Ticketmaster trials facial recognition software which could replace physical and digital tickets entirely

Ticketmaster’s Q1 report last week revealed a 19% increase in revenue, but also included a reference to a new partnership with facial recognition software company Blink Identity.

The new partnership has been established so that Live Nation’s Ticketmaster can trial face-scanning as an alternative to traditional ticketing methods.

The testing phase has reportedly already begun, with Blink Identity‘s website suggesting that its technology can register an image of someone’s face as soon as they walk past a censor.

This new tech then matches that image against a database and can determine whether a person has valid entry to an event or concert.

As DMN reports, a recent meeting with investors saw Live Nation explain Blink Identity’s “cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show.”

This could see facial recognition replace both physical and digital tickets, but with security concerns have already been raised.

According to Bleeping Computer, researchers have developed techniques that can trick similar systems using printed photos of Facebook photos.

Other concerns who will have access to the data collected, as well as whether hackers could gain access.

And of course there’s the question of functionality when it comes to the ability of the software to recognise when a face has changed from the original database image.

The results of the trial will reveal more when they come to hand.