Use of Facial and Emotion Recognition Solutions for Better Customer Experience

One of the main concerns of any business enterprise is how to improve the customer experience? They are constantly on the look-out for new and improved ways of enhancing customer satisfaction and the overall customer experience. This, in turn, leads to increased business performance. Rapid growth in the fields of AI and BI technologies have helped businesses understand their customers better. One such enabler is the Facial and emotion recognition software. This has provided a unique improvement in the field of customer service excellence. 

Customers have abundant choices these days and are constantly searching for new brands, stores, or even products. With a short period and abundant options, the customers need to choose the best. The customers often need help selecting the best one for them. A technology like facial and emotion recognition could help a long way. This gives the businesses better customer information, which in turn improves customer experience and leads to the loyalty of the customer. 

A group of technical analysts is working on developing AI and using a machine learning framework to define and train the facial recognition models to be supported with parallel processing. This will enable your business to have access to insights like the age of the customer, emotions, gender, identification, and much more. These key points, along with the advanced analytics, will help businesses with intelligent insights on the customer's preferences, history, emotions, and keep the customer highly satisfied and engaged in making the correct decisions. 

A point of scale system can identify potential customers and serve them better. The emotions of the customer, like happy, sad, or angry, can help the business to cater to each customer's requirements in their way and further enhance customer satisfaction. The power of having your sales executives get insights on the customers will give your business a customized edge and give your business a level higher than the other businesses. 

A business can get up to 60% ROI within the first two years with the launch of this solution, along with increased store engagement, repeat footfall, and ensures customer loyalty. Businesses often have privacy-related concerns. But, rest assured, Q3 has worked with IT and business teams of various clients to figure out the privacy concerns which can be improved with legal terms. 

Q3 Technologies have been in business for over two decades now and have customers all around the globe. They have their offices in the US, UK, UAE, India, and Australia. Their main objective is a custom product and applications development in the fields of AI, Machine learning, and robotic process.

Their portfolio of services includes lifecycle support for application development and maintenance. This also includes business analysis, technology consulting, as well as software development. With their improved and innovative technologies, your business will be in good hands. Adopting to the facial and emotion recognition software will give you an extra edge over your competing businesses. Staying on top of their game is what every business wants. 

Technology Leveraged by the Enterprise Digital Transformation

The Indian market is slowly leaning towards adapting to the new cutting-edge IT solutions as well as technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Such applications find many fields in which they can be used, such as the fields of camera vision, facial recognition, and object identification, along with the use of recent trends and the behavioural patterns, these will find their way in the long run. 

Indian market's trends for IT adaptation in the enterprise sector is quite unclear. Let us see some of the observations that have been made: 

There has been a tremendous adoption of IT in the enterprise sector over the past couple of years. It has been led primarily by a mobile-first strategy. India had a lot to catch up to in the past two decades as compared to the Western economies, where IT solutions like ERP, SCM were implemented on a large scale. 

With the introduction of smartphones and the web, this has significantly changed. The rapid use of smartphones triggered the adoption of IT solutions in the enterprise sector. Initially, the entire customer0base was outside India, but, with the recent trends, we now have a 50-50 mix of foreign and Indian customers. 

What is the effect of automation on the Indian market? We do not know how beneficial automation is, let us see the pros and cons of automation: 

The continuous and rigorous push from the CIO's of the big Indian enterprises for automation has created a demand and is quite beneficial to the enterprise sector. The primary drivers of automation are the larger economies of the world. However, Indian companies are bending towards the productivity, efficiency, and customer experience that can be achieved with the help of automation. The market trends show that the adoption of automation is in areas where employee efficiency and productivity can be substantially increased. The initial goal of automation in India is to launch a proof of concept which helps in showcasing the potential ROI and creates a sense of confidence among the customers. 

So, we are quite unsure about the data protection bill, here's all you need to know about the data protection bill: 

With India rapidly evolving into a digital economy, the data protection bill will allow the rightful possession and processing of data. It is an excellent way to call out the data protection obligation while also learning from the global privacy regimes. It can also help in providing solutions to a few issues and laying down provisions for improved transparency and hold data organizations accountable for any actions in the future. 

There are many initiatives undertaken by the Government of India concerning the Digital India mission. Members of the senior management team have been speaking at forums like the FICCI and CCI to provide insights into the industries of the current digital market scenario. They have been actively participating in technology showcases to contribute to the digital transformation. India is slowly becoming completely digitized.

Facial Recognition: The Art of Balancing Security and Privacy

Airports across the globe are increasingly leveraging facial recognition technology to verify and authenticate passengers. But some privacy advocates have raised concerns, especially in India, where several airports are ramping up facial recognition programs.

