Intel and Foxconn show off 5G facial recognition

Pay for your goods with your face

Intel and Foxconn have demonstrated how facial recognition capabilities possible in 5G technology can be used to make payments.

It is possible that “pay via face identification” technology could allow consumers to make payments for entertainment and retail services using Intel’s Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) 5G solution along with advanced facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

Intel says that MEC and facial recognition systems used in smart retail can complete the payment authentication process within 0.03 seconds.

“This reduces the risk of personal information leakage and credit card fraud. Facial recognition is expected to be introduced to a variety of industries as the means of payment authentication, without the need of cash or credit cards.”

Foxconn Technology Group corporate executive VP and Asia Pacific Telecom chair Fang-Ming Lu said that wireless cameras can connect to the internet via small cell radio access nodes offered by Asia Pacific Telecom and transmit the captured image to the facial-recognition engine to be processed on the local MEC platform.

“The low-latency, high-speed computing and assessment capability allows the system to deliver the computing result in real time to achieve premium customer experience.”

According to Intel, the MEC solution involves servers being installed at various locations, which are then monitored and managed via a centralised MEC Controller. Wired and wireless network access options are supported, which Intel said ensures flexibility.

“The MEC solution is developed from the integration of Intel’s Network Edge Virtualization (NEV) SDK with open-source software DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) which together provide the 5G high-speed connectivity by delivering edge computing capability”, the company added.

Intel and Foxconn demonstrated facial recognition use cases across residential and office access control and virtual shopping malls.

The first modem from Intel’s 5G New Radio (5G NR) modem suite, the XMM 8060, will be made commercially available in mid-2019. The XMM 8060 will have multi-modal ality, meaning it will support non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) configurations for 5G; millimetre-wave (mmWave) and sub-6GHz spectrum bands; and legacy mobile networks.

Its third-generation 5G Mobile Trial Platform was unveiled in September, allowing for device development by supporting initial 5G NR specifications in live tests with partners by the end of this year, which will then be developed alongside 3GPP standards.

It is powered by Intel’s field-programmable gate array (FGPA) circuits and Core i7 processors, and supports the 600-900MHz, 3.3-4.2GHz, 4.4-4.9GHz, 5.1-5.9GHz, 28GHz, and 39GHz spectrum bands with a mobile interoperability solution for end-to-end 5G field testing.