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A store without cashiers opens in China’s “future city”
JD.com’s self-service supermarket outside Beijing uses facial recognition technology to track shoppers
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
It’s supposed to be the home of China’s latest innovations. It wasn’t until a year ago that Xiongan New Area entered the lexicon in China. Handpicked by President Xi Jinping in April 2017, the once-stagnant Xiongan New Area just outside Beijing was recast overnight as a “city of the future”.
One of the first projects is now open: An unmanned supermarket from retail giant JD.com.
The 2,650-square-foot outlet uses cameras and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to record what products a shopper has taken off the shelf.
When you walk in, you need to open a mini program on WeChat and take a selfie. That gives you a unique QR code to scan at the turnstile, where a camera checks if your face matches the code.
Once you’re inside, dozens of facial recognition cameras track your movement from above -- as you pick up items like chips, biscuits, and pre-packaged fruit.
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