By Editor in Chief
on Wed Apr 09 2025
By eliminating the need to insert a ticket or touch the Suica, the system will improve the convenience of passage for people carrying large luggage in both hands or using strollers, and will be developed so that it can be used not only by people in Japan but also by people from overseas. Details of the demonstration experiment and the method of recruiting monitors will be announced in the summer of 2025.
As part of efforts to put “walk-through ticket gates” into practical use, JR East will install ticket gates using face recognition technology at Niigata and Nagaoka stations on the Joetsu Shinkansen bullet train line from around the fall of 2025, and conduct a demonstration experiment.
East Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company, East Japan Railway Company
Implementation period: Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
Stations: Shinkansen East Ticket at Niigata Station and Shinkansen Ticket at Nagaoka Station One passageway at each station
Eligibility: Monitor participants are invited who have a Shinkansen commuter pass (Suica FREX or Suica FREX Pal) between Niigata and Nagaoka Stations.
Main evaluation items:
Confirmation of the accuracy of the face recognition technology itself at ticket checkers
Verification of the environment in which the equipment is installed (illumination, camera angle, temperature and humidity, etc.)
Check the speed of pedestrians passing through the ticket gate, the distance between the camera and pedestrians, and the linkage between the ticket gate and the face recognition sensor, etc.
Joint developers: JR East Mechatronics, NEC, Panasonic Connect
Based on the results of this verification experiment, the Shinkansen will expand the scope of the facial recognition verification experiment in the future. The Shinkansen is considering conducting the verification experiment for specific members of the “Otona no Himitsu Club” and then for Shinkansen e-ticket holders, as well as expanding the area of the Shinkansen in line with the expansion of the target group.
The company is also considering various types of walk-through ticket gates, and plans to conduct demonstration tests using technologies other than facial recognition on conventional lines in the spring of 2027, with the goal of achieving this within the next 10 years.
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