Pay with your face – not your wallet
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Finnish start-up Uniqul has recently released a YouTube video featuring its latest pay-by-face authentication system. The theory behind this novel system is that in the near future, individuals’ faces will act like and replace the traditional credit cards.
According to Free Password manager all you need to do is give an ‘expressive nod’ while standing at the checkout counter, and the money will automatically be deducted from your account after the scanner scans and recognizes your identity using your biometric information.
Lots of companies other than Uniqul have already ventured into facial recognition as a means to identify their consumers. Though it would take quite some time before we would see such technology surfacing in the market, many companies are already taking the necessary steps towards turning this possibility into a reality.
Owing to the uniqueness of human faces, computers are able to identify and distinguish one individual from another, and to an astonishing extent. In the past, facial recognition has been employed by many companies, though in limited circumstances. Two examples are those of social media and police work, where facial recognition plays a vital role. Presently, many other companies are looking up to facial recognition for a wider range of tasks.
American security company Diebold revealed a prototype known as ‘Millennial ATM’ at a London ATM conference that took place this summer. The demonstration of the new ATM showed that it uses facial recognition technology as a means to identify and authenticate users; however, customers still have to scan a QR code before they can actually get the case in their hands.
Some concerns have been expressed over the possibility of Millennial ATMs replacing the current, traditional ones, and these concerns are primarily related to users’ privacy. In order to use the Diebold’s ATM, users must allow the security company to access and store a copy of their biometric measurements, which would be used to identify them.
Another way of using facial recognition technology in a relatively less invasive manner is to allow your face to become your password for gaining access to different digital devices. This would necessarily mean that your face is used as a means to ‘open’ the technology and gain access to use it, which would potentially avoid the problem of security companies having to store your biometric information, because your biometric measurements would only be stored and limited to the device that you would be unlocking using facial recognition.
There are several apps available in the market – such as KeyLemon and FastAccess Anywhere – that allow people to access their smartphones and computers using their faces, which act as passwords for these devices. However, there is one issue that needs to be addressed for the technology to operate effectively: According to USA Today, any user can access FastAccess’ system by merely using a photograph of the individual whose face acts as a password to the device.
