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Industry@Work
By Michelle Bowles The products you see in each issue of this magazine no doubt are saving lives, and that's an invaluable task. But at the risk of sounding unsatisfied, what else can they do? ImageWare Systems and Carnival Cruise Lines asked that very question, and the answer they came up with was nothing short of brilliant.
A Unique Approach If you've ever been on a major commercial cruise, you're all too familiar with the tedious process associated with finding and purchasing photos taken while aboard the ship. The ship's photographers take thousands of pictures each time at sea -- typically 30,000 pictures per cruise, said Jim Miller, chairman and CEO of ImageWare. Photos are then posted on a wall for passengers to search through. On the two Carnival ships involved in the program, a photo-retrieval kiosk is provided. Passengers simply step up to a touchscreen at the kiosk and present their faces. The image is captured by facial-recognition technology and compared to each face in every photo taken -- both individual and group shots. The photos are then presented to the passenger on the touchscreen, where they can choose the ones they'd like to purchase. "It's very simple and easy to use," Miller said. "The whole idea was to take biometrics and enhance community photo sales. It's a very novel approach." This new application has turned a monotonous chore into something that can be accomplished in a minute's time. On average, Miller said, each passenger is at the kiosk only one to two minutes. "Instead of doing all of these things by hand, let's let the machine do it," he said. "There are a lot of non-security applications that want to use it." "The traditional way is a little bit of a daunting task," he said. "This is a painless way to push a button and have everything sorted for you."
It's A Success "The kiosk idea was just designed to make a successful idea even more successful," he said. After looking around the biometrics market for a company that could provide a solution to its vision, Carnival approached ImageWare, Miller said. Carnival needed to be able to search a large number of photos very quickly, and with ImageWare's security background, it was able to do this. The identity management solutions provider agreed to take part, and the rest -- as they say -- is history. So far, the program has seen one success after another. In fact, Miller said, the program is so popular with passengers that they're willing to wait in line to use the kiosks. "If you can give a product that someone will wait in line for, then it's a success," Miller said. "It's a big hit because people like the ease of use. It's fun." Carnival has expressed satisfaction with the program, Miller said, and ImageWare is very pleased that the passengers using the kiosks are truly enjoying them. "We try to create products that are useful and useable," he said. "They have to be very straightforward and capable of yielding high-quality results over and over again. We've spent lots of time focusing on that, and this application demonstrates that." This successful pilot program may be incorporated into several more Carnival ships very soon. ImageWare is now in the process of working with Carnival to decide when and where to roll out the program, Miller said. Security features also may be incorporated into the photo-retrieval kiosks in the future.
What More Can We Ask For? The Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles is using ImageWare's Biometric Engine to eliminate duplicate driver's licenses being issued, Miller said. By using biometrics, DMV employees can tell if an applicant has applied for a license in another city under another name. The Carnival photo-retrieval kiosk program has shown that photography is one area in which biometrics can really make a different in terms of customer convenience. Any application that involves a photographer taking a large number of pictures could truly benefit from the use of biometrics, Miller said. School photographers are the perfect example, he said. These photographers take multiple shots of hundreds of children. Instead of sorting the pictures by hand, it can be done automatically with biometrics. Special event photographers, amusement parks and resorts are already beginning to see the endless possibilities. "Instead of doing all of these things by hand, let's let the machine do it," he said. "There are a lot of non-security applications that want to use it." On the grand scale, biometric technologies may be protecting more people and property than we can calculate. But we can't ignore the fact that they're also making our everyday lives a whole lot easier. |
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