See Also: The Future of AI-Powered Autonomous Response

The technology has been introduced in recent years at some airports in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Dubai and elsewhere. In India, several airports - including those in Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad - are now rolling out the technology for use by passengers on a voluntary basis.

Some privacy experts in India express strong concerns that the nation lacks privacy regulations that would impose penalties for the misuse of the biometric data by the government or private industry.

Given the potential impact of artificial intelligence, including facial recognition, on society, Alan Woodward, a computer science professor at the University of Surrey, says the time for robust public debate is now.

Indian Airport Activity

Certain airports in India, including those in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi, have begun the process of authenticating passengers voluntarily through facial recognition, which is part of their digital transformation journey. Airports in Pune, Kolkata and Cochin are the next in line for this technology.

The initiative of implementing facial recognition at India's airports, known as the Digi Yatra Policy, is overseen by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which says its goal is to offer air passengers a "seamless, hassle-free and paperless journey experience."

Nandita Mathur, chief strategy officer and head of engineering, at Q3 Technologies, a biometric facial recognition solutions provider, says the technology has undergone vast improvements.

"We first capture full-attention images of persons whom we are going to recognize through facial recognition system," she explains. "A database is then created with face encodings of the images [128 landmark points are used for face encodings]."

With real-time video stream, frames are captured and are ingested in a machine learning algorithm, Mathur says. "In every frame, the algorithm recognizes faces and extracts individual face images for further analysis," she says.

The Global Scenario

In the United States, Delta Airlines launched an end-to-end to biometric terminal leveraging facial recognition for international departures at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airline in November 2018, the airline says.

Facial recognition projects are in various stages at airports in San Jose, California; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Los Angeles and New York among others, according to Business Traveller.

Tokyo Narita Airport aims to introduce facial recognition in spring of 2020, according to a report in Japan Times. Facial scans will be captured at a self-service kiosk.

In Qatar, Hamad International Airport is introducing an end-to-end biometric system, while Dubai International has been working with Emirates on a "smart tunnel," Business Traveller reports.

"Our approach to identity management is unique and holistic, in that we foresee widescale deployment of biometric capability across both mandated and voluntary passenger touch points while addressing customer data privacy concerns in line with relevant local and international regulations," Badr Mohamed al-Meer, COO at Hamad International Airport, told the news media last month.

The International Air Transport Association says some 71 percent of airlines and 77 percent of airports worldwide are investing in a biometrics program.

"Biometric recognition using the One ID concept modernizes the airport experience for passengers and improves the efficiency and security of identification processes," IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac tells Business Traveller. "Using global standards for digital identity and data exchange will move us a big step closer to a hassle-free airport experience for passengers."

source of information: https://www.databreachtoday.com/facial-recognition-balancing-security-vs-privacy-a-13145

About Q3Tech

In it’s almost two decade journey from its early start up days in Boston, Q3 has come a long way as a technology service provider to some of the largest and most recognized companies in the world. Along the way, we have perfected our processes, mastered our development and delivery methodologies, innovated on new and cutting edge technologies, and created a unique approach to solving our customer’s needs. All without ever compromising on our founding principles of “Customer Success”, “Integrity and Honesty” and “Striving for Excellence” in what we do. At Q3, we go beyond providing just solutions, and instead become partners to clients in their growth story

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Facial Recognition: Balancing Security vs. Privacy

Airports across the globe are increasingly leveraging facial recognition technology to verify and authenticate passengers. But some privacy advocates have raised concerns, especially in India, where several airports are ramping up facial recognition programs.

The technology has been introduced in recent years at some airports in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Dubai and elsewhere. In India, several airports - including those in Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad - are now rolling out the technology for use by passengers on a voluntary basis.

Some privacy experts in India express strong concerns that the nation lacks privacy regulations that would impose penalties for the misuse of the biometric data by the government or private industry.

"The biggest challenge is ensuring data privacy of the passengers, as the data garnered through biometrics is vulnerable and can be commercially exploited and sold if there is not tighter security controls and it's not governed appropriately," says Rahul Sharma, country president, India, at the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

A major concern is that facial recognition data gathered at airports might be used by the government for research or offered for sale for use by private industry without passengers' permission, says Brian Brackeen, CEO at Kairos, a Singapore-based software company.

Given the potential impact of artificial intelligence, including facial recognition, on society, Alan Woodward, a computer science professor at the University of Surrey, says the time for robust public debate is now.

"I personally think there should be a much greater public discussion about the use of AI in a variety of fields: law enforcement, medicine, transportation and many others," he says. "Each has safety implications and that at the very least should cause scrutiny."

