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3 Information System Digital MediaAdvanced Access Control System with
Face Recognition TechnologyNAGAMINE Nanaumi

IMAIZUMI Masumi

KOBASHI Atsushi

An entrance control system with face recognition was adopted at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 for thestringent verification of visitorsʼ identity at the entrances of all competition venues the Athletesʼ Village the Media Press
Centre and the International Broadcast Centre More than 700 000 persons were registered and more than 4 million
checks were performed during the Games with an authentication rate of more than 99 8%
Keywords：Face recognition Access control Facial feature

1．Introduction

to verify the ownerʼs identity thereby realizing stringent security

In previous conventions the identity of the partici-

This is the first time in the history of the Olympic andpants was verified by visual inspection of photographs ofParalympic Games that face recognition technology has

their faces printed on accreditation cards (Terminology) at thebeen used to verify the identity of each authorized

entrance for the authorized personnel of each venue andpersonnel

the admission authorization was verified by visual

Atos was in charge of the total coordination and theinspection of symbols indicating the admission areaauthorization check function on mobile devices Panason-barcodes

This method may overlook

ic developed the entrance authorization check function

unauthorized entry due to identity theft tampering withand IC tags

linked to the dedicated face recognition devices thetickets etc Therefore the Advanced Access Control

video camera and IC card reader in the devices and NEC

System (AACS) which simultaneously verifies identity

was responsible for the face recognition devices and theusing a face recognition system and admission authority

face recognition function on the serverusing IC tags was introduced at the Olympic andParalympic Games Tokyo 2020

2．Face Recognition Technology

This system uses an IC chip embedded in theaccreditation card to ensure the authenticity of the cardand facial information linked to the ID stored in the card

In this section we will introduce the face recognition
technology used in AACS
21

NAGAMINE Nanaumi
First Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions
Division NEC Corporation
IMAIZUMI Masumi
First Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions
Division NEC Corporation
KOBASHI Atsushi
Security Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic GamesThe Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 158‑161 August 2022
© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

158

Overview

Face recognition technology compares the face
information registered in advance with that of a person
facing the device to determine whether the face is that of
the registered person NECʼs face recognition system(product name : NeoFace) used in the Games uses
proprietary technology to perform the matching using
data called facial features

which is digitized facial

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

characteristics

matching features and not an ID card are used to check

Face recognition is a standard authentication method

whether a person exists in the database In the Games

that people use in everyday life to identify others and a

1 : 1 authentication was adopted for more rigorous

natural authentication method that does not impose aidentification without making significant changes topsychological burden on the user In addition faceprevious operations

recognition is a technology that has been used in various
situations in recent years because it uses general‑

3．Features of the Dedicated Face
Recognition System

purpose products such as video cameras (1) while otherbiometric methods such as fingerprint vein and irisrecognition require a dedicated scanning device to31

Configurationcollect information

Figure 2 shows an overview of the exterior and an
enlarged view of the console of the face recognition

22

Face Detection〜Feature Point Extraction

deviceThe part of an image containing what appears to be a

① is an LED light that turns on when a person

human face is detected and cropped (face detection)

approaches to attract the subjectʼs attention and make

Thereafter feature points to identify that individual arethem face the camera ② is a motion sensor that turns onextracted (feature point extraction) and digitized

the LED light in ((Figure 1)

Panasonic) when it detects a person ③ is acamera

withanintelligent

autofunction (Terminology) that captures high‑quality face images
23even in various shooting environments such as back-Face Recognition

Face recognition compares features registered in thedatabase with those for matching and outputs a score of
0 to 1 for the similarity degree In general there are two
types of biometric authentication : 1 : 1 authentication inwhich a specific person in the database is matched withan ID card

Figure 1■and 1 : N authenticationin which theFace Detection〜Feature Point Extraction

Terminology

Accreditation Card
An identification card issued by
IOC or IPC to authorized persons which works as anentrance pass to the staff area Identity number photo nameand the areas allowed access to are printed and an IC chip isembedded to prevent forgery
Intelligent Auto Function
An intelligent and automatedfunction used to tune the parameters of the Panasonic camera
to meet the various lighting conditions
VAO Venue Accreditation Office
The office established at each venue to reissue accreditation cards andreregister facial features■Figure 2

Overview of the Exterior and an Enlarged View of theConsole of the Face Recognition Device（©NECCorporation）

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020

159

light and nighttime ④ is the result display screen

quakes or human collisions by using a steel base plate

Before the ticket is held up a mirror image is projectedwith a 50 cm radius and setting the centre of gravity atto encourage the subject to face the camera After thethe bottom to achieve a tipping angle of 27 0 to 27 9

ticket is held up the authentication result is displayed

from left to right and 26 9 to 27 7 from front to back

⑤ is where the accreditation card is touched and it has a

These values are sufficient to withstand an earthquake

built‑in IC Card Reader The LEDs ⑥ on both sides ofintensity of upper 5

the screen are embedded with three‑color lights so that

The device is secured with screws that can only be

the security staff standing behind the device can easily

opened with a special driver to prevent theft from inside

see the authentication results

and the SSD of the device is encrypted so that it can beread only by the deviceʼs motherboard

