Our 'ID Processor' service processes guest documents, retrieves the necessary info from them and completes the respective fields in registration cards. All of that is done automatically within 20 seconds. We have used an advanced OCR technology recognizing documents from over 200 countries, retrieving the necessary info and checking the document validity. In contrast to the well-known scanners only recognizing the MRZ lines of documents, our technology recognizes all info found in the document.
Furthermore, the 'ID Processor' retrieves the picture of the guest from the document, as well as their signature in case you would like to compare it to the signature from the registration card or see how the guest looks.
For us, security is of utmost importance! Images of the document, guest and signature are kept in a secure storage in compliance with our strict policy of safekeeping of photo IDs.
Important: The images are destroyed within 3 months of the booking checkout. Clock guarantees that no other copies of these images are kept anywhere in the system.
Note: For those of you, whose local legislation does not allow the storage of photo ID images, you can disable storing of the images from menu Settings->All Settings->Guest Profiles->ID Processor. Rest assured that the data will still be recorded in the registration card/guest profile when you take the photo of the document, but the image of the document will not be stored.
Implementation
The ID processor can be used in two main ways:
- By guests during their Online Check-in
- By hotel staff at the front desk
Online Check-in
The ‘ID Processor’ service plays the main role for the quick guest registration. It enables the system to automatically retrieve the necessary registration information from a passport image using state-of-the-art specialized OCR technology. If enabled in the Online Check-in settings guests will have the option to make a photo of their document during the Online Check-in through their phone camera or PC webcam and record the necessary information quickly.
At the Front desk
The ID Processor functionality for optical recognition of ID documents can also be used at the reception desk or in the back office to significantly speed up the processing of arrivals.
You can use the ID Processor in two main ways - through the camera of your front desk mobile device (tablet or smartphone) or through a web camera connected to your PC. To get the best out of this service, you need clear and focused images of the ID documents.
Tip: Here is an idea on how to set up the web camera that you might find useful.
We have used a Razer Kiyo web camera for the tests. The web camera has turned out very convenient for the task due to its resolution (2688 x 1520), the well-performing autofocus even at close distances and most surely for its built-in lighting. We placed the camera on a small tripod (20 - 30 cm) on a desk directing it downwards while making sure the angle is not 90 degrees to avoid camera glares on the document images. Here is why the camera was tilted at a small angle being enough to light the document without camera glares. To ease our work, we marked the spot on the desk where a document had to be placed to obtain precise images without needing to adjust it each time. Even with a very low lighting on the premises, this setup produced excellent results. We hope our tips will be of help to you.
Using the ID Processor
In order to use the ID processor, navigate to the 'Guest' section in the booking and click the yellow 'ID processor' button.
The main actions are in the upper right corner:
- Create a new guest (1): It gives you the option to search for a guest in the existing guest profiles. If not found, click the add button once again to create a blank guest profile.
- Create a new guest through the ID processor (3): Using your mobile device camera/PC webcam, scan the ID document and the data will be filled in the newly created guest profile. Depending on the Store ID processor images setting we have already mentioned in the previous section, the ID document images will be stored or not.
- If, for some reason, you have a file containing an image of the ID document (2), you can use the file for the recognition of the data through the feature. On mobile devices, the feature is only one and it uses the native choice of the device for snapping or uploading files.
- If the guest profile exists, you can add info to it from the document. For each guest, there is an option to add data from a document through camera scan or from an existing file (4).
- If you wish to view the ID document images, open the edit screen of the guest (5).