A Facelift for the Eye in the Sky

Back in the early years of Las Vegas, casinos coined the phrase “Eye in The Sky” to characterize their surveillance operations.In those days, surveillance consisted of a few men on squares of plywood set across neighboring rafters. Armed with binoculars, they scanned the floor below for any activity that hinted of cheating. 

While you’re wondering how effective this was, I’m worrying about how many security guys fell from the rafters. Talk about a windfall.

But seriously, surveillance operations are much safer these days, and much more in favor of the casino. it’s not just the surveillance camera that greets you upon entry and those myriad others that catch you as you search for the magical machine that will make you a millionaire.  

More and more casinos are turning to Facial Recognition Technology to improve their odds against cheaters, and counterfeiters. So if you’ve been in a casino anytime within the past six or seven years, odds are your face came under scrutiny as well.

Biometrics

Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), developed at MIT, falls under the heading, biometrics. Biometrics is the science that measures and analyzes biological data. As a technology, biometrics uses these biological markers for the purpose of authenticating a person’s identity. Biometrics makes use of unique characteristics such as fingerprints, retinas, irises, DNA, and voice, speech, and facial patterns.

Biometric systems developed for forensic or authentication consist of three core components:

• ·         A scanner or reader
• ·         Software to convert the features into code and match points.
• ·         A database for storing and comparing the biometric data for comparison

FRT relies on facial patterns. Casinos use surveillance cameras in tandem with a scanner and FRT software to obtain an image of anyone they suspect of engaging in illicit activities.

So how does this FRT work?

The quick and dirty version

FRT enables users to select a frame from surveillance camera footage and extract the face from the background  for comparison to other individuals, or to be entered into a data base to be used for subsequent matching. 

The more detailed version

FRT is based on knowledge of face patterns, the various uphills and downhills that go into making every face unique. Ninety of these nodal points have been identified, the most pronounced being the distance between the eyes, depth of the eye sockets, shape of the cheekbones, width of the nose, and length of the jaw.

Most FRT systems make use of the eye area. They start with a live image captured by an

 IP surveillance camera and use an algorithm to locate the face and extract it from the background.

Next, a template of the eye area is created. After marking specific points, and measuring the distance between them, the data is translated into a unique code, and stored in a data base containing the same type of information about other individuals.

In the case of casino security, the data base stores the facial information of known card counters, cheats, counterfeiters, or blacklisted individuals who have been ejected from the premises previously.

Casinos share this information among themselves, or get it from law enforcement agencies.

FRT in Action

The Trump Casinos consider FRT an invaluable part of their casino surveillance units, telling CBS news that they first installed it at Trump Marina in Atlantic City. Three days later it enabled the casino to zero in on eight baccarat cheats.

A demonstration followed. From the surveillance room, the surveillance director sat at his computer and pointed out a mustachioed man in a San Francisco 49ers football jacket sitting at a blackjack table. He used

his keyboard to aim an IP camera, concealed in the casino ceiling. He then zoomed the lens to get a tight shot.

After freezing the frame, he transferred the man’s image to another computer monitor and typed in several category codes: white, male, 21, and blackjack.

Within seconds the computer returned 386 potential matches, displaying them nine at a time. 

After reviewing them all, no match was found, but had there been, the man would have been either escorted out the door, or watched closely until he revealed himself to be cheating, at which time he would have been arrested.

In Service to the Customer

Casinos primarily use Facial Recognition Technology to distinguish between customers who come in to have a good time while trying out their luck against the odds, and those who enter with the purpose of employing dishonest means to cheat them of their money. But more and more of them are using FRT to spot their VIPs and high rollers the moment they set foot into the building.

Databases at these establishments have taken to storing biometric data for their most frequent visitors who gamble large amounts of cash each visit. Using extremely fast responding software, hosts and hostesses are able to swoop in from the wings with an effusive welcome and to offer them whatever extra services will make their stay an enjoyable one.           

  

Privacy Issues

Privacy advocates see Facial Recognition Technology as yet another encroachment. Casinos defend the practice, pointing out that their main objective in using it is to protect their own assets while providing an even playing field for the vast majority of customers, who are honest and play by the rules.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation that oversees gambling in the Canadian province, employs a combination of IP cameras and FRT software to screen every visitor entering Ontario’s twenty seven casinos. But the Privacy Commissioner, in an interview with the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail maintained  that “privacy is the default condition,” and assured the readership that all images of visitors who fail to match are instantly deleted.

Or as the Trump Marina’s surveillance director put it:

 "An honest person has nothing to worry about. It’s the cheaters, the people who are being watched, they have a different take in it. Their way of life is being compromised."

For more information about IP cameras and Facial recognition software call Kintronics at 914-944-3425 or visit their website to fill out a request information form.