A look behind the new facial recognition technology at Twins stadium

NINA MOINI: Well, today is the Twins home opener at Target Field. And fans are going to have an option to get into the stadium hands-free with facial recognition technology. It's called Go-Ahead Entry. And the Twins are one of nine MLB teams using the technology. Joining us to explain this technology is Manjeet Rege, the director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas. Thank you very much for being here with us.

MANJEET REGE: Sure, absolutely. My pleasure.

NINA MOINI: I am wondering, director, how does this technology work?

MANJEET REGE: Sure. So how it works is fans upload a selfie to the MLB Ballpark app, which converts the image into a unique numerical token linked to their account. So no pictures are stored, addressing privacy concerns. The technology speeds up entry, processing fans 2.5 times faster than traditional ticket-scanning methods. And it also accommodates groups and allowing families or parties to enter together in a seamless manner.

NINA MOINI: Do you think that this helps with security? Is it more about just swiftness, efficiency, like you were saying, or is it also a security measure?

MANJEET REGE: So the Go-Ahead Entry system integrates facial authentication with the free-flow security screening technology. So this ensures that fans entering the stadium are pre-verified and, as a result, reducing opportunities for unauthorized access or even ticket fraud.

Facial recognition provides now very precise and automated identification of attendees. So by matching a fan's face to their unique numerical token, the system ensures that only registered individuals with valid tickets can enter. And if you think about it in terms of traditional manual checks, those can be prone to errors or oversights, especially during high-traffic events.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

MANJEET REGE: So this basically, apart from speeding up the process-- this also verifies that the person who is supposed to enter the stadium is entering and not somebody else.

NINA MOINI: I wonder, in your work, such a fascinating, even, place that you work, the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence-- how has your work developed over the past five or 10 years? I feel like I just have started hearing about artificial intelligence.

MANJEET REGE: Right. So AI has been around for a very long time. And in recent times, we have seen two major booms in AI, one that occurred in around 2012 that led to deep learning models. So for example, when you log on to social media and your face automatically gets tagged or gets recognized, when you look at your phone and the phone unlocks itself, or your smart thermostat that learns automatically when you enter the house and when you leave-- then the second wave started in the end of 2022. And that is the generative AI. So that is about generating new content. So ChatGPTs or-- so you're expressing something in English. And that creates, whether it is code, images, videos, and text--

NINA MOINI: And so as this continues to grow and be utilized in these settings with lots and lots of people, we do know that Mall of America has implemented a similar system, I believe. Do you think that this is going to be the new normal and in bigger crowd settings?

MANJEET REGE: Yeah. So with the accuracy of facial recognition technology really increasing these days-- so for example, in MLB's application, they are using this system called NEC's NeoFace system that has an accuracy of about 99.85% and which is one of the best facial recognition systems out there.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

MANJEET REGE: So as a result, apart from accuracy, it enhances overall crowd management, recognition of people. So we are going to see a number of applications out there. Of course, as long as we conform to individual privacy and security, I see applications of this to payment systems, for example-- every time we carry our credit cards, you use your face to make a payment, for example-- or driver monitoring or vehicle access. The moment you sit in the car, the car recognizes whether it is you or some other family member driving. And accordingly, the seat can get adjusted.

Healthcare settings, as well-- every time we are in the health setting, somebody will ask you to verify your name, date of birth. That could be automated as well. Education and online learning-- online learning is big these days. Whether we are able to keep up with whether a student is paying attention or there are certain points during the lesson where somebody might be drifting away-- so there are a lot of applications where this can be used for enhancing our lives.

NINA MOINI: And right now, I should mention at Target Field, if I didn't already, that it's optional right now. Perhaps it will become the standard and required in the future. I don't know. But I am curious to know that in your work, do you also focus on how individual sports teams or companies or whomever can ensure that the public trust is there and that they're really explaining this to the people who use their services, because I do feel like there's questions around regulation and just a lot of mistrust and just a lack of understanding?

MANJEET REGE: Right. And you rightly pointed out currently at Target Field, this is voluntary participation. So people can still go in the traditional, usual route. But one good point that you absolutely bring up is about trust. If people do not trust the technology, they will not be participating in it. And if they do not participate, more data is not collected. And as a result, the technology cannot improve over a period of time as well.

So transparency and trust is very important. In our work in AI research, that is one of the things that we always look at-- that is, addressing concerns about bias in facial recognition systems, and also improving facial recognition accuracy under different conditions, like poor lighting, occlusions, non-frontal angles. These are all active areas of research that we always work on.

NINA MOINI: Amazing. Thank you so much for stopping by. We hope you'll come back and share more about this, this growing technology, with us.

MANJEET REGE: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: Manjeet Rege, thank you, the director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas.