Latest news with #facialrecognition
Arabian Business
3 days ago
- Business
- Arabian Business
UAE airports slash check-in to departure times to just 12 minutes with facial recognition and AI
Airports in the UAE are using biometric technology, facial recognition and advanced AI to enhance passenger journeys and cut down waiting times. Selim Bouri, President for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) at airport technology company SITA, said airports in the UAE, particularly those in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have established new global benchmarks in innovation, efficiency and passenger experience. He noted the country's clear commitment to digitalisation and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, particularly in light of the increasing challenge of managing growing passenger volumes. UAE airport technology Bouri explained that SITA works closely with UAE airports to understand their unique needs and opportunities, providing tailored technology solutions, pointing to the implementation of the Smart Travel system at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi—a fully integrated platform for biometric identity processing. This system, he noted, reduces congestion and waiting times while enhancing airport capacity to handle the rising number of international flights. Zayed International Airport experienced strong growth in flight traffic in 2024, making it essential to adopt digital solutions to meet this surge. Bouri described the airport's experience as a testament to the value of advanced biometric processing, highlighting that since the opening of its new terminal in November 2023, the airport has processed more than one million passengers using facial recognition. This has created a unique digital identity for each traveller, enabling a seamless journey from check-in to departure, including border control, in under 12 minutes. The success of the Smart Travel system at Zayed International Airport, he added, paves the way for its adoption at other airports across the UAE. On future technologies passengers can expect at UAE airports, Bouri said that the country's travel experience is increasingly powered by smart solutions that provide efficiency and convenience. He revealed plans to expand biometric processing across airport checkpoints, delivering a fully contactless passenger experience. Self-service technologies, he said, will be a core focus area in the coming years. These include self-check-in kiosks, automated baggage-drop services, and smart boarding gates, all aimed at reducing congestion and streamlining travel procedures. Cybersecurity also remains a top priority within the UAE's airport digital strategies. Bouri emphasised that smart innovations will play a key role in boosting efficiency, minimising waiting times, enhancing safety and reinforcing the UAE's status as a leader in smart, integrated airport systems. He added that the coming decade will witness a significant increase in the deployment of next-generation communication technologies within airports. This will create a highly integrated smart airport ecosystem and flight operation network. Bouri discussed the impact of 5G networks on enabling seamless device-to-device communication, benefitting passengers, systems and operations through improved ground connectivity. He also pointed to future support for sixth-generation network technologies and advanced wireless internet services. Airports, airlines and governments in the Middle East, known for their leadership in innovation, are investing heavily in the latest technologies to enhance passenger experience and streamline airport operations. These include biometric processing systems and e-gates backed by strategic initiatives and major investments. Addressing the role of artificial intelligence and big data in improving flight management and reducing delays, Bouri explained that although airports, airlines and partners generate vast amounts of data, it is not always fully understood or leveraged. Over the next decade, he said, future-ready airports will increasingly rely on big data, predictive analytics and advanced platforms to achieve peak operational efficiency. The growing role of AI and robotics, he clarified, does not eliminate the human factor but rather fosters smart collaboration between people and technology. Bouri concluded that the next decade will see AI extend to more sectors, including: Enhancing flight scheduling Personalised communication with passengers Operations centre support Predictive maintenance Multilingual assistance Automated baggage handling Reduced fuel consumption for autonomous vehicles
Al Bawaba
4 days ago
- Business
- Al Bawaba
United Arab Bank partners with Emirates Face Recognition (EFR) to Launch a Seamless and Secure Digital Banking Experience via Its New Mobile App.
