of the impact of the human factor. The system is capable of recognizing people in the stream and storing biometric data in the database. The solution also allows one to construct a trajectory of human movements on the object. Working with the video archive is used in the investigation of incidents. With the help of intelligent search by biometric data, the system finds the required individuals in the archive in a matter of seconds. In the operation process, reports are automatically generated on the identifications in the video stream, gender, age, as well as monitoring compliance with the mask regime at the facility.
Id-Guard successfully functions with the leading video surveillance systems. The installation takes no more than 20 minutes. The open API that comes with the software makes it easy to integrate the product into any third-party systems.
The biometric solution Id-Guard reduced the number of shoplifting from 30% to 50% in the first few months after its implementation. Security officials are now able not only to stop the committed violations, but also to prevent the new ones. The shopping center which is additionally equipped with facial biometrics, quickly becomes unattractive for shoplifters as they are instantly detected and included in the stop-list. Thus, facial recognition software increases the effectiveness of security personnel.
The implementation of the solution is carried out with the participation of the developer company for the prompt elimination of the controversial and complicated aspects of a particular project. The areas of application of Id-Guard are practically unlimited. Shopping malls remain one of the promising ones.
Work on the project and the solution
The management of the shopping center drew attention to the face recognition technology Id-Guard. Its potential completely covered both security and theft prevention needs on the territory of the mall.
In cooperation with the technology partner, cameras with facial recognition technology were installed within the shopping center. Special attention was paid to covering blind spots and places with high traffic. The system is seamlessly integrated with the video surveillance system which allows security services to identify suspects previously involved in criminal activities. During the Id-Guard operation, a biometric archive is generated: with a large amount of data, the requirements for the size of disc storage are minimal compared to classic video archives.
The project implementation process took a short time — less than a year. A team of RecFaces experts trained specialists of the integrator company and the shopping center in order to enhance the quality of product operation. Once launched, technical support is provided, as well as software updates are carried out annually for both the facial recognition algorithms utilized and the system.
Key advantages
The software biometric solution Id-Guard helps security personnel identify persons from the stop-list in real time, and also quickly investigate incidents within the shopping mall. Notifications about the presence of a potential offender come to the system interface, to mobile apps on Android-based devices, as well as to the phone as an SMS. Biometric technologies integrated into the video surveillance system help not only to detain shoplifters, but also to prevent stealing by being proactive.
The efficiency of working with stop-lists is increased due to the recognition in the stream. The system identifies an unwanted person at the entrance to the shopping center and, if necessary, determines their further movements leveraging data from surveillance cameras located in the mall. In the process of work, a centralized database of biometric data is created within the retail chain. The storage capacity is quite large, but it does not occupy much space.
The investigation of incidents is accelerated due to the biometric archive. The security service does not need to manually view the videos. It’s enough to enter the available data: upload a photo of the violator, input the approximate time of the incident or filter by other parameters, such as hair color, presence of glasses, mask and other attributes. The system will automatically give the result — it will identify the personality and help determine the direction of movements around the building by displaying a map of movements. Inside the archive, the data is ranked by date, trading floor area and time.
Results
The implementation of the project included the preparation of system architecture for the correct placement of equipment in the shopping center. Based on the activity levels of the visitors, a layout of video surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition function through Id-Guard was elaborated. Areas with high traffic, blind spots, that is, places that had previously been unseen in the video surveillance zone, were taken into account. While selecting the locations of video surveillance cameras, some certain challenges were met, but thanks to the Id-Guard settings, it was possible to adapt the product to the tasks of a specific mall and achieve maximum efficiency from the software used.
The result of using software based on facial biometrics was evident in a noticeable decrease in the number of shoplifting and other minor offenses within the shopping center. A drastic decrease in the first few months is noteworthy. In the future, shoplifting cases will be reduced up to 70%.
The implementation of biometric facial recognition has become an effective deterrent for potential offenders. The percentage of the primary thefts has decreased to 30% of the number of earlier recorded, while the repeated ones — up to 50%. The reason lies in the prompt response to the incident and the inclusion of biometric data about offenders into the database of unwanted individuals, who are being closely monitored. The economic effect of the implementation was rapidly felt by retail representatives.
In the process of implementing the project, the RecFaces company conducted personalized training for employees of the shopping center to work with the system, as well as provided a free demo to test the solution and verify its effectiveness at the facility. After launch, technical support is provided for the efficient operation of the biometric solution. Software updates are carried out once a year.