Patients experience payment by face-scanning in the self-service machine at Zhoushan Hospital in Zhoushan, East China’s Zhejiang province. [Photo/zj.zjol.com] 

Patients can now register and make payments with their faces at the Zhoushan Hospital thanks to a payment service based on face-scanning launched by the hospital on May 10.

The self-service machine will capture an image of the patient's face with a camera, and connect the facial information with his or her Alipay account to fulfill the payment. 

"During first use, patients have to go through a facial recognition in the machine and type in their phone numbers bound with their Alipay accounts. After that, they are only required to get their faces scanned and type in their phone numbers to make payments in the future," said a worker at the hospital. 

Patients' experiences proved that payment by face-scanning is around five seconds faster than QR code scanning. 

Zhoushan Hospital now allows multiple payment methods, including by cash, bank card, Wechat pay, Alipay and face-scanning.