A filling station is the first to use a facial biometric system to automatically unlock its shop’s beer cave if it detects a customer is over the age of 25.
The cave at Mellors Fuel Shop, Wantage, Oxfordshire, is locked by default. When a potential beer buyer approaches the door a camera scans their face, while algorithms determine whether they are 25 or under, automatically unlocking and opening the sliding door if it detects they are of age.
If the system detects a customer who looks younger an alert flags up on a screen by the cashier, who can then check the customer’s proof of age before deciding whether to open the cave door.
The system comes from Innovative Technology, and is an evolution of that firm’s MyCheckr, which is usually installed as a checkout-based camera and screen to guide shop assistants on whether they should ask for ID. This is the first time the tech has been linked to a beer cave and an automatically opening door, though, with the Mellors site acting as a pilot project.
Luxman Selvarajah, managing director at Top 50 Indie Krisco Services Group, which operates the forecourt, says that because the firm has a ‘Challenge 25’ policy in place for alcohol the system “takes some of the awkwardness out of asking for ID, and takes some of the pressure off cashiers”.
Selvarajah says customers respond well to the system, which has the added bonus of generating refusal logs, saving staff from that task and creating a robust report should Trading Standards officers ask to see the documentation. Krisco has been so pleased with MyCheckr it is rolling the system out at its self-service tills, having already integrated it at its staffed checkouts.
John Vallis, Innovative Technology’s senior business development manager, says MyCheckr is the product of 12 years’ development, and despite having only been on the commercial market for 18 months the firm has seen robust success, with “thousands” of installations across the country. “We’re prevalent in C-stores and vape shops,” he explains, adding that “if you go into a pub and they have age-gating for their fruit machines, chances are it’s our system”.
Rather than being a facial-recognition system that compares people’s faces to a database of other faces, MyCheckr scans a face to work out a person’s likely age, with no customer data stored on the device, and no GDPR responsibilities – a system known as “facial biometric-assisted age estimation”. Staff faces can be saved to the system, though, allowing team members who are under 25 to access the cave without having to ask older colleagues to unlock it.
The standard MyCheckr system sells for £550 and the ‘Mini’, which operates without a screen and uses red and green lights to communicate with staff, is £350, with no subscription fees.
