You face is not just a name-tag. It displays much more information that machines can read!

On 1st September 2017, the term ‘happy meal’ has been redefined. Fast food lovers in China now just need to flash their smiles to get their meal. Alibaba’s Ant Financial has teamed up with KFC to debut this ‘smile to pay’ service, which enables customers to process their payment simply by smiling after placing their order at one of the KFC’s self-serve screens. A 3D camera scans the customer’s face to verify their identity and the technology is only available to customers who are registered on Alipay. (CNBC, 2017) What’s more, this technology is provided by a small startup based in Beijing – Face++.

Founded in 2011, Face++ has been valued around $1 billion recently (Knight, 2017). Face++ offers facial recognition technology uses computer vision and data mining to provide detection, recognition and analysis of faces. It enables users to easily add leading, deep learning-based image analysis recognition technologies into the applications, with simple and powerful APIs (application programming interface) and SDKs (software development kit). (Face++, 2017) Till now, the technology from Face++ is already being used in many popular apps. Besides Alipay, Face++ helps Didi, China’s dominant ride-hailing company, to solve fraud and cheating by letting passengers confirm legitimate drivers. Meitu, a famous photo editing application, cooperated with Face++ to provide automatic makeup, beauty effects and photo beautification for users. (The Economist, 2017)

In the domain of detecting criminals, Face++ also performed excellently and impressively. Based on the large centralized database of ID card photos in China, Face++ collaborated with local governments to identify suspected criminals in video from surveillance cameras, which are omnipresent in the country. Even when the image or footage being analyzed are far from perfect, Face++ keeps its error rate nearly 0. (Knight, 2017)

In sum, we have to admit that technology is rapidly catching up or exceed the human ability to read faces.

Reference:

CNBC. (2017). Alibaba launches ‘smile to pay’ facial recognition system at KFC in China. Available: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/04/alibaba-launches-smile-to-pay-facial-recognition-system-at-kfc-china.html. Last accessed 08-10-2017

Knight, W. (2017). Face-detecting systems in China now authorize payments, provide access to facilities, and track down criminals. Will other countries follow?. Available: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603494/10-breakthrough-technologies-2017-paying-with-your-face/. Last accessed 08-10-2017

Face++. (2017). What is Face++ Cognitive Services?. Available: https://www.faceplusplus.com/about-us/. Last accessed 08-10-2017

The Economist. (2017). What machines can tell from your face. Available: https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21728617-life-age-facial-recognition-what-machines-can-tell-your-face. Last accessed 08-10-2017

Want to get your pizza freshly? Deliverer ‘Drone’ can help you!

At 11:19 a.m. 16th November 2016, Domino’s Pizza claimed the world’s first flying pizza touched down after a 5-minute flight. Then, a New Zealand couple has become the first people to have a pizza delivered by drone. Surprisingly, this successful delivery came just only 3 months after Domino’s announced a partnership with Flirtey drone delivery service. (Reid, 2016) A small team of drone experts and a GPS-navigated autonomously-controlled drone successfully dropped off the pizza. Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director, Don Meij, said ‘drone can avoid traffic congestion and traffic lights, and safely reduce the delivery time and distance by travelling directly to customers’ homes. This is the future!’ (The Economist, 2017) So what actually is a delivery drone?

A delivery drone, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), utilized to transport food, packages, or other goods (The Economist, 2017). Many leading retail and logistics companies are currently testing drone delivery systems. Moreover, Tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet are hailing drone delivery as the future e-commerce fulfillment. As a result, drone adoption is growing rapidly among both customers and companies.

Back to 2013, Amazon has launched its Prime Air program, which aims to deliver customers’ orders within 30 minutes. In 2016, this e-commerce giant tested its first drone deliveries in the U.K. with two customers who lived nearby an Amazon fulfillment center in Cambridge. (Amazon, 2017) When the drone delivery system is mature, there’s no doubt that it will blow away its current two-day Prime shipping and two-hour Prime Now shipping. Not only would consumers receive their packages far more quickly, but also Amazon can reap the rewards of reduced delivery cost. (Meola, 2017)

However, critiques also come along. Firstly, as drones use GPS and cameras to find homes and deliver packages, consumers could raise privacy concerns. Secondly, delivery people would lose their jobs to automation. (Meola, 2017)

References:

Amazon. (2017). Amazon Prime Air. Available: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?node=8037720011. Last accessed 07-10-2017

Meola, A. (2017). Shop online and get your items delivery by a drone delivery service: The future Amazon and Domino’s have envisioned for us. Available: http://www.businessinsider.com/delivery-drones-market-service-2017-7?international=true&r=US&IR=T. Last accessed 07-10-2017

Reid, D. (2016). Domino’s delivers world’s first ever pizza by drone. Available: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/dominos-has-delivered-the-worlds-first-ever-pizza-by-drone-to-a-new-zealand-couple.html. Last accessed 07-10-2017

The Economist. (2017). Why the wait for delivery drones may be longer than expected. Available: https://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21723002-carrying-cargo-lot-more-complicated-carrying-camera-why-wait. Last accessed 07-10-2017