Facial recognition with your takeaway coffee

The faces of customers at Sydney's Bahista Cafe are scanned by an iPad as they approach the barista at the coffee machine.

Instantly the customer's name, favourite order and whether they are due for a loyalty reward flashes up on another iPad facing staff.

It's a high-tech facial recognition system that works using cafe owner Geoff Cropley's own technology, which he's dubbed NoahFace.

"I bought this cafe 3½ years ago and from day one I wanted to remember my customers names as I thought it was a way to have a better relationship with them," Cropley says.

"I thought I could use my human brain and I failed miserably. I searched the world for a low-cost face recognition and there was nothing out there, all the solutions were multimillion-dollar ones. So I went about creating what we have today."

Cropley spent almost two years working on the technology with developer John MacLean and after a failed prototype, which was "too slow", launched NoahFace at the cafe in July 2016.

"Customers overwhelmingly love it," Cropley says. "They say they come to the cafe because it is so personal." Read more

Cara Waters - Brisbane Times - 4 Jan 2018