Indian Airport Activity

Certain airports in India, including those in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi, have begun the process of authenticating passengers voluntarily through facial recognition, which is part of their digital transformation journey. Airports in Pune, Kolkata and Cochin are the next in line for this technology.

The initiative of implementing facial recognition at India's airports, known as the Digi Yatra Policy, is overseen by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which says its goal is to offer air passengers a "seamless, hassle-free and paperless journey experience."

The Digi Yatra Policy states that once passengers submit official proof of identification, an image of their face is scanned. "If the passenger chooses to register through Aadhaar, then images of their face and iris are captured and matched with their Aadhaar biometrics," says Suresh M. Khadakbhavi, CISO at Bangalore International Airport. "Once confirmed, the passenger receives a 72-character token number from Unique Identification Authority of India. This token gets stored on the passenger's profile."

Nandita Mathur, chief strategy officer and head of engineering, at Q3 Technologies, a biometric facial recognition solutions provider, says the technology has undergone vast improvements.

"We first capture full-attention images of persons whom we are going to recognize through facial recognition system," she explains. "A database is then created with face encodings of the images [128 landmark points are used for face encodings]."

With real-time video stream, frames are captured and are ingested in a machine learning algorithm, Mathur says. "In every frame, the algorithm recognizes faces and extracts individual face images for further analysis," she says.

Khadakbhav, the airport CISO, says the Digi Yatra program is designed keeping in mind the fundamentals of privacy.

"The data is stored with airports only until a certain time, post which the data gets purged out of the system," he says. "As airport operator, we will not store your data but the profile gets stored in a Digi Yatra central platform, which is secure platform."

The Global Scenario

In the United States, Delta Airlines launched an end-to-end to biometric terminal leveraging facial recognition for international departures at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airline in November 2018, the airline says.

Facial recognition projects are in various stages at airports in San Jose, California; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Los Angeles and New York among others, according to Business Traveller.

Tokyo Narita Airport aims to introduce facial recognition in spring of 2020, according to a report in Japan Times. Facial scans will be captured at a self-service kiosk.

In Qatar, Hamad International Airport is introducing an end-to-end biometric system, while Dubai International has been working with Emirates on a "smart tunnel," Business Traveller reports.

"Our approach to identity management is unique and holistic, in that we foresee widescale deployment of biometric capability across both mandated and voluntary passenger touch points while addressing customer data privacy concerns in line with relevant local and international regulations," Badr Mohamed al-Meer, COO at Hamad International Airport, told the news media last month.

The International Air Transport Association says some 71 percent of airlines and 77 percent of airports worldwide are investing in a biometrics program.

"Biometric recognition using the One ID concept modernizes the airport experience for passengers and improves the efficiency and security of identification processes," IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac tells Business Traveller. "Using global standards for digital identity and data exchange will move us a big step closer to a hassle-free airport experience for passengers."

Privacy Concerns

But privacy advocates say the use of facial recognition technology at airports raises serious concerns.

"Facial recognition presents numerous challenges in today's context in India, primarily because this technology can violate people's right to privacy," says Pavan Duggal, cybersecurity advocate and chairman of International Commission on Cybersecurity Law. "Right now, there is no legal framework that regulates or enables the use of facial recognition," Duggal tells Indian news media outlet News18.

But India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had earlier stated that in the absence of any law around data protection, data will be regulated according to Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2008. It states that a "body corporate" will pay compensation up to Rs 5 crore ($705,000) when it is "negligent in implementing and maintaining reasonable security practices and procedures and thereby causes wrongful loss or wrongful gain to any person."

Sharma of the IAPP points out, however, that "this applies only to private companies. What happens if the government is at fault? We definitely need a better and more evolved law which takes into account all stakeholders involved."

Civil Liberties Issues

Facial recognition poses a potential threat to basic civil liberties, privacy advocates argue.

"People don't expect to have their identity, their location, and who they associate with logged every time they step outside and walk down the street," says Matt Cagle, an attorney for the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That's the kind of world that automated face surveillance would usher in," he tells the Los Angeles Times.

Khadakbhavi, the CISO at Bangalore International Airport, offers this response: "Of course a law around privacy will give more confidence to users and keep away privacy concerns. But for now, we are confident of the security measures we have implemented."

Facial recognition data is encrypted and only temporarily stored, he notes. The Bangalore airport has implemented a series of security measures to ensure proper implementation of the technology as well as sanctity of data. Khadakbhav explains the security measures taken to safeguard data in the platform: "The data is stored in a way that a hacker will not get name and phone number of a passenger together. Also, only certified devices can have access to data." So far, only Air Vistara has agreed to participate in government's Digi Yatra facial recognition program.

