Facial, vocal and emotional recognition

Reality is catching up to science fiction, and facial, voice and emotional recognition might soon become part of our daily lives. In this article, the provider of IT solutions for hotels SiteMinder emphasizes that in tourism and hospitality especially, the potential applications of these technologies are numerous and some are already live, or almost.

Let’s start with facial recognition: this technology is already tested in several airports, such as in Aruba, Singapore or Dublin. Passengers have their photo taken by a special device, which automatically compares it to the photo held in the biometric chip of the passenger’s passport. They can therefore avoid a long manual/visual check of the customs officer. Facial recognition can be used in hotels as well; a room door could scan the customer’s face to determine whether or not he’s authorized to enter the room, and forgetful people would not worry anymore to lose their keys!

About voice recognition, Amazon’s voice-assistant Alexa is already used by many tourism companies, such as Expedia for instance. Expedia uses the assistant to help customers manage their trip; they can get information easily and even rent cars. It is good in the sense that people can really get the customized information they want directly, instead of having to navigate through pages and pages of content to find what they want. Voice assistants can be used by physical locations as well, such as airports or hotels, as a concierge service for their customers to guide them in their journey.

The emotional recognition is not as developed yet as voice or facial recognition, but its potential is immense. Imagine travel apps recognizing what mood you are in and based on that proposing accommodations, amenities and even restaurants that cater to your mood. In need of a romantic and resting holiday away from the kids, emotional recognition apps will give you a filtered selection that fits your needs and mood. No more searching hundreds of hotels to find the right fit. Travelsify and Expedia are already experimenting with accurately reading travellers emotions and more improvements are to come to further customize customers’ experience.

We believe that artificial intelligence along with facial, vocal and emotional recognition will allow travellers to get the maximum from their travel experiences. Waiting lines at airports and hotels can be eliminated thanks to facial recognition, and voice allows for quicker reservations. In addition, with intelligent apps picking up your mood and desires, the travel experience can be much better and smoother. Customers will therefore travel more, do more during their trips and consequently spend more. Therefore the travel industry can only grow exponentially in the future with these technologies.

The question remains whether these technologies will increase the cost of travel. What would happen if a computer glitch happens, a virus or server issues happen? Will these bring tourism to a stop? It’s wonderful to dream and make dreams reality, but while keeping feet on the ground.

By Solène & Kenza

Source :

Collins@siteminder.com, Kiarnie. “Face and Voice Recognition: The Promises They Make to Travellers.” SiteMinder, SiteMinder, 15 Jan. 2018, 

www.siteminder.com/r/hotel-distribution/online-travel-agents/face-voice-emotional-recognition-promises-make-travellers/.