An Age Verification SDK for Self-Checkout to Enhance Customer Flow

Facial Recognition-Powered Age Verification SDK for Self-Checkout

Fujitsu, a multinational technology and telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, offers a wide range of technology products, solutions, and services across various industries. Having a history of successful collaborations on multiple projects by combining Monstarlab's agile innovation culture with Fujitsu's expertise and capabilities, they have now partnered with Fujitsu's UK branch to develop a system utilizing facial recognition technology. The goal of this collaboration is to enhance the age verification experience at self-checkout registers in retail stores such as supermarkets.

Challenges:

The introduction of self-checkout registers in retail stores has significantly contributed to enhancing customer experience and streamlining operations. However, when purchasing age-restricted items such as alcohol and tobacco, staff intervention remains essential, which is the biggest obstacle to a smooth self-checkout experience.

In fact, age verification tasks account for 70% of self-checkout procedures, and the increased burden of these checks has led to higher store operating costs.

Furthermore, the dialogue and waiting times associated with age verification have resulted in decreased customer satisfaction and lost shopping opportunities. Additionally, existing age verification systems posed challenges regarding offline usability and privacy protection.

Solutions:

To solve this challenge, Monstarlab and Fujitsu's UK branch collaborated to develop an age verification system as an SDK (*), which can be integrated into retailers' apps and kiosk software.

This SDK utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, facial recognition, and photo matching to provide an ethical and consistent customer experience, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. It visually assesses the customer's age and, in cases where a reliable determination cannot be made, performs identity verification using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology for ID checks or high-resolution photos extracted from passport chips.

Furthermore, recognizing that internet connectivity can be an issue in many retail locations, the SDK was designed to operate not only online but also offline, with processing completed directly on the device. To respect user privacy, the system is designed in compliance with GDPR regulations, ensuring that personal data is never transmitted or stored outside the user's device.

*SDK: A Software Development Kit, a set of tools and components necessary for websites and applications.

Results:

The developed SDK, compatible with both iOS and Android, can be easily implemented into existing apps and POS systems and has been adopted by many self-checkout registers.

By automating the age verification process at self-checkouts, the burden on staff has been significantly reduced. It provides a smooth age verification experience, contributing to improved customer satisfaction and reduced store operating costs.

Furthermore, its strong privacy protection features have earned customer trust, and it has enabled the delivery of a consistent customer experience regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity.

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