Source URL : https://www.databreachtoday.com/facial-recognition-balancing-security-vs-privacy-a-13145

Webinar Chatbots | Reinventing the Way Your Business Interacts with the World

Chatbots: Reinventing the Way Your Business Interacts with the World

Digital Transformation has become the new Epi-Center of Technology evolution, and doesn’t matter whether BIG, or not so; the organizations are aligning towards it.

Chatbot, is no new name in this Digital Transformation era. Being the most heard and in-demand technology chatbot has gained more power by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and making the interaction more focused and personalized.

From understanding the intent behind the customers’ requests to responding the queries in a natural and human centric way, AI-powered Chatbots have gone to an altogether different level by utilizing Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques.

Register for the webinar and join us to discover how Chatbots can help you overcome business challenges to deliver immediate and measurable ROI. 

Key Takeaways from the Webinar:-

·              How Chatbots are making the impact by re-defining the way of interactions

·              How Artificial Intelligence is adding more power to Chatbots and making it best suited for your business needs

·              How to overcome challenges/limitations faced by the organizations during Chatbot implementations

·              The best practices to implement Chatbot for your business in the most efficient & flawless way

·              Where the world of Chatbots is moving and what’s in future?

Let’s explore how Bots can help to grow your Business & Brand-Value.

source url : https://www.q3tech.com/webinar-chatbots-reinventing-the-way-your-business-interacts-with-the-world-emea/

Leveraging Enterprise Digital Transformation with Technology

The Indian market is gradually maturing towards adopting cutting-edge IT solutions, and technologies as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is here to stay and evolve. There are several applications which involves such technologies finds usage in the fields of camera vision, facial recognition and object identification augmented analytics with the help of trends and behavioral patterns and predictive modeling, will find their way and exist in the long run, in several government pet policies, asserted Anuj Mathur, CEO, Q3 Technologies in a conversation with Poulami Chakraborty of BW SmartCities. Excerpts below:

Having catered to the enterprise sector, what has been you're an observation about the Indian market’s trends for IT adaptation in the enterprise sector?

We have seen tremendous adoption of IT in the Indian enterprise sector over the last decade led with what has primarily been a mobile-first strategy.  If we look back about two decades, India was lagging quite heavily in this space compared to Western economies where various IT solutions especially ERP, SCM and enterprise IT solutions were implemented on a large scale. 

All of that changed with the advent of initially the web and more significantly the smartphones. The rapid adoption of smartphones triggered an equally robust adoption of IT in the enterprise sector. This is also reflected in the fact that while a decade ago, our entire customer-base was outside India, today we have a much healthier 50-50 mix of Indian and Foreign clients. Q3 Technologies is doing some amazing cutting-edge work in the Indian enterprise segment with AI, ML, IoT, Chatbots, Automation, and BI-Analytics.

How is automation molding the Indian market trends according to you? Do you believe it is beneficial? Your views.

I see an aggressive push from CIOs of large Indian enterprises for automation, and that is hugely beneficial for the sector at large.

While the primary drivers for automation in the more advanced economies of the world have typically been workforce and cost-reduction related, Indian CIOs are looking at it more from the point of view of increasing productivity, enhancing efficiency and improving customer experience. The market trends therefore also reflect automation adoption in areas where employee efficiency and productivity increase can be realized. Our approach for automation is to start with a Proof of Concept (POC) for the customer, which helps in realizing the potential ROI and creates customer confidence.

Blockchain has evolved drastically in the past 5 years? Do you think that the Indian market is ready for adaptation to such a high-end tech-solution? What future do you foresee for blockchains in India?

While a number of pilots and POCs are already in the works, for India to adopt blockchain technology at scale, it will need a regulatory structure and government support. Along these lines, NITI Aayog, co-hosted the International Blockchain Congress (biggest blockchain conference in Asia) last year. Events such as these will eventually lay the groundwork for blockchain adoption in the country. 

Having said this, blockchain has the potential to be a revolutionary technology which will eventually lead to a paradigm shift in virtually all industries including Retail, Banking, Healthcare, Education, Logistics, Real Estate, and Governance. Indian customers are slowly treading the path of Blockchain adoption with smaller simpler “blockchain-inspired solutions” to understand its applicability and scale. 

Your views about Data Protection Bill?

India is very rapidly moving towards becoming a digital economy, and thus the Data Protection Bill allowing rightful and lawful possession and processing of data is a key to get us there. I think it is an excellent initiative at calling out data protection obligations while drawing on learnings from global privacy regimes and trying to remedy some of the issues. It lays down key provisions to promote transparency and hold data fiduciaries/organizations accountable for their actions. The Bill’s mandate on data localization will help Indian software services companies in the long term 

How beneficial do you think AI and ML for the Indian market? Which segments of operations do you feel has the need for these technologies more?

