Pay with the face - that's it

One notable form of artificial intelligence is facial recognition. A technology that evokes emotion: it is perceived as both exciting and scary.

Disclosures about how social media has been vacuumed into billions of images to make it possible to identify anyone who gets stuck in a picture have fueled the fire in the debate over personal privacy. At the same time, more and more companies are launching products and services based on facial recognition.

- Face recognition comes in many places now. In fact, I think we will see it applied faster in areas such as passport control or boarding of aircraft, than in payment, says Sami Karhunen, who is responsible for the development of face payment at Finland's largest bank, OP Bank.

Right now OP Bank is testing the technology in six locations in Finland, with the goal of getting the trade to adopt the payment method.

What do you say to people who are skeptical and doubt security?

- According to our customer survey, people are not afraid, but they feel that facial payment is simple and convenient, replies Sami Karhunen, adding that they film in 3D and have a heat control so that you can not fool the system with a picture or mask.

The maximum amount for face payment is set at EUR 30, due to general payment rules for card payments that require the use of an additional checkpoint, such as a PIN code, for amounts over that amount.

Payers register their debit card in an app, where they also approve the bank's use of one's biometric data (face) and scan the face with the phone. Then you do not need to use anything other than the face in the future, when you pay in the cashier at the places that have joined the system.

The merchant needs a tablet with the corresponding app to charge with customers' faces.