You might be able to pay for your shopping with a picture, because science

Scientists in China have developed an app which will allow consumers to authenticate online payments with a photo of their face.

The Times (£) reports staff at the Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology (CIGIT) have developed facial recognition software which takes between four and six seconds to authenticate.

The process would take information from 91 different camera angles and the software is, according to Zhou Xi, director of the Intelligence Multimedia Technology Centre at CIGIT, developed to factor in changes in appearance such as weight gain. It's also harder to replicate someone's face than their fingerprints. They aim to make the app available by 2015.