Fujitsu Deploys Improved Face and Palm Recognition Tech in Contactless Concept Store

Fujitsu is now trialing a contactless payment system that will allow people to make in-store purchases without removing their masks. The system combines Fujitsu’s palm vein technology with an improved facial recognition system that achieves the same level of accuracy with masked and unmasked faces.

The new facial recognition system was developed in response to COVID-19. Once a face has been registered, it is able to generate a composite image that shows what an individual’s face would look like with a mask, taking facial landmarks and contours into account. The solution can then compare a new scan of a masked face to that image to perform a match. The filtering system was more than 99 percent accurate in a recent round of NIST testing, which was good enough to secure the sixth spot out of the 147 solutions that were evaluated.

Fujitsu has also updated its palm vein authentication system to make the technology more user-friendly. More specifically, the company has added a palm-shaped light to the scanner that will let users know when their palm is in the right position. The light will be blue when the hand is too far away, red when it is too close, and green when it is at the proper height and the scanner can proceed with the biometric match.

Both biometric systems have now been deployed at a cashless concept store at the Fujitsu Technology Square office in Shin-Kawasaki, Japan. The store is part of the Lawson convenience store chain, and is part of Fujitsu’s contactless payment collaboration with Zippin. The two companies are hoping the system will be ready for wider use before the end of 2021.

Fujistu has been working towards naked payments for several years, and first combined its face and palm vein authentication technology back in 2018. The company bolstered its facial recognition solution with the addition of passive liveness detection in September.

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January 22, 2021 – by Eric Weiss