NEC ALP Uses Facial DETECTION — Not Recognition — To Make Your Signage More Marketable

There’s facial recognition, and there’s facial detection. Many integrator customers of NEC — maker of the NEC ALP signage platform — don’t know the difference, but it is critical to the security of the platform and how it is sold to end user clients who care about data security.

For those who need a quick recapitulation: detection involves using an algorithm within a camera to capture age and gender, while recognition captures this and more data and stores it somewhere. For IT departments, it’s the storage of the data which often presents security concerns.

Related: Business Enhancements Via Analytics: What Integrators Must Know About NEC ALP Pro

But with detection, that’s not a concern.

“It places the geometry of a face, captures the age and gender information, and within 256 milliseconds, that information is analyzed, any video data is deleted, and just that age and gender information is stored in the cloud,” says NEC analytics platform strategist Kelly Harlin.

Integrators and customers are already starting to understand the power of having real-time business intelligence at their fingertips, so it is all the more important for integrators to dispel any notions of insecure data right from the technology pitch.

The Little Data NEC ALP Does Capture is Secure, Too

The little data the NEC platform does collect is captured and stored on a local Azure cloud. Each user has their own instance, and the data is accessible only to the end user. None of that information is shared or used to train other data sets, says Harlin.

What Else Is Notable about NEC ALP?

• The platform is GDPR compliant
• On-premise server/physically-stored data enhances signage data security (no data leaves the brick-and-mortar location)
• No USB cameras are used, increasing device security
• No images leave

Learn more about the NEC ALP Platform and facial detection here, and be sure to watch the video above for more of a breakdown of the technology.

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