Facing up to future of scanning technology
Print Edition
Zhao Ying, 61, has stepped out of her traditional way of life after seeing a shopper checking out at a supermarket by scanning their face.
The supermarket is equipped with two machines with Alipay face-scanning payment and one with WeChat face-scanning payment.
After chatting with her family, Zhao, who lives in Jinan, capital of eastern China’s Shandong Province, learned that the facial recognition technology has been applied not only to shopping but also in various fields such as transportation, ATMs and seeking medical treatment.
“The face-scanning era is coming,” her son told her.
Facial recognition, a technology based on human facial feature recognition, is changing people’s lives in China.
On April 1, passengers in Jinan began to experience quick and easy entrance to subway stations by simply smiling at a screen to unlock the electric gates, instead of using tickets or swiping their smartphones.
The mobile app “Jinan Metro” is responsible for collecting users’ images. The facial recognition system enables 33 people to pass the entrance gate every minute, while traditional services can admit only 20 people.
Facial recognition technology has gradually been introduced to the Chinese public after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Since 2015, it has been widely used in fields of government affairs, finance and retail consumption, and several Internet giants in China are also promoting the commercial application of facial recognition.
The technology especially shines in the security field. Since last year, dozens of fugitives have been caught by the police with the help of facial recognition at Chinese pop stars’ concerts in Nanchang, Jiaxing and Ganzhou.
Public security departments in Jinan, Chongqing and Wenzhou also applied the new technology to crack down on illegal activities. At present, a total of 120 face-scanning devices have been set up in Jinan to capture pictures of pedestrians or drivers who run red lights.
Wei Jinghuo, an official with the city’s traffic police, said after adopting the system most people are paying more attention to traffic order.
In 2017, “paying with your face” was named one of the top 10 breakthrough technologies in the world by the MIT Technology Review.
Other popular technologies in the field of artificial intelligence such as reinforcement learning and self-driving trucks, were also included.
Data from Shenzhen-based Qianzhan Industry Research Institute predicts that China’s face-recognition market size is expected to keep a growth rate of more than 20 percent in the next five years and will reach 10 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) by 2024.
Although people enjoy the convenience of facial recognition, they are also concerned about information security.
Wu Shenkuo, a law expert with Beijing Normal University, urged strengthening the industry’s self-discipline and strictly checking the qualification of practitioners. He also said the legislation was needed to protect individual privacy.
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