NEC to Provide Facial Recognition Technology for Mitsui Fudosan Hotels

NEC Corporation, an integrator of IT and network technologies, announced it will provide a "Smart Hospitality Service" utilizing facial recognition technology for "Sequence," a newly developed hotel brand by Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsui Fudosan Hotel Management.

NEC's "Smart Hospitality Service" helps to ensure safe, secure, and efficient stays by utilizing facial recognition technology for a wide range of services, including check-in, entering rooms and entertainment facilities, and making cashless payments. Each of these services helps to improve the convenience of hotels, to relieve stress, and to promote a more comfortable experience and stay.

The service links pre-registered facial information with reservation information in advance, allowing guests to complete check-in smoothly and simply with a tablet device equipped with facial recognition. Also, when entering their rooms, guests can unlock the door with just facial recognition, thereby eliminating the need for keys and the concern of having to replace them if they are lost or stolen.

Facial recognition is at the core of NEC's portfolio of biometric identification technologies, "Bio-IDiom," (*1) and utilizes NEC's facial recognition AI engine "NeoFace," which has the world's No.1 certification accuracy (*2).

This service will be available for registered guests who agree to the use of facial recognition. Facial information will not be saved nor used for verification without confirming a guest's consent.

Hotels with Face Recognition:
Sequence, MIYASHITA PARK (June 2020)
Sequence, KYOTO GOJO (July 2020)
Sequence | SUIDOBASHI (provisional name, expected to open in the fall of 2020)
*Sequence, MIYASHITA PARK only provides facial recognition at check-in.

In the future, NEC aims to expand the range of its "Smart Hospitality Service," enabling guests to go sightseeing directly from the airport by checking-in through facial recognition and having baggage delivered to the hotel.

NEC's "Smart Hospitality Service" allows information on the status of people, things, and processes to be shared across the entire value chain, helping to realize "NEC Value Chain Innovation."

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Notes:

• (*1)

Bio-IDiom
https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/biometrics/index.html

• (*2)

NEC Face Recognition Technology Ranks First in NIST Accuracy Testing
https://www.nec.com/en/press/201910/global_20191003_01.html