How Facial Recognition Technology is giving Boost to Tourism in China
During the National Day holiday, many Chinese travelers are enjoying quieter travel experience through pilot programs using facial recognition to replace identity verification in train stations, hotels, banks, and restaurants.
In the entries railway station Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, passengers place their IDs and tickets at the machine input and infrared cameras scan their faces before allowing them to enter the station.
The station does not employ staff to check tickets or ID cards of the passengers. The lines at the entrances were eliminated gradually through the new system.
China Embraces Facial Recognition
“It only takes three seconds that passengers pass through the door using the new facial recognition system. Save human resources and prevents errors in the manual checks,” said Cheng Xiaowei, an employee of the station.
Many hotels in Jinan have also adopted the facial recognition system to check the identities of the guests. The process is carried out within 10 seconds to confirm the identity of the host. Even if the hotel does not have an ID, the system can confirm your identity.
In the three branches of the Agricultural Bank of China in the city, customers no longer need to insert their bank cards at ATMs to withdraw cash. The machines scan the user’s face to access your account. The bank has limited daily withdrawal amount to 3,000 yuan (452 ​​dollars).
First facial recognition ATM launched in China
Longmen Grottoes in the Henan province, central China have become the first tourist in the country that uses facial recognition system for entry. Technology reduces from three to a second time for tourists to spend.
Through Applets on WeChat, tourists can buy e-ticket and create a pass taking a picture of the front and entering their personal information. Then you just have to go through the special entrance.
Diners at a new KFC restaurant called KPro in Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang Province now can pay by scanning your face into an interactive terminal and writing down your phone number.
“Perhaps in the future need not take more than my cell phone out. I just need my face,” said Huang Zhengyu, a tourist who tasted the “Smile to pay” method.
“Young people prefer face recognition, which has great potential. They’ll be more applications of technology to our lives as we continue to improve,” said Feng Wei Shandong University.
A comprehensive report on artificial intelligence Sequoia Capital and investment company ZhenFund, a company based in Beijing, shows that about 15,000 patents have been published in computer vision, 55 percent of which are from China.
The Industry Institute farsighted of China noted that the market for facial recognition in China exceeded 1,000 yuan (about 150 million dollars) in 2016, and is expected to reach 5,100 million yuan in the year 2021.
SenseTime, a new Chinese company, focused on facial recognition and deep learning artificial intelligence, grossed $ 410 million in July. This is the largest round of private financing reached a new artificial intelligence company.