New biometric technology, being trialled at a Carrefour store in Paris, will scan the pattern of veins underneath the skin of customers’ hands and match their ID with their bank account.
Ingenico The scheme is spearheaded by tech firm Ingenico is the first of its kind in Europe.
Palm vein biometrics is a cutting-edge system that utilizes biometric data to map the dynamic patterns of the veins in your hand, enabling secure transactions.
The new cashless technology is being trialled to coincide with the Olympics in Paris. Customers who link their palm biometrics to a bank card in-store will then be ready to pay via their hand for all future purchases.
To do so, they place their palm over a near-infrared sensor at the checkout counter. It reads the vein patterns beneath the skin and matches the ID with logged bank details to process the payment.
The supermarket chain says the biometric payment system enhances the security of customers’ banking data while making the checkout experience smoother, faster and more hygienic.
Adoption of palm biometrics for payments are a growing trend in the retail industry, with J.P. Morgan currently carrying out a trial with PopID in the U.S. and planning more deployments next year. Visa is showcasing similar technology at its Singapore Innovation Center, Amazon has rolled out its palm biometrics scanners at all Whole Foods locations, and WeChat has a system called Palm Pay deployed to convenience stores and other retailers in China.
