Pay With Your Palm? Amazon Launched New Biometric System

Amazon launched its latest payment technology using a new biometric system that uses palm recognition, allowing its users to do everyday activities like paying at a store, presenting a loyalty card, entering a location etc.

The service, called Amazon One, is designed to be highly secure and uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to create a person’s unique palm signature.

This will be available in select Amazon Go stores, where Amazon One will be added to the store’s entry gate as a convenient choice for customers to use to enter the store to shop.

In most retail environments, Amazon One could become an alternate payment or loyalty card option with a device at the checkout counter next to a traditional point of sale system.

Or, for entering a location like a stadium or badging into work, Amazon One could be part of an existing entry point to make accessing the location quicker and easier.

It purportedly takes less than a minute to sign up at these Amazon Go stores using an Amazon One device. The first step is to insert your credit card. Next, hover your palm over the device and follow the prompts to associate that card with the unique palm signature being built for you by our computer vision technology in real time.

Users will have the option to enroll with just one palm or both. Once enrolled, to use Amazon One to enter these Amazon Go stores, users just need to hold their palm above the Amazon One device at entry for about a second or so, and be on their way.

The Amazon One device is protected by multiple security controls and palm images are never stored on the Amazon One device. Rather, the images are encrypted and sent to a highly secure area that is custom-built in the cloud where the user’s palm signature is created.

Beyond Amazon Go, the company expects to add Amazon One as an option in additional Amazon stores in the coming months. Amazon also plans to offer the service to third parties like retailers, stadiums, and office buildings so that more people can benefit from this ease and convenience in more places. Interested third parties can reach out through the email address provided on our Amazon One website.