Another Point for Fingerless Gloves

On July 24, Hitachi announced the development of its “finger vein money” system, a cardless payment method that relies on the identification of the veins of the user’s fingers for authentication. Hitachi will begin a three-month field test this September, using 200 of its employees, in its cafeteria and shops in the Hitachi System Plaza Building in Shin-Kawasaki, Japan.

Not as scary as it sounds, “finger vein money” relies on identifying the pattern of blood vessels in a user’s fingers, which are different from person to person - much like fingerprints or retinas. As PinkTentacle reports:

[Finger veins] are hidden securely under the skin, making them all the more difficult to counterfeit. Hitachi’s finger vein authentication technology is already being used to verify user identities for ATMs, door access control systems and computer log-in systems in Japan and elsewhere.

In the finger vein money system, consumers first register their finger vein pattern data with the credit card company. The data is then entered into a database along with the individual’s credit account information. Later, when shoppers want to pay for something, they simply go to the cash register and place their finger in a vein reader, which uses infrared LEDs and a special camera to capture a detailed image of their vein structure. The image is converted into a readable format and sent to the database, where it is checked against the records on file. When the system verifies the identity of the shopper, the purchase is charged to the individual’s credit account.

JCB, one of Japan’s top credit card companies, is working with Hitachi in its testing phase of the technology, which if given the thumbs up, will be implemented throughout Hitachi’s facilities.

PinkTentacle: Hitachi finger vein money