Face recognition ticket checking comes to Beijing West Railway Station

Face recognition technology is being rolled out at Beijing West Railway Station. [Photo from Sina Weibo]

Face recognition technology is being rolled out at Beijing West Railway Station, offering another quicker option for passengers to get their tickets checked.

The move comes after the successful implementation of the technology at Beijing Railway Station, according to reports in the Beijing Youth Daily on Wednesday.

To reach the trains, passengers simply need to insert their ticket, along with a second-generation ID card into a checking machine, and face the camera for a few seconds. As long as all the information matches, the gate will open, and passengers can then take their tickets and ID cards back. And away they go.

However, some obstacles still remain.

The old, red tickets without a magnetic strip, along with tickets for students, disabled people, soldiers and children cannot be used in the self-service machine. Passengers who are shorter than 1.2 meters or taller than 1.9 meters are also unable to use the system at present.

Passengers also have to take off their hats, glasses or anything else that obscures their features and might prevent the "scanning" their faces.