Shinhan Card plans facial recognition retail payments expansion in South Korea

The biometric payment system supplied by Shinhan Card to the CU convenience store at Hanyang University in Seoul has been upgraded to track customers with facial recognition as soon as they enter the store, The Korea Times reports.

The change allows the store to operate overnight without a staff-person, according to the article.

The system, dubbed Shinhan “Face Pay,” was launched in April for frictionless retail payments. The payment service has been recognized as an “innovative financial service” by Korea’s Financial Services Commission, and the company plans to roll it out to more stores.

Because users need to be registered, a Shinhan representative said new locations would likely be situated in company buildings or other school campuses.

Shinhan Card Head of Digital Strategy Yoo Tae-hyun said the upgraded system combines facial recognition payments with biometric security.

U.S. survey shows lack of comfort with in-store facial recognition

The comfort level most American consumers have with face biometrics in retail settings, however, suggests similar systems might not prove popular in the U.S.

One in ten American adults say they ‘strongly agree’ that they are comfortable interacting with face biometrics in retail stores, and another 7 percent ‘agree,’ according to a survey from AI software developer Myplanet. More than half (52 percent) of respondents to the company’s ‘Robots Among Us’ survey say they ‘strongly disagree,’ and another 19 percent ‘disagree.’

The response numbers had only minor differences between age groups, genders, and regions.

The survey looks at consumer attitudes towards technologies for retail, advanced driver assistance, contact tracing and emerging interfaces.

Biometric payments roll out to Kazakh public transport buses

Public transport passengers in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan will be able to use facial recognition to pay transit fare, New Europe writes.

The fare of 90 tenge (US$0.21) is automatically debited from the user’s associated payment card, and a trial launched to a pair of buses in late-2019 has already been successfully completed, according to Mayor (Akim) Altay Kulginov. At the time of the trial, the cameras were reported to be supplied by Hikvision.

Kulginov also said the city plans to add 100 electric buses to its fleet in early 2021, which will feature the system. Users will have to remove their face masks, but will not need to present a card or anything else.

The Nur-Sultan public transit system previously allowed payments with transport service cards, SMS, applications and bank cards.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  contactless biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  retail biometrics  |  South Korea  |  transportation