In the 2018 Biometric Technology Rally, Herta came out as one of the top 3 facial recognition vendors, among the highest scores for efficiency, customer satisfaction and performance.

The rally participants were provided with a gallery of 3,000 images of around 300 people, and each contestant was required to match people’s faces one at a time as they were going through a facial recognition checkpoint. The test measured the average transaction time, failure to process an image, percentage of satisfied customers and the effectiveness of providing a positive identification within a 5 and 20 seconds interval.

Herta designed a specific solution for this one to many (1:n) test despite its speciality being many to many (n:m) as in some of its main projects to improve safety in safe cities or sports stadiums. The scenario simulated an airport control point where the solution compares traveller’s passport pictures from the images captured through the CCTV cameras. Herta used its real-time face identification technology to meet the rally requirements, and according to the company, it exceeded the average for most of the metrics as well as the 95% successful face identification rate in less than 5 seconds, compared to an average of 65%.

Alex Collado-Castells, CTO at Herta and responsible for the rally deployment, explained that the test was very successful and it helped to prove how the company’s technology stands out among other competitors, and to see what governments are looking for when it comes to a checkpoint solution.

“It was an inspiring experience, where we had to work under pressure in order to design a specific solution for a test which reflects a real world use case.” Collado-Castells said. “The test generated very useful metrics which are aligned to the current government requirements and needs. Herta performed excellent at efficiency, customer satisfaction and performance, the three main goals of the rally.”

The 2018 Biometric Technology Rally was the first experiment testing different technology solutions against each other, but more rallies are planned to check future applications of the technology for DHS needs.