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Facial Recognition Testing

Magic Feather

Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looks like Disney is finally testing the facial recognition tech they’ve been working on. Test happening at MK for a month, easy to opt out. I’ve been hinting at it for a while, but glad to finally see some progress on it.

More details:

Magic Kingdom now testing facial recognition for theme park entrance in place of finger scanners​

www.wdwmagic.com

Magic Kingdom now testing facial recognition for theme park entrance in place of finger scanners

Magic Kingdom now testing facial recognition for theme park entrance in place of finger scanners
www.wdwmagic.com www.wdwmagic.com
MyMagicPlus_Full_41446.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
GimpYancIent said:
Just go to Retina scans and disregard all the face recognition, fingerprint or other body part reading / imaging. Proven, secure and can be efficient dealing with large numbers of people.
Click to expand...
You’re right that retina scans would be better/more reliable/more secure for identification purposes. But eye scanners are expensive, and only work if people want to be scanned.

But facial recognition is much cheaper (uses many of the cameras Disney already has deployed across the property), doesn’t require guest action, and can be used for many other purposes (security, PhotoPass, tracking, personalized marketing, credit card purchases, demographics research, etc.). This makes facial recognition MUCH more valuable to places like Disney parks.
 
G

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
You’re right that retina scans would be better/more reliable/more secure for identification purposes. But eye scanners are expensive, and only work if people want to be scanned.

But facial recognition is much cheaper (uses many of the cameras Disney already has deployed across the property), doesn’t require guest action, and can be used for many other purposes (security, PhotoPass, tracking, personalized marketing, credit card purchases, demographics research, etc.). This makes facial recognition MUCH more valuable to places like Disney parks.
Click to expand...
Fair points! Simply by going to a Disney property, whether or not a guest wants to, via facial recognition personal data is being harvested for a myriad of purposes other than common sense security and photoPass. Yes, it fits nicely with the squeeze any and all value from guests mentality.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
GimpYancIent said:
Fair points! Simply by going to a Disney property, whether or not a guest wants to, via facial recognition personal data is being harvested for a myriad of purposes other than common sense security and photoPass. Yes, it fits nicely with the squeeze any and all value from guests mentality.
Click to expand...
BTW, not saying I’m super excited about being tracked through the parks like every website tracks us through the internet. They already know so much about me, I’ve yet to see how Disney would use this additional data collection to provide perceived value to guests.

If they wanted to, they could use facial recognition to:
  • Read guest emotion to get a sense of whether they’re having fun. If Disney created a unique “magical moment“ (character visit, surprise discount/fastpass, etc.) for a guest who might not be enjoying themselves, that’d be a plus.
  • Incentivize balanced crowds. Adventureland overly crowded? Send anyone who hasn’t yet visited Tomorrowland today a surprise fastpass to ride TRON (maybe Genie will do this?)
  • Greet guests by name (MagicBands already provide this capability).
  • Actual high-quality candid photos and videos of my party throughout the day (on rides, while watching parades, etc.)
  • Enable “one-per-customer” events/giveaways (and then actually enforce them so there’s enough for everyone).
  • AAs that track guests’ gaze and react accordingly.
These are the sorts of things that might make me more excited about facial recognition. At the very least, keeping bad guys away from Disney property (preferably well before they arrive at the front gates) is a pretty good use, I suppose.
 
G

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
BTW, not saying I’m super excited about being tracked through the parks like every website tracks us through the internet. They already know so much about me, I’ve yet to see how Disney would use this additional data collection to provide perceived value to guests.

If they wanted to, they could use facial recognition to:
  • Read guest emotion to get a sense of whether they’re having fun. If Disney created a unique “magical moment“ (character visit, surprise discount/fastpass, etc.) for a guest who might not be enjoying themselves, that’d be a plus.
  • Incentivize balanced crowds. Adventureland overly crowded? Send anyone who hasn’t yet visited Tomorrowland today a surprise fastpass to ride TRON (maybe Genie will do this?)
  • Greet guests by name (MagicBands already provide this capability).
  • Actual high-quality candid photos and videos of my party throughout the day (on rides, while watching parades, etc.)
  • Enable “one-per-customer” events/giveaways (and then actually enforce them so there’s enough for everyone).
  • AAs that track guests’ gaze and react accordingly.
These are the sorts of things that might make me more excited about facial recognition. At the very least, keeping bad guys away from Disney property (preferably well before they arrive at the front gates) is a pretty good use, I suppose.
Click to expand...
Never said perceived value to guests but the value Disney gets out of it. Disney has already mentioned the images will not be retained beyond 30 days, how will that enhance security tracking long term i.e. people that are banned?
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
GimpYancIent said:
Never said perceived value to guests but the value Disney gets out of it. Disney has already mentioned the images will not be retained beyond 30 days, how will that enhance security tracking long term i.e. people that are banned?
Click to expand...
Right- not disagreeing with you at all.

Maybe there’s a clause in the 30-day retention policy that says “unless you sneak into Epcot after hours/steal an audio animatronic...” or something?
 

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