WeChat showcases facial recognition POS at China expo

The social and ethical grounds for biometric facial recognition adoption are widely debated, yet a number of companies and organizations have enthusiastically embraced it, especially in China.

Chinese social and mobile payment app WeChat has announced the roll out of a facial recognition point-of-sale (POS) device at the Chongqing Smart China Expo on Monday, writes pandadaily. Developed by Tencent, WeChat created the “Frog Pro” terminal to increase offline payments by simply scanning shoppers’ faces to complete transactions, no smartphones necessary. The device has a QR code scanner, a 3D camera for facial recognition and a 10.1-inch double sided screen that will advertise promotions and new product features.

Facial recognition technology has become popular to authorize transactions in supermarkets and hotels, and Alipay launched its “Smile to Pay” in 2017. WeChat Pay is much larger, however, with an average of 600 million users and a billion transactions processed on a daily basis.

Following a partnership with Qualcomm Technologies in 2016, WeChat introduced fingerprint authentication for online transactions on mobile devices for extra security, eliminating traditional PIN codes and passwords. According to the “Global Mobile Payment Methods 2019” report, the Asia-Pacific region is a global leader in mobile payments where China has over 500 million users.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  social media