Alipay upgrades its facial recognition payment technology

Through this replacement of its ‘Smile-to-Pay’ system, the company aims to make the technology more accessible to merchants and customers. The new device is reportedly smaller and less expensive than previous versions, as Alipay affirms that it is about one-tenth as large as other self-service POS devices, and can fit in a backpack.

Dragonfly is adaptable to a range of terminals to allow integration with merchant’s existing Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and it provides 3D face scanning with a structured light camera, as well as an upgraded processor for fast matching.

Moreover, the self-service facial recognition payment technology is used by thousands of merchants in 300 cities in China, and Alipay plans to integrate the upgrades with all deployments. While Smile-to-Pay enabled one cashier to manage three POS machines, thus facilitating checkout efficiency by 50%, Dragonfly can match users even if they change their hairstyle or makeup, protecting at the same time against spoof attacks with still photos or videos.