Axess Introduces SMART GUARD: Innovative Software To Uncover Illegal Distribution Of Ski Tickets

Passing ski tickets between private individuals “under the table” is often seen as a minor offense – to the detriment of the mountain railway companies, for whom this “common practice” leads to noticeable economic losses year after year. With the new SMART GUARD software, Axess now offers an easy-to-implement and 100% data protection-compliant solution that effectively puts a stop to ticket fraud. A test operation in the Italian ski resort of Le Melette confirms this with impressive results.

There are basically two reasons why ticket fraud has become a kind of "national sport" in many ski regions: a lack of awareness among skiers and, to date, very few practical control options on the mountain railways. With the new Axess SMART GUARD software, ski resort operators now have an easy-to-implement solution to change this permanently.

Simple basic principle: automated comparison of photos

At its core, SMART GUARD is a software developed by Axess that can be easily integrated into existing Axess systems. The basic principle of SMART GUARD is relatively simple: Every time a person passes through the gate to access the cable car, a photo of that person is taken and assigned to the ski ticket. Axess SMART GUARD compares the images taken with each other and determines whether there is enough similarity between the images.

Data protection compliant – no biometric data!

Axess SMART GUARD does not collect or store any biometric data - which makes it much easier to use in terms of European data protection regulations. The system uses algorithms to analyze the appearance of the person in the photo based on purely optical characteristics; for example, colors, shapes, patterns and proportions. Thanks to AI support, Axess SMART GUARD is constantly learning and continuously optimizing itself.

Photos that are unusable and do not allow for a meaningful comparison - for example because there are too many people in them - are sorted out from the start. The ski resorts alone decide when the photos are deleted. The images are usually stored for as long as the respective ski pass is valid. In special cases, it makes sense to keep the photos for a longer period and this can be defined separately by the system, for example if ticket fraud is uncovered.

In the end, the mountain railway employees decide

One of the key advantages of Axess SMART GUARD is the minimal amount of time it takes to uncover the unlawful double use of tickets. In order to efficiently process the resulting data volumes for the cable car employees, SMART GUARD creates a sorted list. This shows how well the photos associated with a specific ski ticket match. The match between the photos is expressed using a "score": the closer the score is to 1, the higher the probability that the ticket was always used by the same person at the gate. The further the score tends towards zero, the more discrepancies were discovered and the more likely ticket fraud is. A look at the worst values ​​on the list is enough to see which skiers are most likely to be "black sheep". Whether and what measures are taken against this fraud is then always decided by the cable car company employees.

Successful practical test in family ski area

Before its market launch, Axess SMART GUARD was extensively tested in the Italian family ski resort of Le Melette. During the test phase in the 2023/2024 ski season, it was found that a total of just over five percent of the ski tickets sold were passed on "privately" - which in other words means ticket fraud. As Axess SMART GUARD also revealed, season passes were particularly affected. More than 15 percent of the season tickets were used without permission at least once.

"This system, which analyses the images taken when passing through the gate, proved to be extremely efficient and delivered excellent results during the winter test," explains Mario Timpano, member of the board of directors of the Le Melette ski area. "The test carried out confirmed the reliability and accuracy of this technology, which has significantly reduced the unauthorized transfer of ski passes. This not only has a positive impact on revenue, but also ensures fairer and safer management of the ski area. The very satisfactory results of the winter test encourage us to continue down this path - with the aim of further expanding the use of this technology in the coming years," concludes Le Melette board member Mario Timpano.