The gaming events calendar kicked off last week with EAG 2020 which took place at Excel in London over three days.  As well as demoing their ICU age verification device, ITL previewed their new facial identification technology showing Operators how they can detect players who have willingly excluded or have been excluded.

Andy Bullock, Senior Business Manager commented, “EAG visitors were keen to check out ICU with many coming to the stand to see our instant age check technology in action.  We also showed gaming operators how they can manage their self-exclusion and VIP databases using our clever ICU facial recognition technology. Visitors to the stand also had a bit of fun with our celebrity parents’ demo which matches a user’s facial features to celebrities saved in the database.  Overall, Operators were keen to see how they can use ICU to ensure compliance to prevent underage gambling and safeguard children, supporting responsible gambling and player protection initiatives.”

ICU boasts a high level of accuracy with a proven 96% success rate in detecting under 18’s and compared to a human accuracy rate of 69% it outperforms humans across all age ranges. ICU is also listed in first place (99.8% accuracy) on the Labeled Faces in the Wild (http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/lfw/) – a public benchmark for face verification.  It uses artificial intelligence and ITL’s own algorithms to recognise faces and verify age.

Andy continued, “As always our Spectral Technology attracted lots of interest, especially the NV9 Spectral. This highly secure and technologically advanced banknote validator boasts full note high resolution imaging to authenticate banknote validity and protect against fraudulent and stained notes. Customers were also keen to learn more about how they can extend their recycling capabilities by adding a compatible note float module (NV11 Spectral) to the NV9 Spectral to ensure float levels and downtime are reduced.”

“In addition, we had a few queries about the new £20 Bank of England polymer banknote from our existing customers and so reminded them that the GBP datasets have now been released ahead of the new note entering circulation on Thursday 20^th February.  This single currency and firmware update includes notes from all issuing banks of England and Scotland and units can be updated quickly and easily using our free software download facility. To allow for multiple units in the field to be updated with ease, customers can use the SMART Update Tool (a handheld pre-programmed DA3). “

Concluding Andy said, “We are delighted with the feedback we received from customers at EAG and plans are now in full swing for ICE – the next big event for us in the gaming calendar.”

Leaders in cash validation, Innovative Technology, plan to have their latest Spectral Technology products and ICU age verification & facial recognition devices centre stage on the stand at ICE 2020 on 4th - 6th February. 

Marcus Tiedt, Sales Director commented, “Since the introduction of ICU age verification in 2019 we have been developing the productand can now offer facial recognition technology.  ICU uses artificial intelligence and ITL’s own algorithms to instantly verify age and the next iteration of ICU can now identify faces. ICU Age Verification can therefore ensure compliance to prevent underage gambling and safeguard children, while ICU Facial Recognition can allow Operators to identify VIPs and those who have willingly self-excluded or have been excluded. Supporting responsible gambling and ensuring player protection is imperative for the gaming industry and should be a key part of any corporate social responsibility strategy – with ICU we can help customers implement this important policy.”

ICU boasts a high level of accuracy with a proven 96% success rate in detecting under 18’s and compared to a human accuracy rate of 69% it outperforms humans across all age ranges. ICU is also listed in first place (99.8% accuracy) on the Labeled Faces in the Wild (http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/lfw/) – a public benchmark for face verification. 

Marcus continued, “ICE is the biggest gaming show in the world and provides an ideal platform for us to preview new and exciting products to the market. This year we will also focus on showing ICE visitors the advantages of using Spectral Technology when validating and recycling cash. We are looking forward to showing visitors the advantages of the Spectral Payout – a state-of-the-art recycler which is ideal for high volume applications requiring multi-denomination recycling at fast speeds.  This advanced version of the SMART Payout offers a huge 80 note recycling capacity and can store and recycle all denominations from a given currency helping to manage float levels more efficiently and keep machines operational. Using Spectral Technology, it has the added benefit of offering complete note image capture (highest spectral coverage) to authenticate banknote validity and protect against fraudulent and stained notes.”

Continuing Marcus said, “Installing this unit in conjunction with the SMART Coin System (SCS) – a bulk coin validator, mixed coin hopper and recycler in one, results in fast, multi-denomination recycling for both notes and coins.  The SCS has a market leading coin hopper capacity with payout speeds of up to 12 coins per second, eliminating coin starvation, the need for multiple hoppers and improving cashflow.”

Marcus concluded, “Make sure you come and see our latest Spectral recycler and test the ICU age verification and facial identification units on stand N1-430. You will be impressed with the high level of accuracy and how easily ICU can be implemented to help you prevent underage gambling in your premises as well as support the self-exclusion scheme.”