United Arab Bank (UAB) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Emirates Face Recognition (EFR), a leading UAE-based technology provider of cutting-edge facial recognition and digital identity verification signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Shirish Bhide, CEO of United Arab Bank; Mr. Emre Yalcin, Head of Retail Banking at United Arab Bank; and Mr. Zack Charkas, CEO of Emirates Face Recognition, Talha Khan, Head of Product at Emirates Face Recognition, along with senior executives from both agreement highlights UAB's commitment to providing best-in-class digital banking solutions and aligns with the Central Bank of the UAE's directives to adopt advanced technologies that enhance customer privacy, minimize fraud, and simplify digital services. Moreover, this initiative reflects UAB's continued dedication to innovation, regulatory compliance, and superior customer this occasion, Shirish Bhide, CEO of United Arab Bank, said: "We are proud to partner with an innovative national company like Emirates Face Recognition, which shares our ambitions to deliver efficient, secure and fast banking solutions while supporting the UAE's transition to a digital-first lifestyle. This agreement represents a significant milestone in our digital transformation roadmap and reaffirms our commitment to innovation and customer-focused security."Emre Yalcin, Head of Retail Banking at United Arab Bank, commented: "Our partnership with EFR is a key milestone in delivering our vision of a seamless, secure, and fully integrated digital banking experience through our upcoming Mobile Banking App. By placing advanced biometric technologies at the core of our services, we are reshaping how customers engage with the bank ─ offering greater convenience, enhanced security, and peace of mind. This initiative also strengthens our ability to support customers throughout their financial journey, while ensuring full alignment with the highest regulatory and safety standards."Zack Charkas, CEO of Emirates Face Recognition, added: "We are pleased to take part in the ambitious digital transformation journey led by United Arab Bank. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of innovation and creating long-term value with a future-forward outlook. At EFR, we are committed to delivering trusted, secure and innovative solutions driven by a passion for excellence."Talha Khan, Head of Product at Emirates Face Recognition, commented: 'Our partnership with United Arab Bank reflects a shared commitment to purposeful innovation. We've worked closely to deliver a trusted, cutting-edge solution tailored to UAB's goals and client experience. It's been a true collaboration, and we look forward to building on this foundation to drive lasting impact together."Emirates Face Recognition is one of the UAE's leading national companies in the field of biometric verification and digital identity solutions. EFR serves both government and private sector entities with secure and seamless technologies that enhance service efficiency, reliability, and user trust. This partnership precedes the upcoming launch of UAB's new Mobile Banking App, which will deliver a whole new customer experience, especially in instant account-opening, a wide range of digital services, and automated KYC updates. The new app will empower UAB customers to access services securely and conveniently without the need to visit a branch, offering a seamless, fully digital banking experience that meets the needs of today's always-connected lifestyle.
Zawya
5 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
United Arab Bank partners with Emirates Face Recognition
United Arab Emirates – United Arab Bank (UAB) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Emirates Face Recognition (EFR), a leading UAE-based technology provider of cutting-edge facial recognition and digital identity verification solutions. The signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Shirish Bhide, CEO of United Arab Bank; Mr. Emre Yalcin, Head of Retail Banking at United Arab Bank; and Mr. Zack Charkas, CEO of Emirates Face Recognition, Talha Khan, Head of Product at Emirates Face Recognition, along with senior executives from both organizations. This agreement highlights UAB's commitment to providing best-in-class digital banking solutions and aligns with the Central Bank of the UAE's directives to adopt advanced technologies that enhance customer privacy, minimize fraud, and simplify digital services. Moreover, this initiative reflects UAB's continued dedication to innovation, regulatory compliance, and superior customer service. On this occasion, Shirish Bhide, CEO of United Arab Bank, said:"We are proud to partner with an innovative national company like Emirates Face Recognition, which shares our ambitions to deliver efficient, secure and fast banking solutions while supporting the UAE's transition to a digital-first lifestyle. This agreement represents a significant milestone in our digital transformation roadmap and reaffirms our commitment to innovation and customer- focused security." Emre Yalcin, Head of Retail Banking at United Arab Bank, commented:"Our partnership with EFR is a key milestone in delivering our vision of a seamless, secure, and fully integrated digital banking experience through our upcoming Mobile Banking App. By placing advanced biometric technologies at the core of our services, we are reshaping how customers engage with the bank ─ offering greater convenience, enhanced security, and peace of mind. This initiative also strengthens our ability to support customers throughout their financial journey, while ensuring full alignment with the highest regulatory and safety standards." Zack Charkas, CEO of Emirates Face Recognition, added:"We are pleased to take part in the ambitious digital transformation journey led by United Arab Bank. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of innovation and creating long-term value with a future-forward outlook. At EFR, we are committed to delivering trusted, secure and innovative solutions driven by a passion for excellence." Talha Khan, Head of Product at Emirates Face Recognition, commented: 'Our partnership with United Arab Bank reflects a shared commitment to purposeful innovation. We've worked closely to deliver a trusted, cutting-edge solution tailored to UAB's goals and client experience. It's been a true collaboration, and we look forward to building on this foundation to drive lasting impact together." Emirates Face Recognition is one of the UAE's leading national companies in the field of biometric verification and digital identity solutions. EFR serves both government and private sector entities with secure and seamless technologies that enhance service efficiency, reliability, and user trust. This partnership precedes the upcoming launch of UAB's new Mobile Banking App, which will deliver a whole new customer experience, especially in instant account-opening, a wide range of digital services, and automated KYC updates. The new app will empower UAB customers to access services securely and conveniently without the need to visit a branch, offering a seamless, fully digital banking experience that meets the needs of today's always-connected lifestyle. About United Arab Bank P.J.S.C. United Arab Bank P.J.S.C. (UAB) was established in 1975, in the Emirate of Sharjah as a joint venture between key UAE and international investors, and its shares are publicly traded on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). UAB offers a wide range of Wholesale Banking, Retail Banking, Treasury & Financial Markets, as well as Shari'ah compliant products, services and flexible solutions, to meet the ever-evolving needs of our clients and the markets. Today, UAB is recognized as one of the few home-grown banks in the UAE, striving to enhance the lives of people by humanizing banking through impeccable service and tailored financial support. UAB is rated investment grade, both, by Moody's (Baa3/P-3/Positive) and Fitch (BBB+/F2/Stable). For further information please visit or contact: Sirine El Merhebi Marketing & Communications Department Email: About Emirates Face Recognition Emirates Face Recognition (EFR) is a UAE-based company at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge facial recognition and AI-powered identity solutions to both public and private sector clients. With deep expertise in digital identity and advanced security technologies, EFR is transforming how services are accessed and delivered across diverse business channels and sectors. The company's core mission is to enable a 'Secure Value Exchange'—leveraging innovative technologies to facilitate secure, seamless interactions between service providers and end-users. EFR is committed to setting new benchmarks in service delivery, facilitation, security, and customer experience, making it a trusted partner in the region's ongoing digital evolution.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace' as police use soars
Police believe live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' in England and Wales, according to internal documents, with the number of faces scanned having doubled to nearly 5m in the last year. A joint investigation by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates highlights the speed at which the technology is becoming a staple of British policing. Major funding is being allocated and hardware bought, while the British state is also looking to enable police forces to more easily access the full spread of its image stores, including passport and immigration databases, for retrospective facial recognition searches. Live facial recognition involves the matching of faces caught on surveillance camera footage against a police watchlist in real time, in what campaigners liken to the continual finger printing of members of the public as they go about their daily lives. Retrospective facial recognition software is used by the police to match images on databases with those caught on CCTV and other systems. According to one funding document drawn up by South Wales police as part of a proposal to put the West End of London or Cardiff rail station under live facial recognition cameras and released by the Metropolitan police under the Freedom of Information Act, it is believed 'the use of this technology could become commonplace in our city centres and transport hubs around England and Wales'. The first fixed live facial recognition cameras will be fitted for a trial in Croydon, south London, later this summer. The expansion comes despite facial recognition failing to be referenced in any act of parliament. Campaigners claim the police have been allowed to 'self regulate' their use of the technology. Officers