As the Indian market is gradually maturing towards adopting cutting-edge IT solutions, AI-ML is here to stay and evolve. It has several applications in the Indian market – many of which we are actively working with our clients. These applications are in the fields of camera vision, facial recognition and object identification, augmented analytics with the help of trends and behavioral patterns and predictive modeling (for e.g., with respect to sales and inventory forecasting and equipment maintenance and fault prevention). Another area where AI and ML are being extensively used is in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the use of bots and chatbots.

The use of advanced digital technologies like AI and ML are allowing Indian companies to compete and win in the global marketplace.

What challenges do you come across while operating in India? How are you mitigating them?

To my mind, we do not come across any India-specific challenges that are fundamentally different from operating anywhere else in the world. Every country provides some opportunities and some challenges and we put in plans to mitigate those challenges as part of our business strategy. In fact, the overall support from the regulatory standpoint has improved drastically in the last couple of years, thus helping the Indian IT industry.

What plans of expansion does Q3 Technologies have in the pipeline?

Q3 has emerged as a serious challenger to the existing service providers in India over the last few years. With a very large number of marquee clients in India, Europe, US, APAC, and the Middle East, Q3 is poised for even greater growth momentum in the future. With the recent large investments that Q3 has made in our expansion at the Mahindra SEZ in Jaipur and our new office in the Mumbai, Q3 has aggressive expansion plans in India and in overseas markets over the next few years. We have also recently started our Sydney and Dubai sales offices, with which we now have a presence across all the major geographies

What initiatives are you taking in lines with the Government of India’s Digital India mission?

Q3 is an active member of various GOI initiatives specifically with respect to the Digital India mission. Members of our senior management team have been participating and speaking at various forums like: FICCI, CCI, and GeM where we provide industry-specific insights and participate in technology showcases and tries to give best of our contribution to GOIs agenda of Digital Transformation. We are working closely with several Government departments for developing AI-ML, Chatbots, and BI-Analytics based solutions.

Source URL : http://bwsmartcities.businessworld.in/article/Leveraging-Enterprise-Digital-Transformation-with-Technology/09-07-2019-173007/

Benefits of Robotic Process Automation in Business

All the business organizations are aligning towards the digital transformation which has become the necessity to survive the competition. The technological advancement is helping the businesses to reduce the unnecessary cost of storing the goods, streamlining operations and maintaining the proper records of receivables and payables. The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) helps in automating the business processes and delivers immediate Return on Investment. RPA has been very successful in resolving the issues of the gaming industry.

RPA refers to the using of software integrated with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence which helps the business organizations in handling the high-volume and the tasks which are repeatedly done by humans. It includes all the calculations, maintaining records and handling queries. It allows the organization to implement the technology without any change in the current system and the framework and also swiftly and efficiently. Various big software companies are the RPA services provider which helps the companies to automate their work. The best RPA applications include:  

• Accounting: RPA can be used by companies for operational accounting, budgeting and for making the transactional report.
• Healthcare: The hospitals, labs, and clinics can maintain the record of patients, managing accounts, billing and provide customer support with the help of RPA.
• HR: The routine work of hr like information updating of employees and submitting timesheet can be easily automated by RPA.
• Customer Support: By implementing RPA in the companies, it can help them to provide great customer support by automating the contact center tasks like verification through e-signatures, verifying scanned documents, etc.
• Value chain control: RPA can assist in procuring, automating order handling, supervising the stock levels and monitoring shipments.
• Financial services: RPA can assist the companies in providing financial services in automating the account opening/ closing, forex payments, and administering review applications and handling insurance claims.

RPA helps in automating the repetitive processes and certain advantages of RPA are as follows:

• Accelerates the routine proceedings: Hiring the RPA companies in your business will help in simplifying the routine work. It will also require less monitoring as the majority of processes does not require human intervention. The lengthy and complex processes can also be automated but they may require some kind of human intervention at some point.
• Data-driven process: The functions which are done without any modification in the process are mostly suitable for RPA. The RPA cannot be implemented in the process which has to be changed frequently. RPA will help you in providing high precision and lowers the operating risk. The need for monitoring the processes will be lowered whereas output will be increased.

RPA is not good for all the business processes, the right process has to be chosen to automate them. The process which requires a lot of time and is labor-intensive and is repetitive in nature is perfect for RPA. The cost of RPA software is very high and it must be taken into consideration while analyzing the cost reduction. There are various RPA services vendors which will help you in automating the business processes.