Hospital in China introduces facial recognition for medical bill payments

Self-service payment terminals equipped with Alipay’s face recognition technology were recently deployed at the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital, China’s first hospital to offer a facial recognition-based medical bill payment services, Xinhua reports.

First-time users enter their ID number to create a profile. After the profile is created, the terminal will be able to recognize users. A 3D camera scans the customer’s face to verify their identity. After the user is recognized, phone numbers bound with Alipay are needed to complete the process.

“The whole process takes no longer than 10 seconds,” said Sun Guofeng, director of Alipay’s medical business. “There is no need to pull out cards or phones since you can complete payment on the machines with one hand.”

Last year Ant Financial introduced a ‘Smile and Pay’ service using Alipay that enabled KFC customers in eastern China to pay with just their faces.

Article Topics

Alipay  |  biometrics  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  payments