Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is bringing face-scanning payment technology to brick-and-mortar retailers through its financial subsidiary Ant Financial Services Group, the Nikkei Asian Review reported Dec. 14, citing a company announcement.
Ant Financial developed a tablet for stores through which shoppers can pay by scanning their faces instead of paying through other more popular methods, such as scanning a QR code displayed on their mobile phones, the report said.
The tablet features a 3D camera, which according to Ant Financial, has a one-in-a-million chance of a facial mismatch, the newswire said.
Alibaba-owned Hema Fresh has already been trialing the service at its cashless supermarkets, the Nikkei added.
The report comes around nine months after Alibaba launched AliGenie 2.0, a platform that gives smart speakers visual recognition capabilities.