Amazon relies on biometrics: hands up in the cloud

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Check in and pay with the palm of your hand: Amazon One

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Amazon

Amazon One is the name of a new contactless payment method that Amazon presented on Tuesday: It is based on biometrics, similar to Apple's fingerprint or facial recognition.

In the case of Amazon, the palm of the hand is scanned and the biometric information is linked to the credit card and cell phone number.

Anyone who enters a suitably equipped supermarket logs in at the entrance by circling a scanner and pays at the exit.

The technology will initially be used in two of the Group's own cashierless supermarkets under the Amazon Go brand in Seattle, with more to follow.

The Whole Foods chain belonging to the group could also be equipped with it.

Amazon also wants to sell the system to other business operators, reports "Recode" - like the technology previously called "Just Walk Out" by Amazon, which uses cameras and sensors to register what customers put in their shopping carts .

But the new system should also function as admission control in stadiums or offices.

According to its own information, in the case of Amazon One, Amazon will receive data about where someone buys, but not find out which products or how much someone spends.

Customers could also use the service from third-party providers without linking their biometric data to their Amazon account.

According to CNN, the Amazon scanner will take multiple photos of the palm of your hand, recording fine lines and vein patterns.

The digital handprint is then calculated from the most noticeable features of the hand using specially developed hardware and algorithms.

The hand scans are to be encrypted locally and then sent to a "very secure environment", "which we have set up for analysis and storage in the cloud," says Amazon's blog post.

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