Amazon has launched a new way of paying for products at one of its retail stores in New York.
Called Amazon One, it’s a form of biometric payment technology that identifies a shoppers’ palm and links it to an Amazon account or credit card.
Previously it was only available in Amazon and Whole Food stores in the Seattle area, where the company is based.
But eventually Amazon hopes to make this technology universally accepted.
The tech giant wants to sell it to other companies who could install it in shops, offices and sports arenas.
Data is stored securely in the cloud (Amazon) While privacy professionals may raise an eyebrow, Amazon says the whole process is safe and secure.
A person’s ‘palm signature’ is stored securely on the cloud and customers can delete Amazon One data at any time.
And Amazon says that thousands of customers have already signed up for the service.
‘Amazon One is a fast, convenient, contactless way for people to use their palm to make everyday activities like paying at a store, presenting a loyalty card, entering a location like a stadium, or badging into work more effortless,’
Dilip Kumar, vice president of Physical Retail & Technology at Amazon said in a blog post.
‘The service is designed to be highly secure and uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to create a person’s unique palm signature.’
The technology could also be used in offices and sports arenas (Amazon) ‘When you hold your palm over the Amazon One device, the technology evaluates multiple aspects of your palm.
‘No two palms are alike, so we analyze all these aspects with our vision technology and select the most distinct identifiers on your palm to create your palm signature.’
It’s not yet clear if or when Amazon may launch this technology in the UK. Metro.co.uk has approached Amazon for comment and we’ll update this story if we receive a response.
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