JAPAN: Osaka Metro is to start verification tests of a ticket gate that has been equipped with facial recognition technology to assist wheelchair users.
The equipment being installed at Nagai station on the Midosuji Line is set at the height of a person’s face when they are sat in a wheelchair. It is intended to enable ticket holders to pass easily through the gate without having to take their hands off guiding their wheelchairs.
Facial recognition technology has already been tested by the operator’s employees at several ticket gates across the network and at a sports centre equipped for disabled people.
The verification testing at Nagai is expected to start on December 1 and continue until February 17, enabling Osaka Metro to fine-tune the installation. The operator hopes to fit facial recognition technology at all of its stations by the end of 2024.
