An increasing incidence of examination fraud (people sitting exams for others) in education institutions is being successfully countered using NEC’s world-leading Facial Recognition technology.

Melbourne firm Genix Ventures has begun utilising NEC’s NeoFace facial recognition solution to identify people who have been brought into examinations (at times in exchange for payment) to substitute for the actual student.

Genix Ventures has successfully trialled the technology at a tertiary institution in Melbourne and is now utilising it in a solution built for Melbourne-based Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessments (CBLA).

CBLA is a subsidiary of Cambridge Assessments, the assessments arm of world-renowned Cambridge University, and administers the Occupational English test (OET), an English language assessment for healthcare professionals wanting to register and practice in English-speaking environments such as Australia and the UK.

“As the number of users increases, so does the scale and flexibility of what NEC provides - we have found it to be one of the most capable and robust platforms in the world in terms of facial recognition,” said Steve Godinho, CEO of Genix Ventures.

“NEC provides Genix Ventures with the capability, quality and reliability required in high-stakes examination environments,” he said.

Steve Godinho’s relationship with NEC on Facial Recognition began in 2015 when he witnessed the technology firsthand at a showcase at NEC’s global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

The focus for Genix Ventures continues to be that an enrolled student is actually the person sitting the exam and not a substitute.

Mr Godinho says rates of attempted impersonation vary, but could be as high as 2% in some countries and for some high-stakes assessments, so facial recognition is very useful to authenticate a student not just at the start of an exam, but also at random intervals during the exam to minimise the possibility of students swapping places.

CBLA CEO Sujata Stead says NEC’s facial recognition solution is overcoming attempts at exam fraud:

“From our point of view we want to guarantee that no matter where we operate, when someone applies for the OET test, the person who turns up on the test day and the person on the assessment certificate are one and the same person.

“This is essential for us to be able to assure regulatory authorities who accept OET that candidates’ results are reliable,” she said.

“NEC makes facial recognition solution accessible to businesses without the need for them to create, host and maintain the underlying infrastructure,” said NEC’s Head of Safer Cities, Mark Chadwick.

“Facial Recognition is taking on a greater focus for enterprises in 2019 and NEC is a world-leader in this field with independent testing of our algorithms frequently rating NEC first for accuracy,” he said. *

(*) NEC's Video Face Recognition Technology Ranks First in NIST Testing