Amazon plans to launch new biometric scanners that will use manual scans to identify customers at Whole Foods supermarkets. The company is currently testing the system in its own offices, offering employees the opportunity to shop at vending machines.
Codenamed Orville, the system can process transactions in just 300 milliseconds instead of the three to four seconds it takes to pay by card, the New York Post reports.
The payment system will be available to Amazon Prime subscribers who will be able to associate a payment card with a scan of their hand to benefit from fast payment in store.
Amazon's manual scanning system is very different from traditional fingerprint readers. Like iris scanners, there is no need to physically touch the scanner. Instead, the sensors use depth geometry and imaging to identify hands with impressive speed and precision.
Anonymous sources in the New York Post say the system is currently accurate to one-tenth of a hundredth, but Amazon is looking to improve the result to one-millionth of a percent.
Faster, but at what cost?
Ditching the use of payment cards, or even a phone, would undoubtedly facilitate faster and easier payment for customers. However, what is not clear is how the system will be received.
Any biometric system raises privacy and security concerns, which appears to be a goal taken into account by Amazon in opting for manual recognition over facial recognition.
Whether Whole Foods customers are willing to accept manual payments remains to be seen, but we'll find out as the system rolls out to a small number of stores in early 2020, before expanding to all of the supermarket's US branches.