The face that opens all doors
Facial biometrics is one of three ways to identify a person without additional devices, cards, and documents. The other two – iris and fingerprint recognition – aren't as universal and applicable as biometrics.
If you think about it, we confirm our identity and property rights dozens of times every day by using our door phones, cars, and apartment keys, as well as by showing our passports, tickets, passes, and loyalty cards, or by entering transaction codes.
A device that would allow us to enter institutions of all levels, from the state library to the gym, that would open the doors of our apartments and cars, that would help us pay for purchases in any store – this is the keystone of our new ecosystem. It would make it possible to leave our phones, documents, and keys at home, and yet complete all the planned tasks.
“We are doing our best to solve the problem of overloading people with identification tools. We want to get rid of unnecessary keys, dozens of cards, business card holders, cardholders, and wallets by replacing them all with simple face biometrics,” says Peter Osipov, a strategic development manager of the O’Vision startup. “Comfort and simplicity are important for people, that’s why we offer them a device that will free them from unnecessary things in their pockets. Companies, in their turn, value security and data – we provide that, too. It's possible to detect the exact time of an employee's arrival and departure by using facial recognition entry systems, which provides us with a clear picture of the worker's efficiency.”
O’Vision is a startup from ITMO University’s Accelerator (link in Russian). It actively grows both in the international and Russian markets by producing and selling devices for major companies, even though a year ago it was just a team of five people. In the fall of 2019, the project ended up among the top three startups at the international forum SLUSH. It's the best result among Russian companies ever (SLUSH has been held for 12 years).
The devices developed by O’Vision allow an enterprise to control access to its premise, especially in closed areas and divisions remote from the head office. Peter Osipov met with ITMO students to tell them about the company and its products and invite everyone interested in computer vision and smart devices in the field of biometrics to join the O'Vision team.
Control and analytics for the client
Today, the main scope of biometrics applications is corporate security. People can lose, damage, forget or give a physical pass to another colleague to scan it for them. At remote sites, it’s difficult for the management to control the contractor: it may happen that according to the documents, it's one team of workers, but in reality, other – perhaps less competent – people work instead.
This spring exposed another weakness of passes – the physical contact. The employee and the person who checks their pass exchange bacteria. Biometrics solves all these problems, according to O’Vision.
“We design and assemble devices, program them, and create interfaces for corporate clients. It allows companies to easily control the time of arrival and departure of employees, check their entries and absences, and therefore, draw up transparent analytics of how the personnel actually work,” says Peter Osipov.
How to promote such an expensive and niche device?
Today, O’Vision's offers four products: O’Gate, O’Mini, O’Pay, and O’Door.
O’Gate is the startup’s main device. This is the device that most of their customers have installed. It allows you to control access to an enterprise using facial biometrics.
O’Pay is a device that O’Vision is gradually bringing to the market. It allows you to pay at the store checkout by looking at the device and approving the payment on an app.
O’Mini is a device that the startup plans to install on apartment doors. This project is currently in development.
O’Door is a lite edition of O’Gate for companies that cannot afford the whole package but want to implement face biometrics.
“It’s important that we develop not only technological but also convenient, beautiful devices in terms of design. They look good on the walls and doors where our clients install them, they do not interfere with the work process. It's not hard to be detected by the device. Moreover, a well-designed device can sell itself, attracting our clients’ partners,” adds Peter Osipov.
Affordability, convenience, beautiful design, company’s activity, participation in specialized events, and investment in advertising are the main ways of promotion, but when the target audience is an enterprise, reaching out and showing your product can be more difficult. Peter Osipov emphasized that such a client can be reached with the help of an accelerator because companies organize corporate accelerators and act as investors when they are looking for new ideas and technologies to implement.
The O’Vision representative notes that ITMO University students will be able to get even more professional skills and practice in the field of computer vision and facial biometrics during their internship at the startup. This experience will be an excellent career start, as the students will receive competencies that are relevant and in-demand in today’s market.
To apply for the internship, please send your CV to peter@ovision.co.uk.