have in the past used a setting that was subsequently shown to disproportionately misidentify black people. After a court of appeal judgment in 2020, which found that South Wales police's use of live facial recognition cameras had been unlawful, the College of Policing provided guidance that 'the threshold needs to be set with care to maximise the probability of returning true alerts while keeping the false alert rate to an acceptable level'. There remains nothing in law to direct forces on the threshold or technology used. The policing minister, Diane Johnson, told parliament earlier this month that she recognised 'a need to consider whether a bespoke legislative framework governing the use of live facial recognition technology for law enforcement purposes is needed' but the Home Office is yet to provide details. Facial recognition cameras were first trialled in London and south Wales from 2016 but the speed at which police forces are rolling out the technology has accelerated over the last 12 months. The investigation by the Guardian and Liberty found: Police forces scanned nearly 4.7m faces with live facial recognition cameras last year – more than twice as many as in 2023. Live facial recognition vans were deployed at least 256 times in 2024, according to official deployment records, up from 63 the year before. A roving unit of 10 live facial recognition vans that can be sent anywhere in the country will be made available within days – increasing national capacity. Eight police forces have deployed the technology. The Met has four vans. Police forces have considered fixed infrastructure creating a 'zone of safety' by covering the West End of London with a network of live facial recognition cameras. Met officials said this remained a possibility. Forces almost doubled the number of retrospective facial recognition searches made last year using the police national database (PND) from 138,720 in 2023 to 252,798. The PND contains custody mug shots, millions of which have been found to be stored unlawfully of people who have never been charged with or convicted of an offence. More than 1,000 facial recognition searches using the UK passport database were carried out in the last two years, and officers are increasingly searching for matches on the Home Office immigration database, with requests up last year, to 110. Officials have concluded that using the passport database for facial recognition is 'not high risk' and 'is not controversial', according to internal documents. The Home Office is now working with the police to establish a new national facial recognition system, known as strategic facial matcher. The platform will be capable of searching a range of databases including custody images and immigration records. Lindsey Chiswick, the director of intelligence at the Met and the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on facial recognition, said surveys showed that four in five Londoners were in support of the police using innovative technology, including facial recognition cameras. This week, a registered sex offender, David Cheneler, 73, from Lewisham, was jailed for two years after he was caught alone with a six-year-old girl by a live facial recognition camera. He had previously served nine years for 21 offences against children. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The Met arrested 587 people in 2024 with the assistance of the live facial recognition cameras of which 424 were charged with offences. Of those arrested, 58 were registered sex offenders in serious breach of their conditions and 38 have been charged. Chiswick said: 'Where there's limited amounts of money and there's fewer officers, but there's more demand, and we see criminals exploiting technology to a really grand scale … We've got to do something different. 'There's an opportunity out there. So policing needs to start operating a little bit differently. People talk about harnessing AI like it's some crazy horse we want to saddle but we do need to harness the opportunities that technology and data can bring us.' Chiswick said the Met's policy was to take 'really quite small steps and review them at every stage' but that there would be a 'benefit in potentially some sort of framework or statutory guidance'. The Met is deploying its facial recognition cameras at a setting that testing suggests avoids any statistical significance in terms of gender or ethnicity bias when it comes to cases of misidentification. Chiswick said: 'I don't want to use a biased algorithm in London. There's no point on all counts. I think for government, there's a question, isn't there around artificial intelligence? And I think clearly the public sector is going to use, and want to use AI more and more. 'I think the questions around who then decides where algorithms are purchased from, what training data is used, what countries might this technology come from and then, when you use it, are you obliged to test it and if you're obliged to test it, are you then obliged to operate at a certain setting? That's not really questions for law enforcement.' The Home Office declined a request for comment.
Arabian Business
22-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
GCC retail sector to pass $390bn by 2028; how can businesses thrive in a ‘phygital' world?
UAE shoppers can now buy groceries in an AI shop and 'pay with their face'
