Federal Passenger Company began to sell tickets using artificial intelligence

2020: Equipment of cash desks of distant following by complexes of automatic data entry

The Federal Passenger Company (JSC FPC is subsidiary of JSC "Russian Railways") equipped cash desks of distant following with hardware and software systems on the basis of artificial intelligence for automatic data entry of passengers in forms of tickets. On January 22, 2021 the Smart Engines company reported about it. It will allow to reduce considerably time of an execution of tickets in cash desks and to minimize influence of a human factor on correctness of filling of forms. In total within purchase the company received 835 devices.

Domestic development on the basis of the artificial intelligence (AI) represents the video scanner which is connected to the computer via the keyboard connector without the need for installation of the additional software. It is completely autonomous, is equipped with the video camera and the built-in computing module for document handling without connection to external devices. It ensures safety and complete security of personal data of passengers as they do not remain in the computer or the cloud storage.

At execution of tickets it is enough to cashier to attach the document to the scanner and data of the passenger automatically will appear on the form of the travel document. The device is capable to recognize for several seconds data not only the Russian national passport, but also and the foreign passport, the certificate of birth and also passports more than 200 countries of the world (data for January, 2021). It is especially convenient at execution of tickets to citizens of other countries as depending on the country of issue of the passport and features of the document, fields with indication of a name and a surname can be interchanged the position and contain several words. Earlier, at manual entry, the operator needed extra time on determination of the correct sequence of details in the foreign passport and correctness of their input. Regardless of passport type, all process of data entry takes no more than 5 seconds.

A developer of a hardware and software system is the RuDevices company. As the supplier of AI technology for extraction of passport data the Russian company Smart Engines acted. The release of a batch of scanners is performed by the producer of radio electronics of SPC Range.

According to requirements of the legislation the operator of transportations should request his passport data from the client. Manual filling of the form of the travel document requires extra time and does not exclude emergence of errors. The system of automatic scanning and data entry which for January, 2021 was installed in sales points at stations allows not only to lower load of the employees selling tickets but also to make process of purchase of tickets in cash desks faster and convenient for our passengers, – the First Deputy CEO of JSC Federal Passenger Company Valery Veremeev told.

By our estimates implementation of a hardware and software system allows to reduce labor costs of the operator by document handling till 44 o'clock in a month. It is especially relevant for those industries where service happens in the conditions of a continuous flow of clients, and any accompanying activity at the same time is absent when performance of the operator at manual entry during the working day falls, – notices co-founder RuDevices, Alexey Mistyukov.

SPC Range has experience of cooperation with FPC. Development and deployment of a system of the automated data entry from documents of the user – logical continuation of cooperation on process automation in the industry. The developed hardware-software solution has big perspectives on scaling not only within the industry of rail passenger traffic, but in other spheres. The scanner differs in simplicity of implementation, is not inferior to foreign analogs and meets the requirements of import substitution, – Alexander Barayev, the CEO of SPC Range noted.

In the project for FPC we solved a number of the complex scientific and technical problems connected with a research of architecture of low-bit neural networks and their deep hardware-software optimization for ensuring high quality and speed of recognition of documents on devices with small performance. We carried out all tasks set for us, technical characteristics of a system completely meet expectations of the customer, – the CEO of Smart Engines, PhD in Technological Sciences Vladimir Arlazarov told.

2017: Delivery contract of "smart cash desks" worth 97.5 million rubles

According to the portal of state procurements, the contract for installation of "smart cash desks" was signed with FPC in the middle of 2017. The cost of the contract was 97.5 million rubles. The RuDevices company became developer of a hardware and software system, the supplier of artificial intelligence technology (AI) for extraction of passport data - the Russian company Smart Engines, and was engaged in release of a batch of scanners the producer of radio electronics of SPC Range.^[1]

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