Watch: At this restaurant, customers can ‘smile to pay’ for their food. Facial recognition is here
Alipay has launched the first commercial facial-recognition payment system at a KFC outlet in China.
Forget cash, credit cards or mobile apps – now, at a KFC healthy-eating outlet called KPRO in Hangzhou, China, all you need to make your payment is smile.
Alipay, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s mobile and online payment service, launched its “Smile to Pay” system earlier this week, a facial-recognition payment technology available for commercial use. It was developed over the past two years by Ant Financial.
The system “recognises” the user and the payment is made. Yes, just like that.
The video above shows an accuracy test, where a woman tries out various wigs and heavy makeup to try to fool the machine. The sophisticated algorithms prevent biometric spoofing – using someone else’s picture or video will simply not work. Nobody can steal your face (unless you’re Arya Stark).