China is Fighting Toilet Paper Thieves with Facial Recognition Software
March 21st, 2017Via: The Verge:
Biometric authentication is moving from phones to laptops and onward to… public bathrooms. Chinese authorities in Beijing are now combating a toilet paper stealing epidemic by locking the supplies away behind a dispenser powered by facial recognition software, according to a report from The New York Times.
The unorthodox method ensures that the public bathroom at the Temple of Heaven Park disposes only a small amount of paper — approximately two feet in length — for each person once every nine minutes, following an initial face scan to store the identity of the user. The change marks the first time in a decade the park has taken such drastic measures to reduce its chronic toilet paper theft.
