Russian Railways uses Smart Engines passport recognition technologies for contactless ticket sales

2021: Using Smart ID Engine to Recognize Passports in Self-Service Terminals

Russian Railways uses Smart Engines passport recognition technologies for contactless ticket sales in self-service terminals. This was announced by Smart Engines on October 14, 2021.

The integration of the Smart ID Engine software product for passport recognition into terminals simplifies the routine procedure for manually entering passenger personal data and speeds up the process of ticket sales. The project to create a network of terminals in October 2021 already has more than 300 units operated on the railways of Russia and Kazakhstan. The integrator of the project is JSC "Transfigoset."

In transactional self-service terminals (ETTS), a software complex based on AI is integrated to read personal data of a passenger passport. As part of the pilot project, the first ETTS samples were installed at the Leningrad station in Moscow. Russian Railways plans to expand the ETTS fleet, primarily equipping the most visited stations in Russia with smart terminals. The development of energy-efficient algorithms integrated into TTS for the recognition of identity documents is carried out by the domestic Smart Engines. The Smart ID Engine detects the passenger passport and automatically enters the data into the required fields of the form for issuing a travel ticket. Thus, the passenger no longer needs to independently enter passport details, which reduces the time spent on the routine process of manual data entry by six times, and significantly simplifies the process of issuing a ticket.

When issuing a ticket in terminals, tourists can recognize passports of the Russian Federation and passports of more than 210 jurisdictions of the world, which allows both citizens of the Russian Federation and travelers from other countries to quickly purchase a ticket. The Smart ID Engine provides document processing security by simplifying the passport data entry process and reducing the chance of manual filling errors. The flagship Smart Engines technology guarantees safe operation with sensitive and personal data, in accordance with the personal data processing security standards FZ-152, GDPR and CCPA. The extraction and analysis of passport details is carried out in local RAM, passenger data is not saved and is not transferred to third-party services.

The active introduction of contactless services and equipment to optimize processes is especially in demand. The process of buying tickets by Russian Railways passengers should be as convenient as possible, and manual entry of passport data when issuing a ticket is a routine and lengthy procedure. According to our estimates, the introduction of the Smart ID Engine software product will increase the usability and economic return of self-service terminals, "said Alexander Galaktionov, CEO of Transinfoset JSC.

Smart Engines is pleased to become part of the innovative projects of the Information Network and is aimed at further cooperation. The creation of new generation self-service terminals with the recognition of data from Russian and foreign passports will be another stage in the sale of tickets at train stations after the automation of ticket offices using smart scanners, "said Smart Engines CEO, Ph.D. Vladimir Arlazarov.