“Osaka Metro officials’ goal is to bring these biometric eGates to all train stations by 2024, in time for the 2025 World Expo, which is slated to take place in the city.”
Osaka Metro Co., the operator of the city’s subway system, has begun trialling biometric eGates. The automated eGates operate based on facial recognition, and are designed to open as they identify registered commuters as they walk toward the turnstiles.
Speaking to The Japan Times, an Osaka Metro official explained that the eGates will benefit people like the elderly and those with strollers, along them to proceed through the turnstile without having to put anything down. “We want to improve the station environment by introducing new technologies,” the official said.
The current trial began in November and is scheduled to run until next September. It will involve 1,200 employees of Osaka Metro. Technologies used in the eGates were provided by Omron Social Solutions, Takamisawa Cybernetics, Nippon Signal, and Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions.
Osaka Metro officials’ goal is to bring these biometric eGates to all train stations by 2024, in time for the 2025 World Expo, which is slated to take place in the city. The effort mirrors similar biometric projects underway elsewhere in the country as Japanese officials prepare to accommodate an influx of tourists for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; such efforts include the growing use of facial recognition at airports, and a plan to let foreign visitors check into hotels and make payments via fingerprint scan.
Source: The Japan Times
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December 10, 2019 – by Alex Perala
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