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Life in China: Need toilet paper? Sure, just show us your face first
It appears China have come up with an unorthodox way of saving toilet paper and preventing toilet paper theft.
According the media reports, Beijing’s Temple of Heaven Park have installed six machines outside its public bathrooms, that requires you to scan your face to dispense set amount of toilet paper.
The intention of the facial recognition software is a trial aimed at reducing theft of toilet paper at the popular tourist destination.
Before use, visitors must take off sunglasses and stare into a screen for three seconds, and then the machine would release paper of about two feet long.
However, if you require more toilet paper, you’ll most likely need to either improvise (hopefully it doesn’t come to that) or bring your own stash because users would have to wait nine minutes before the machine would dispense additional paper to the same person.
This all came about due to local residents hoping to save on everyday costs, according to a park manager at Unesco World Heritage. Beijing Evening News have caught toilet paper thieves, taking their share of long strips of free toilet paper at Temple of Heaven bathrooms.
"We brainstormed many options: fingerprints, infrared and facial recognition," Lei Zhenshan, marketing director for Shoulian Zhineng, the company in Tianjin that designed the device, told The New York Times. "We went with facial recognition, because it's the most hygienic way."
So, if you are ever at Temple of Heaven Park and you need to go. You quite literally need your game face on.
