From today schools in the UK are using facial recognition technology to allow pupils to pay for their lunch.
image: Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images
The technology, supplied by CBR Cunninghams who installed the
software, is to be trialled in nine schools in North Ayrshire.
Many schools already
use biometric software, such as fingerprint recognition, to take payments but facial recognition is billed
as being quicker and more Covid-secure.
David Swanston, MD of CBR Cunninghams, told the
Financial Times it was “the fastest way of recognising someone at the till. In
a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000
pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale."
Swanston said the software
cut the average transaction time by five seconds per pupil.
North Ayrshire Council said
it had the consent of 97% of children or their parents to the new system.