Facial recognition for subway tickets in China

We’re living at the times where the future is the present. The days where you need to scan your face on a screen to board a subway is here already in Shenzhen, China with experiments being held in a local subway. Considering how KFC already brought in Smile to Pay at its stores, facial recognition for a subway isn’t all that surprising!

Developed in a lab supervised by Shenzhen Metro and Huawei, the working of the trial requires people to have their facial data registered with a payment operator. When they need to board a subway, they scan their faces on a screen- where previously they would tap their subway cards or phones. Linked with the bank account, the amount gets deducted once the system recognizes the face.

Face to pay

At present, the AI-infused tech is limited to a single station only. There are still factors like twins and lookalikes to be considered. But if successful, you don’t need to remember to carry your subway card or the low balance in it. It also means that your every subway ride will be tracked with your face stamped on it.

Although Shenzhen Metro is yet to decide when all the stations will receive the new feature, it’s pretty clear that China is ahead of the US with payment systems using facial recognition. Alipay and WeChat pay are very popular all over the country and the central bank in China had to warn retailers to accept cash as well!