China Tests Facial Recognition Subway Payments
At the Futian station, instead of presenting a ticket or scanning a QR bar code on their smartphones, commuters can scan their faces on a tablet-sized screen mounted on the entrance gate and have the fare automatically deducted from their linked accounts, says a news report.
The facial-recognition ticketing service is currently in trial mode, but it could help improve the efficiency of handling the up to 5 million rides per day on the city’s subway network, the report notes.
The 5G-backed AI technologies were developed by an innovation laboratory backed by the metro operator and Huawei Technologies, according to Shenzhen Metro.
Consumers can already pay for fried chicken at KFC in China with its “Smile to Pay” facial recognition system, that was first introduced at an outlet in Hangzhou in January 2017.
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