Featured Image Credit: FOX10 Phoenix
Topics: Amazon, Technology, US News
Emma Rosemurgey
In what feels like a Black Mirror episode, Whole Foods has introduced a payment method that involves nothing but the simple swipe of a hand.
Most of us can still remember when contactless payment was first introduced. Not having to put your pin in? Revolutionary. Using your phone to pay your bill? Absolutely life-changing!
Contactless payments are now the norm, but what if we told you that you could now pay for your shopping using nothing but the palm of your hand?
Admittedly, it sounds like something straight out of a Black Mirror episode, but that's exactly what is already happening at Whole Foods in the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona, and in a number of Amazon stores.
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The palm recognition system is called Amazon One and uses the unique features of the palm of your hand to establish your identity.
Shoppers using the unique payment method simply need to glide their hand over the palm reader and then the details of their payment will appear on their Amazon accounts.
Tech expert Burton Kelso told FOX10: "As far as hand print scanning and other biometrics like eye scanning, it’s definitely the way of the future.
"With biometrics, one of the things that’s great is that your information is tied to you.
"Only one set of eyes, that matches your identity. Same thing with your fingerprints, same thing with palm recognition and facial recognition, so that’s a good thing."
While it's unlikely we'll all be ditching the debit cards just yet, palm recognition systems are already being used in some airports and stadiums across the United States.
However, the technology is expensive and Kelso did raise concerns over how it could impact people's ability to understand the value of money.
"With automatic payment systems, it really is hard to teach children how to value their money," he said. "You already see that with credit cards and debit cards."
Meanwhile, Amazon has tried to reassure the public that individuals' 'unique palm signature' would not be able to be cloned to be used as identity theft.
"Your palm’s unique characteristics, such as creases, friction ridges, and underlying vein network, are a result of independent biological processes — even identical twins with the same DNA do not have the same palm surface and vein patterns," Amazon said.
"While your palm and vein patterns are permanent, the digital signature we use for identification is not. This allows us to delete palm signatures, and generate new ones, at any time."
Amazon One palm payments are yet to be rolled out anywhere outside the US.