Ticketmaster developing facial recognition system that could replace tickets

System will need exceptionally low level of false positives and negatives to be viable

Live Nation, the company behind the Ticketmaster brand, is developing a facial recognition system that, it claims, could in future be used instead of tickets.

The company has teamed up with Austin, Texas-based biometrics company Blink Identity to develop a new facial recognition system that, they claim, could replace conventional tickets.

The company revealed the development as it unveiled its financial results last week, but did not say when the system might actually be completed.

"It is very notable that today we announce our partnership with, and investment in, Blink Identity which has cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show," claimed the company.

As the Blink Identity website indicates, its facial recognition technology needs little input from users. It recognises and logs their identities as they walk past.

Within half a second, the company claims that its technology can take an image of somebody's face and compare it to a database of images. Once this has been done, the ticket holder is positively identified and can enter the event.

"Our revolutionary identity in motion product identifies people as they walk past a sensor at full walking speed, enabling frictionless identification," claims the company on its website.

"The founding team has spent the last decade building and deploying large scale biometric identification systems in the Middle East for the [US] Department of Defense and are bringing their expertise to the commercial market to provide security, access control and VIP customer experiences to the commercial market.

While facial recognition systems are far from new, they still suffer from a high level of false positives and negatives, on top of the obvious privacy issues.

However, that has not stopped organisations around the world from rolling out such systems

Last week, it was revealed that Singapore's Changi Airport is testing a facial recognition system that, the airport's authorities claim, could eventually replace passports.

Aimed at improving efficiencies at the airport, the technology could also be used to ensure people do not get lost and make it to their flight on time.

Speaking to Reuters, Changi Airport Group CIO Steve Lee said: "We have lots of reports of lost passengers, so one possible use case we can think of is, we need to detect and find people who are [supposed to be] on the flight. Of course, with permission from the airlines.

"Today you take passport, you show your face and you show your boarding pass. Then actually in future, you just take your face. You don't need your passport."