Automation of the sex industry or public services in German
From the moment when we declared out loud about the recognition of the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation on a mobile phone , more than three years have passed. During this time, we have taught our engine to recognize various identity documents for more than 165 countries of the world. But in this article we decided not to write about the high importance and complexity of technology, the enormous scale of development, but to focus on describing an interesting option from the point of view of automating the national economy of using our engine. If you are 18+, and also the details are interesting, welcome under cat.
So, in this article we will talk about the automation of such a social institution in Germany - the sphere of the provision of sexual services. Despite the fact that prostitution in this country is officially allowed, this business remains poorly controlled by the state and, as a result, quite dangerous for all participants in the process.
In 2017, the Law on the Protection of Sex Workers entered into force, which is designed to bring order to the professional industry and partly bureaucratize the procedure of providing intimate services. For example, German heteras will be required to renew the work permit every two years, register in the city where they work and undergo regular medical examinations. Clients, in turn, get access to a complete base of high-quality proven experts.
The development of a mobile application that helps employees of the German industry to work successfully in new conditions without wandering the bureaucratic web has become a logical tool for translating the Law into a practical direction . The application helps the girls to deal with all the subtleties of the law, fully controlling the procedure for passing medical certificates and the necessary accreditations. The law also implies prompt access to the list of public services, for access to which it is necessary to enter data of identity documents. It is here that the solution from Smart Engines , which is flexible in terms of settings, has found its application , which makes it possible to quickly and accurately recognize a document and automatically fill in all the necessary fields in a mobile application.
Well, let's go directly to the document. The certificate of registration of prostitutes is made on special paper and folds into a compact booklet for easy wearing (see Figure 1). Unlike the classic identity document, the Certificate of Registration for Prostitutes allows for the indication of the pseudonym used by sex workers, instead of the real name. In addition, the certificate must contain the document number, place and date of birth, nationality, photo, expiration date, as well as information about the authority that issued the document and supervises the activities of a particular employee.
Figure 1 - Example of Certificate of registration of prostitutes in Germany
Based on the structure described, the task of recognizing such a document is complicated by the following problems:
1. Independent linking of each page. Because of the “book” structure, the main page spread when photographing is not flat, each page is geometrically distorted in its own way. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem of linking each page separately (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 - Independent linking of Certificate pages
2. Variability in filling. Optionally, the Certificate may indicate the choice of either the real name or a pseudonym. In rare cases, all information may be indicated. Therefore, the system should be ready for such variations and avoid confusion in order to avoid misunderstandings.
3. Ambiguity in the name spelling language. The certificate of registration of a prostitute allows the spelling of the name in the native language (and not only in German). Therefore, we recognize the text of the name with the help of a special neural network that is ready for an extended Latin alphabet (which includes, in addition to standard letters, the corresponding modifications of letters characteristic of Polish, Hungarian, Turkish, Spanish, etc.) and further, taking into account the specified in document nationality, decide on the "correct" for this case, the results of recognition.
As a result, we have prepared a special recognition core assembly for our German colleagues, the embedding of which into the mobile application has simplified and accelerated data entry from the Certificate, which the German colleagues write about in their [ press release ].
Instead of conclusion
Remember, not so long ago, in the early 2000s, many adults scolded their children that because of these computers they would completely forget how to write with a simple ballpoint pen. But such conversations do not stop technological development! Today, with the advent of iPhones and androids with their infinitely intelligent assistants, multi-megapixel cameras and monstrously powerful processors, the text is no longer desirable. That is why passport recognition technology is so actively implemented, allowing us to get from ordinary mobile applications a whole sea of new sensations that we haven’t experienced before (“… 12, 2018 Event Keynote).