KFC and Alipay to roll out a facial recognition payment system in Beijing called 'Smile to Pay'

The operator of KFC in China is rolling out a futuristic system of paying at a fast-food counter via facial recognition, as the country embraces the technology for everything from toilet paper to travel. [caption id=“attachment_4005513” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The “Smile to Pay” system will allow customers at a healthier spin-off of KFC in the eastern city of Hangzhou to keep their wallets in their pockets after ordering on a machine. Yum China, which operates several major fast-food brands in China including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, teamed up with Chinese mobile payments firm Alipay, started by e-commerce giant Alibaba, on the technology. Yum China called the concept a “world’s first”. The ordering machine will compare the customer’s face with the verified picture on their Alipay account. China is racing ahead in its use of facial recognition technology. It has even been installed at Beijing’s historic Temple of Heaven to stop people pinching rolls of toilet paper. Airports and train stations are also jumping on the trend, with China Southern Airlines this year using facial recognition in place of boarding passes for the first time. And in Qingdao, home to China’s most famous lager, 25 suspects were recently arrested after they turned up to a beer festival only to be identified by the technology at entrance gates. As per earlier reports, Fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) launched its first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled cafe in Beijing, and had said it plans to create more innovative and interesting dining experiences for customers. With the cooperation of Baidu Inc, China’s largest search engine, KFC started its first smart restaurant in the Financial Street area in Beijing on Friday, the People’s Daily had reported. Meanwhile, a computer algorithm that can recognise human expressions may become a boon for the gaming industry, a team of international researchers has found. Hyung-Il Choi of the School of Media at Soongsil University in South Korea who is working with Nhan Thi Cao and An Hoa Ton-That of Vietnam National University, in Ho Chi Minh City explained that capturing the emotions of players could be used in interactive games for various purposes. With inputs from AFP