Consumers using 10 restaurants and retail outlets in the Japanese city of Niigata can now test a biometric payments service that lets them authenticate contactless payments with their face even if they are wearing a mask.

Once they have registered their facial images and credit card details with the service, users can pay for their purchases at merchants trialling the technology by looking at a tablet at the checkout.

The service uses the BioPay face recognition payments system developed by Japanese technology provider Glory.

It is being tested as part of a digital transformation scheme that aims “to create new customer experiences” including “unstaffed sales that utilise cutting-edge technologies such as IoT and AI” in the city of Niigata.

“In the future we are also considering that citizens will be able to receive equal private and administrative services by managing personal information based on facial information,” Glory says.

Students and staff at Kindai University in Japan began testing Glory’s facial recognition payments service in July 2021.

The trial of the technology in Niigata is due to run until 28 February.

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