Administrators of Beijing’s subway system are planning to implement biometric passenger recognition in the transit network, according to a China Daily report. The announcement was made by a senior Beijing Subway official at last week’s International Metro Transit Exhibition, which was held in the city.

The aim is to improve the subway system’s efficiency. Over 10 million passengers ride the Beijing subway each weekday, and a fourth of the transit system’s nearly 400 subway stations have restricted subway use during peak times.

While the Shanghai subway system is currently using biometric passenger recognition based on palm scanning, the odds may be in favor of facial recognition for Beijing, given the technology’s growing prominence in China. Such technology is increasingly used in security and state surveillance applications across the country and has a growing presence in the commercial sector, too; even Shanghai’s subway system is poised to see the infiltration of facial recognition thanks to a project being undertaken by Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of the Amazon-like Alibaba Group.

The Beijing Subway official did not offer a timeline for the biometric project, saying only that administrators are aiming to deploy the system sometime this year.

Source: China Daily