India’s First Railway Specific Face Recognition Technology at Bengaluru SWR

With the view of enhancing passenger security in Railway premises in general and Women and Child security in specific, by leveraging technology, like many other law enforcement organizations it was decided to test the use case and effectiveness of face recognition technology in a sea of crowd in a Railway station in 2019 as railway Board directed Bengaluru Division to carry out a pilot project of face Recognition Software suited to Indian railway ethos.

A facial recognition system is a technology capable of identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source using channels of neural networks. There are multiple methods in which facial recognition systems work, but in general, they work by comparing selected facial features from given image with faces within a database.

It is an Artificial Intelligence based application that can uniquely identify a person by analysing patterns based on the person's facial textures and shape. While initially a form of computer application, it has seen wider uses in recent times on mobile platforms and in other forms of technology.

It is typically used as access control in security systems across the world and has been calibrated for myriad use cases making human life better. The accuracy of facial recognition system as a technology is widely adopted due to its contactless and non-invasive process.

As a part of the upgradation of the Stations under the Station security plan Bangalore City station has been identified to be upgraded and developed into a model of Airport like security. In doing so, use of modern technology is of paramount importance to act as a Force multiplier.

In view of the same, an in principal accord was granted by GM SWR, DRM Bangalore and PCSC SWR for a Pilot Project for studying the accuracy and usage of Face Recognition technology at Bangalore City station.

In May 2019 a Pilot was initiated to study various detail components of Face recognition technology in CCTV cameras and to analyse an ideal technology suitable to the footfall and unique conditions of Railway Stations. RPF and GRP coordinated to make it a joint study . FRS based CCTV cameras were placed at Seven chosen High Footfall Points in the Railway Station. A data base of Criminals available was fed in the system database. A database of certain RPF and GRP staff of Bangalore were also fed into the system for live analysis and analysing various systematic conditions and effectiveness of the cameras for a period of 7 months and with the success of the field trial where with the right set ofS parameters FRS project was able to detect 47 history sheeters in the railway premises within a span of 90 days and the establishment of the proof of concept it ushers in a new era in railway security and creating a digital perimeter over Railway premises.

The following are some of the many uses of Face recognition software in leveraging technology over Indian Railways:

Crackdown on Touting of Railway Tickets :
❖ RPF has a dossier for touts prosecuted under section 143 of Railways Act
❖ Scanning and creating database of the known touts and regular updates of new cases.
❖ CCTV / camera laced with Facial recognition technology can pinpoint touts at railway premises.
❖ Making Journey for passengers better and seamless experience.

Crackdown on Touting of Railway Tickets :
❖ CCTV laced with Facial recognition at station especially entries and exits, ticket counters can immediately sound off alerts for known offenders
❖ Android based applications laced with Face recognition Software like RPF ONE can immediately provide information about a child found on railway premises, whether he/she had been missing and a missing FIR has been filed anywhere in India.

Link with Crime data base to crackdown on any criminal on the database found in Railway premises:
❖ Linking these databases with the Face recognition laced CCTV’s at Railway premises shall create a virtual access control with digital perimeter security.
❖ Any wanted offender/history sheeter on Railway premises can be identified and alert sounded off to RPF
❖ TOPB criminals who have been booked by respective states can be traced with facial recognition.
❖ Making passenger security seamless and journey for passengers especially women and children safer.

The human impact of project is immense as it will go long way in enhancing the security of Railway stations and making it safer for women and children in particular and all passengers in general.