A Selfie Will Get You Into this Chinese Tourist Destination

Patrick Clarke
by Patrick Clarke
Last updated: 3:00 PM ET, Thu November 17, 2016

Each year millions of tourists descend on the historic scenic Chinese town of Wuzhen.

And thanks to the efforts of one tech company, Baidu, it's never been easier to experience the popular tourist destination.

According to CNN Tech, recently implemented facial recognition technology makes it so that visitors only need a selfie to gain access.

So far, the feedback has been mostly positive, with the technology cutting down on wait times.

How does it work?

"When a visitor arrives, their photo is taken and uploaded to a database. When he or she attempts to access certain parts of the town, a tablet attached to the entry gates records video," writes Matt McFarland. "It then sends a few frames to the cloud, where artificial intelligence identifies if the person seeking access is authorized."

[READMORE] READ MORE: The Top 5 Iconic Chicago Selfies [/READMORE]

According to Baidu, the technology is accurate nearly 99.8 percent of the time and the entire process takes less than a second to complete.

In addition to being faster and more secure than other identification methods like fingerprint scanning and iris-scanning, Baidu's system is incredibly convenient.

"You always have your face with you," the company's chief scientist Andrew Ng told CNNMoney. "Facial recognition, while not a panacea, has a lot of strengths that other authentication methods don't."

We can only hope Baidu's technology expands to other aspects of travel.


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Patrick Clarke

Patrick Clarke

Senior Editor

A Maryland native and wanderer who has lived across the U.S. from North Carolina to SoCal, Patrick Clarke graduated from Towson University with a B.S. in journalism. He previously worked for Bleacher

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