32

Universal Design

features are deleted from the device when a match is

Athletes taller than two meters participate in theOlympic GamesThe facial

and athletes in wheelchairs were

found or four seconds have elapsed Even if the facial
features are leaked they cannot be decrypted by otherpresent at the Paralympic Games In order to capturedeviceshigh‑quality facial images of both athletes with the same

hardware and software security measures have been

device the height and elevation angle of the camera

implemented

In this way

multiple layers of physicalwere calculated Because wheelchair users are often
accompanied by their caregivers

the images were4．Statistical Information

captured to recognize two people with faces at different
heights consecutively The lower part of the device is41

designed to be narrow so that a wheelchair can easily

The number of registrants for accreditation was

Number of Registrants

420 000 for the Olympic Games and 310 000 for thepass throughThe authentication result screen (result display) for

Paralympic Games an increase from 280 000 for thevisitors is also designed to be easily recognized byLondon 2012 Games and 230 000 for the Rio 2016 Gamesvisitors from all over the world as shown in Figure 3
Figure 3(a) shows the screen displayed when a visitor

42

Authentication Rateis asked to enter the venue after both face recognition

The flow of the face authentication portion excluding

and entrance authorization have been verified success-the authority check portion is shown in Figure 4 The

fully Figure 3 (b) is the screen displayed when faceperson is allowed to enter if the matching score exceeds

recognition fails and the user is asked to touch their card

the threshold in three attempts If the face recognition

and face the camera again Figure 3 (c) is the screen
displayed when an alternative way is required to verify
the visitorʼs identity for reasons such as when facerecognition fails three times consecutively using up all
the attempts
33

Security Measures

The device is prevented from tipping due to earth-（a）Figure 3160（b）（c）

Authentication Result Screen（©NEC Corporation）

Figure 4

Flow of Face Authentication

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Table 1

Authentication Rate of Face Recognition

5．Conclusion

Olympic Games

Paralympic GamesN1

2 729 680

1 058 260

N280 575

22 799received strict reviews from the IOC

Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo 2020 Organis-

N3TotalAuthentication rate ＊4 734

2 025

2 814 989

1 083 084

99 83%

99 81%＊The authentication rate is defined as (N 1＋N 2)/(N 1＋N 2＋N 3)
PeriodOlympic Games July 21 to August 8 2021
Paralympic Games August 25 to September 5 2021

Since the beginning of the proposal in 2016

wethe Tokyo

ing Committee and have achieved a high authentication
rate and zero failures due to careful tuning of parameters
and operational design through demonstration experiments and test events We want to once again express
our gratitude to the Security Bureau of the Organising
Committee for their efforts

fails three times consecutively it is considered that thepoor quality of the registered image is the reason andshe or he is requested to go to VAO (Venue Accreditation Office) (Terminology) for more careful identity verification
with other documents such as the passport and register
the facial features to the server again The person isallowed to enter if the face recognition succeeds afterregistering the facial features again (N 2) If the person is
not recognized as an authorized person she or he is notallowed to enter and it is counted as a recognition failure(N 3)
Table 1 shows the number of cases for the Olympic
and Paralympic respectively
The statistics show no significant difference between
the Olympic and Paralympics and both have achieved
an authentication rate of more than 99 8% It should be
noted that N 3 does not indicate the actual performance offace recognition since it includes cases where a person
other than the registered person such as a vendor cameto the venue and was refused entry
Although it is difficult to compare the results withthose of past Games which used visual identification
there were almost no queues at the Tokyo Games which
was observed at the entrances for visitors to past
Games suggesting that this system contributed to strict
identity verification and improved the throughput
43

Failure Rate

During the preparation period before the Olympic
Games there was a malfunction due to an overcurrent in
the network equipment caused by a lightning strike but
no hardware or software failures or malfunctions wereReferences()

NEC Technical Journal, vol. 71, 2018.
https://www.nec.com/en/global/techrep/journal/g18/n02/g1802pa.
html(Received February 28, 2022 ; Revised March 11, 2022)

NAGAMINE Nanaumi
Graduated from the University of Tokyo in
1995 with a degree in Liberal Arts and Basic
Sciences I Joined NEC Corporation in the sameyear Since then he has been engaged inconstructing supercomputer systems and developing systems for government agencies
Currently he is the Senior Director of the First
Public Security Solutions Department Government and Public Solutions Division NEC
Corporation Author of “How to Organise aGlobal Project Team ”
IMAIZUMI Masumi
Graduated from the Graduate School of
Science and Engineering Tsukuba University
with a Masterʼs degree in 1998 Joined NEC
Corporation in the same year Since then she
has been engaged in the research and development of systems for the Ministry of Defense
Currently she is the Deputy Senior Director of
the First Public Security Solutions Department
Government and Public Solutions Division
NEC Corporation
KOBASHI Atsushi
Completed the first half of the doctoral
course at the Graduate School of Engineering
Nagoya University in 1997 and joined NEC
Software Ltd Since then he has been engaged
in system development for the financial sectors
and government agencies and has been
seconded to the Tokyo Organising Committeeof the Olympic and Paralympic Games since2015 where he was assigned as the Manager of
the First Equipment Procurement Section of
the Security Bureau Currently he is a Senior
Professional at the Public Solutions DivisionNEC Solution Innovator Ltd

reported from the servers in the data centre and the facerecognition devices installed at the venues during theOlympic and Paralympic Games

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161