Sydney cafe using face recognition technology for coffee orders

ORDERING a coffee in the morning has become a lot easier thanks to an innovative Sydney company that uses facial recognition.

Andrea McCullagh
SEPTEMBER 7, 2017
Mosman Daily

ORDERING a coffee is coming with an extra hit of technology thanks to an innovative North Sydney company.

NoahFace has created software that remembers cafe customers’ faces and their favourite drink.

The idea for the technology started brewing when Geoff Cropley and Julie Buchanan opened up Bahista Cafe in Sydney three years ago.

He found it difficult to recall the names of his regular customers and believed that technology could provide the answer.

“I just struggled to remember the names and the orders. I remembered the faces,” he said.

“I found it quite embarrassing.

“We thought, ‘we can’t do this through brain power’, because with the sheer volume of faces it was impossible.”

They teamed up with coder John MacLean and he wrote the software for the facial recognition system.

It uses two iPads at the cash register — one looking at the customer and the other at the staff.

When a customer walks in it recognises their face and tells the staff their name and regular order.

Customers also don’t have to carry loyalty cards as their purchases are logged on the computer system.

“They absolutely love it,” Mr Cropley said.

“They love being surprised when we say ‘this one is on us’.”

Mr Cropley has also found the business is growing as a result of the technology.

“We build loyalty,” he said.

Bahista currently has just under 2000 regular customers on the database and has a sign letting customers know the system is in place and they can opt out.

NoahFace has sold the technology to other cafes in Sydney and plans to roll the idea out worldwide.

The technology is sold on a subscription basis for the price of a cup of coffee a day.

NoahFace is exhibiting at the Fine Food trade show at Darling Harbour next month.