Season-ticket holders at a Belgian football club will soon be going through facial recognition at the turnstiles. Although the project is still in the test phase, fans of the fourth-tier club RWD Molenbeek in Brussels ordering their season tickets online can already upload an ID photo. This photo will be compared in real time with images taken by two cameras installed in the season-ticket holders’ queue at the stadium entrance. An automatic gate will be installed in early 2019.
Spectators who have forgotten their paper ticket can still enter the stadium. Those who haven’t uploaded a photo, or who have borrowed an entry ticket, will still have to pass through the conventional gates and show their ticket at the turnstiles. The system was installed by Zetes using Panasonic facial recognition software. Thierry Dailly, chairman of RWDM, says: “The detection system, with its fast and reliable data processing facility, means we can install a system to speed up entry checks to the stadium.”
Alain Wirtz, CEO of Zetes, adds: “This project is a perfect example of how we can benefit from the innovative capabilities provided by the Panasonic group, owner of Zetes. Zetes specialises in this identification technology, which has many different applications. We hope this project can act as a shop window for our products.” The pilot project will run for about a year.
Supporters’ photos are scanned and stored on an RWDM server, which is not connected to the internet or to any other system. Only RWDM-authorised personnel have access to the data. Data collected by the entrance gate cameras is not recorded.
