New 5G Vending Machine Processes Customers with Facial Recognition

A pair of Chinese tech companies are teaming up to release a smart vending machine that processes customers with 5G and facial recognition technologies. UTStarcom and China Mobile Group have called their refrigerated vending machine the goBox, and are presenting it as one of several retail solutions that will leverage 5G to transform the shopping experience.

The goBox will make a facial recognition scan to identify the customer before they open the door of the refrigerator. After that, sensors and cameras will make note of the items the customer removes from the machine, at which point the user will be charged for their purchases.

With 5G tech, the facial recognition process should take less than a second, while the tech itself can be deployed in virtually any retail environment. According to UTStarcom and China Mobile Group, facial recognition will create a seamless shopping experience that eliminates the need to carry a physical object like a credit card or a mobile phone.

The goBox is not the first biometric vending machine, although it is noteworthy because its creators have explicitly stated that they’re trying to make current payment methods obsolete, which is in keeping with China’s enthusiasm for naked payments. PanPacific recently launched a new machine that uses finger vein authentication to sell beer, while Yoti has explored self-check out technology based on selfie authentication.

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May 14, 2019 – by Eric Weiss