Fast food restaurant chain KFC has launched Alipay’s facial recognition payment technology called ‘Smile to Pay’ in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

This payment process doesn’t require a smartphone, instead relies solely on the unique facial characteristics of clients who have signed up to the Alipay app and enabled facial recognition.

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Customers simply have to present themselves at the point-of-sale counter equipped with a 3D camera that will scan their face and verify picture on their Alipay account.

To offer an additional layer of security, a phone number verification option is also included.

Ant Financial, which operates Alipay, claims that the technology is fully insured and users can disable or enable the feature any time.

Ant Financial director of biometric identification technology Chen Jidong said: “Combined with 3D cameras and likeness detection algorithm, ‘Smile to Pay’ can effectively block spoofing attempts using other people’s photos or video recordings.”