Chinese Shops Are Set to Add “Beauty Mode” to Their Facial-Recognition Payment System中國商店刷臉支付增設(shè)“美顏模式”

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.中國商業(yè)街上的店鋪擬使用帶有美顏功能的數(shù)碼攝像頭，使顧客刷臉支付時看上去會更漂亮。

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，在中國許多城市，通過阿里巴巴和騰訊等大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司開發(fā)的支付平臺，顧客只需在收銀處刷臉便能進行支付。

但是，很多顧客抱怨刷臉支付系統(tǒng)拍照太丑，有些還因此拒絕使用這一支付方式。

有“中國推特”之稱的新浪微博近期發(fā)起一項調(diào)查，結(jié)果顯示，超過60%的調(diào)查者認為刷臉支付時不夠上相，沒有平時好看，而不到10%的人認為“正?！薄?/p>

另外約有27%的網(wǎng)友表示，比起鏡頭中的形象，他們更在意支付方式的便捷性。

一位女性用戶告訴新浪科技：“那個刷臉我覺得太丑了，我覺得支付寶做這個刷臉支付的人肯定是個‘直男’。”

另一位女士表示，她不想再用刷臉支付了，因為“我臉上的痘痘都暴露無遺”。

還有一位顧客則表示，屏幕上自己“扭曲”的臉龐被排隊支付的其他顧客看到時，她感到十分尷尬。

該報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果人臉識別攝像頭不安裝美顏濾鏡，80%的女性顧客會拒絕使用刷臉支付。

對此，阿里巴巴旗下移動支付平臺支付寶回應(yīng)稱，公司已經(jīng)為其人臉識別支付系統(tǒng)開發(fā)出了“美顏模式”。

支付寶此前在微博發(fā)文稱，早就考慮到了用戶的關(guān)切，帶有美顏濾鏡的攝像頭將于一周內(nèi)在全中國門店亮相。

這項決定立即引發(fā)了網(wǎng)民的海量評論。

一位用戶對此表示支持：“我女朋友受不了刷臉時不好看?！?/p>

另一位細心的用戶則指出：“許多攝像頭擺放的高度不合適。”

還有一位評論者給出小竅門：“我通常會站得（離攝像頭）遠一點兒?！?/p>

阿里巴巴旗下的支付寶已在中國300多個城市推出刷臉支付平臺。2019年5月18日在天津召開的第三屆世界智能大會上，很多參展觀眾體驗了應(yīng)用支付寶人工智能技術(shù)的自動售貨機。

擁有8.7億年活躍用戶的支付寶于2017年9月在中國杭州一家肯德基餐廳首次推出商業(yè)人臉識別支付系統(tǒng)。

去年年底，支付寶發(fā)布了一款名為“蜻蜓”的應(yīng)用程序，用戶通過在攝像頭前刷臉便能在零售店、醫(yī)院甚至農(nóng)貿(mào)市場完成支付。

使用時，顧客首先需要在手機的應(yīng)用程序上刷臉，隨后照片將自動錄入支付寶的數(shù)據(jù)庫。采用該支付系統(tǒng)的商鋪可共享支付寶的數(shù)據(jù)庫。

此外，顧客在付款時還需輸入電話號碼等其他個人信息作為額外驗證。

2015年，阿里巴巴創(chuàng)始人馬云在德國CeBIT IT展覽會上首次公布了其公司最先進的刷臉支付技術(shù)。

在一次演講中，這位白手起家、身價達382億美元的商業(yè)大亨使用刷臉支付在阿里巴巴網(wǎng)上購買了一枚1948年漢諾威展會紀念郵票，并作為禮物贈送給漢諾威市市長。

馬云還向包括德國總理安吉拉·默克爾在內(nèi)的觀眾演示了刷臉支付技術(shù)。

面部識別軟件的工作原理是將實時圖像與預(yù)存照片進行匹配。每個人的面部在眼睛、鼻子、臉頰和嘴巴等部位大約有80個獨特的節(jié)點，從而得以與他人區(qū)分。

中國一直致力于打造世界上最強大的面部識別系統(tǒng)。

這一先進的網(wǎng)絡(luò)技術(shù)旨在3秒內(nèi)識別出中國14億人口中任意一人。

2015年，公安部啟動該項計劃，目前正與上海一家安保公司進行合作開發(fā)。

（譯者單位：中南大學外國語學院）