facial recognition turnstile
Beijing's metro is thinking about introducing facial recognition turnstiles
Well, you can now look forward to a brave new world where all you'll need to enter the metro is your face. Chinese state media has reported that Beijing Metro officials are mulling over the possibilities of allowing passengers to enter the city's subway network by scanning either their faces or their hands. At this point, the proposal is still very much in the planning stage and it's unclear how exactly the system would work, but it further portends a Black Mirror-esque future in China where privacy is continually sacrificed for the sake of convenience. Of course, China already has quite a number of sophisticated facial recognition cams, using them to catch criminals at Jacky Cheung concerts and to track down BBC reporters. A Huawei rep called the tech underlying this proposed system "mature," while subway authorities said that they see it as a way to potentially improve efficiency and reduce costs on the world's busiest metro network -- with 3.78 billion trips delivered last year.