Until now, to use public transport, one normally used a card or a mobile application. In China they want to go further when it comes to offering alternative methods to use these means of transport, and have begun to evaluate the operation based on biometric technology.
just the palm of your hand. This pilot experience is taking place on the Daxing Airport Express subway line, which connects to Beijing Daxing International Airport. In this line it will not be necessary to pass a card with preloaded tickets or show a QR code as before: passengers will be able to use said line by scanning the palm of their hands.
biometric recognition. When buying a ticket, what the user does is register the palm of his hand so that the trip is validated and “preloaded” by associating it with said biometric data. Once this is done, the passenger can show their palm to the sensors and then authorize the use of that ticket through WeChat, the popular messaging tool.
Contactless (and cashless). Thanks to this solution, the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission indicates that passengers can travel comfortably. The access doors recognize the palm of the hand (and its veins) without contact, and this makes it possible that even if users do not have cash or their mobile phones are out of battery, it is possible to use the system to complete the trip.
encryption. To protect the privacy of this sensitive data, the system makes use of various encryption technologies, they say in the Chinese news agency Xinhua. That precaution is interesting, but it is not easy to believe that this aspect is a priority: in China there are more than 20 million cameras equipped with AI that follow the movements of its citizens.
Palms as an alternative for the future. For years fingerprints and facial recognition have been the main players in the biometrics segment, but proposals like this show that using the palms of the hands is an interesting alternative. The financial institution JP Morgan recently tested a payment system in stores using this method, and Amazon tried the same years ago with Amazon One, its contactless payment system designed for supermarkets.
Image | Xinhua
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