Pay for shopping items through facial recognition? It could happen in Singapore

SINGAPORE — Imagine walking into an unmanned shop. All it takes to buy products is for customers to scan their faces, choose the items, walk out and everything is paid for.

Such convenience is possible through a combination of facial recognition technology, artificial intelligence and data analytics. And local technology firm Le Tach is coming up with such a concept, which it hopes to introduce in Singapore.

To ramp up more of such technological innovations, Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran announced on Thursday (June 27) that the Government will provide S$1.5 million in funding to eight technology firms.

They were chosen from a total of 74 proposals submitted for consideration.

Another firm, Elixir Technology, specialises in “smart parking” and aims to use video analysis and number plate recognition to help people in estates streamline parking.

The eight firms, including Le Tach and Elixir, could develop their technological solutions to assist estate developers in six industrial parks here in the design, maintenance and management of their buildings and amenities.

"As cities become denser as a result of rapid urbanisation, there are opportunities — and even a moral obligation — to transform them for the better through technology," said Mr Iswaran at an annual technology conference, Innovfest Unbound.

The funding comes under the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) smart estates programme, which aims to “enhance estate management processes and achieve more efficient use of resources”. Last November, the IMDA announced that it had set aside S$14 million over the next three years for its smart estates efforts.

But the smart estates programme is just one of the components to transform Singapore to become a leading digital economy.

Mr Iswaran also announced that the IMDA and the National Research Foundation have set aside S$40 million to build “an open and inclusive” 5G innovation ecosystem. Touted as a major step forward in digital delivery, next generation 5G is ultra-fast and is expected to boost the digital world in the years ahead.

The money will be used to support technology trials using 5G in areas such as cybersecurity.

“These clusters have been identified based on their potential for export globally, reinforcing Singapore’s goal to be a global front-runner in impactful 5G use cases,” said the IMDA in its media release.

IMDA has also teamed up with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and port operator PSA to explore using 5G in areas such as drones, autonomous vessels and remote tele-operations of port equipment.