Chinese Shops Are Set to Add “Beauty Mode” to Their Facial-Recognition Payment System中国商店刷脸支付增设“美颜模式”

特蕾西·尤

Chinese high street shops are set to start using digital cameras that can make customers look more beautiful when they use a facial-recognition payment system to purchase products.中國商业街上的店铺拟使用带有美颜功能的数码摄像头，使顾客刷脸支付时看上去会更漂亮。

Customers in many Chinese cities can now pay for goods by simply having their faces scanned at the till， using platforms developed by major Chinese firms such as Alibaba and Tencent.

But the majority of the shoppers complain that the payment systems make them look ugly. Some say they refuse to use the software because of it.

According to a latest poll on China’s Twitter-like Sina， more than 60 per cent of participants think they appear less attractive while having their face scanned to pay for their shopping while less than 10 per cent people think they look “normal”.

Around 27 per cent of web users say they care more about the convenience of the payment method than how they look on camera.

One female user told Sina Tech： “I think that face-scanning [system makes people look] absolutely too ugly. Whoever develops the software must be a straight guy.”

Another woman said she had stopped using the payment app because “it exposes all my acne”.

A third shopper claimed to feel awkward while other customers in the queue saw her “twisted” face on camera.

The report found that 80 per cent of female users would refuse to use facial-recognition payment platforms if the cameras didn’t have beauty filters.

In response， Alipay， a popular mobile payment platform owned by Alibaba， said that the company had developed a “beautify mode” for their facial-recognition payment system.

The company said in its Weibo account that it realised users’ concerns a long time ago and that the beautifying filters would be unveiled in shops around China within a week.

The decision instantly drew waves of comments from web users.

One user supported the idea and said： “My girlfriend cannot stand the fact that she looks ugly during the facial scan.”

Another observant user pointed out： “Many cameras are not put at appropriate heights.”

A third commentator gave a tip： “My solution is to stand far away （from the camera）.”

Alipay， a part of Alibaba， has launched its facial-recognition payment platform in more than 300 cities in China. Visitors are seen experiencing a vending machine powered by Alipay’s AI technology in Tianjin at the 3rd World Intelligence Congress on May 18， 2019.

Alipay， which boasts 870 million active annual users， launched its first commercial facial-recognition payment system in September， 2017， at a KFC restaurant in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Late last year， the mobile payment firm released an app called “Dragonfly” to allow shoppers to make payment by showing their features to a camera in retailing stores， hospitals and even farmers’ markets.

To use the system， customers will first need to have their faces scanned by the app on their phones， and the pictures will be automatically logged into Alipay’s database， which is shared to shops that also use the system.

Shoppers also need to key in other personal information， such as their phone numbers， as extra verification while issuing payment.

Alibaba’s cutting-edge pay-with-your-face technology was first unveiled by the company’s founder Jack Ma at the CeBIT IT fair in Germany in 2015.

During a presentation， the self-made tycoon， worth $38.2 billion， used the technology to buy a gift for the mayor of Hannover—a souvenir stamp dating back to one of the city’s trade fairs in 1948—found on Alibaba.

He addressed an audience that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Facial recognition software works by matching real-time images to a previous photograph of a person. Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points across the eyes， nose， cheeks and mouth which distinguish one person from another.

China has been aiming to build the world’s most powerful facial recognition system.

The cutting-edge network aims to identify any one of its 1.4 billion citizens within three seconds.

The project was launched by the Ministry of Public Security in 2015. It is under development in collaboration with a security company based in Shanghai.

如今，在中國许多城市，通过阿里巴巴和腾讯等大互联网公司开发的支付平台，顾客只需在收银处刷脸便能进行支付。

但是，很多顾客抱怨刷脸支付系统拍照太丑，有些还因此拒绝使用这一支付方式。

有“中国推特”之称的新浪微博近期发起一项调查，结果显示，超过60%的调查者认为刷脸支付时不够上相，没有平时好看，而不到10%的人认为“正常”。

另外约有27%的网友表示，比起镜头中的形象，他们更在意支付方式的便捷性。

一位女性用户告诉新浪科技：“那个刷脸我觉得太丑了，我觉得支付宝做这个刷脸支付的人肯定是个‘直男’。”

另一位女士表示，她不想再用刷脸支付了，因为“我脸上的痘痘都暴露无遗”。

还有一位顾客则表示，屏幕上自己“扭曲”的脸庞被排队支付的其他顾客看到时，她感到十分尴尬。

该报告发现，如果人脸识别摄像头不安装美颜滤镜，80%的女性顾客会拒绝使用刷脸支付。

对此，阿里巴巴旗下移动支付平台支付宝回应称，公司已经为其人脸识别支付系统开发出了“美颜模式”。

支付宝此前在微博发文称，早就考虑到了用户的关切，带有美颜滤镜的摄像头将于一周内在全中国门店亮相。

这项决定立即引发了网民的海量评论。

一位用户对此表示支持：“我女朋友受不了刷脸时不好看。”

另一位细心的用户则指出：“许多摄像头摆放的高度不合适。”

还有一位评论者给出小窍门：“我通常会站得（离摄像头）远一点儿。”

阿里巴巴旗下的支付宝已在中国300多个城市推出刷脸支付平台。2019年5月18日在天津召开的第三届世界智能大会上，很多参展观众体验了应用支付宝人工智能技术的自动售货机。

拥有8.7亿年活跃用户的支付宝于2017年9月在中国杭州一家肯德基餐厅首次推出商业人脸识别支付系统。

去年年底，支付宝发布了一款名为“蜻蜓”的应用程序，用户通过在摄像头前刷脸便能在零售店、医院甚至农贸市场完成支付。

使用时，顾客首先需要在手机的应用程序上刷脸，随后照片将自动录入支付宝的数据库。采用该支付系统的商铺可共享支付宝的数据库。

此外，顾客在付款时还需输入电话号码等其他个人信息作为额外验证。

2015年，阿里巴巴创始人马云在德国CeBIT IT展览会上首次公布了其公司最先进的刷脸支付技术。

在一次演讲中，这位白手起家、身价达382亿美元的商业大亨使用刷脸支付在阿里巴巴网上购买了一枚1948年汉诺威展会纪念邮票，并作为礼物赠送给汉诺威市市长。

马云还向包括德国总理安吉拉·默克尔在内的观众演示了刷脸支付技术。

面部识别软件的工作原理是将实时图像与预存照片进行匹配。每个人的面部在眼睛、鼻子、脸颊和嘴巴等部位大约有80个独特的节点，从而得以与他人区分。

中国一直致力于打造世界上最强大的面部识别系统。

这一先进的网络技术旨在3秒内识别出中国14亿人口中任意一人。

2015年，公安部启动该项计划，目前正与上海一家安保公司进行合作开发。

（译者单位：中南大学外国语学院）