Alibaba Computing Conference in Hangzhou 2017

HANGZHOU -- Nearly 50,000 visitors are expected at a computing conference, held in East China's Hangzhou city, showing what life could be like in the future.

The Computing Conference 2017 is hosted by Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce giant.

Not only will services be displayed at the conference using facial recognition, Big Data, artificial intelligence and so forth, but people will also be given the chance to experience the real world uses of the technology in a variety of exhibits.

In an automated restaurant, with intuitive human-computer interaction,visitors can complete ordering and online payment saving time for the customer and reducing employment costs for the restaurant.

Besides the futuristic restaurant, new technologies have also been applied in other experiential scenes, such as healthcare, travel and accommodation.

Vending machines at the conference don't need coins or mobile payment. By simply standing in front of the machine, the customer's face is recognized in seconds, and the bottle comes out immediately.

"More and more technology is being integrated into our daily lives in these exhibits. Previously, such advanced tech was meant for use in the scientific and financial industries," said Wang Congmao, who attended the conference and interacted with the exhibits.

A woman, who gave her name as Wang, said it was incredible that she could be told her capacity to drink alcohol at the conference. Using a cotton swab to collect cells in her month, Wang did the DNA collection herself. Just an hour and a half later, she received the results on her phone, telling her how much she could safely drink.

A total of 450 scientific and technological enterprises have displayed their most advanced technologies since the conference started Wednesday in the city which is also the home to the Alibaba Group headquarters.

"This is the most comprehensive technological exhibition I've ever seen. All the technologies have been applied to the various fields of daily life. I can feel how those tiny yet beautiful changes will affect my life," a visitor told Xinhua.

The ongoing conference will last until Saturday. It will also be held in Guangdong, Suzhou and Beijing this year.