A new technology is added as an integral part of Haifa Port’s truck cargo gate, which opened earlier this year and is considered the most advanced of its kind in the world: an innovative system that recognizes the faces of incoming truck drivers while they sit in the cabin, and which operates under any weather and lighting conditions.
The system is the product of the port’s collaboration with the Israeli Meptagon group and Wikisense. The facial recognition system uses a database created from images in Haifa Port’s existing licensing system, which constantly updates automatically by optimizing the data that is being collected every day at the entrance gate. However, the database does not include actual photos of drivers, and it contains no private or personal information related to the drivers.
In a pilot run of the system that was carried out in recent months, 99.5% of incoming truckers were identified correctly and quickly, and the system reduced the number of staff required at the port’s entrance gate by 40%. Haifa Port predicts significantly higher savings within a few months, once the run-in period is over. Following the successful pilot, this week the system became almost fully operational, and it was launched in a modest ceremony while complying with COVID-19 protective measures.
The project leaders in Haifa Port were Yaron Klein, Head of Security; Yehoshua Forman, Head of the IT Division; and Uri Regev, who supervised the project on behalf of the IT Division.