According to a report by New York Post, the retail giant is said to be quietly testing new scanners that can identify human hands to make a store purchase. The company intends to roll out the payment technology at its Whole Foods supermarket chain starting next year. The key difference is that the biometric sensors are unlike the ones you see on iPhones, meaning you won’t have to physically touch your hand on the scanner. Instead, it leverages computer vision and depth geometry to process and identify the shape and size of each hand as it hovers above the sensor. As these experiments often go, this is not the first time the company has tried to reinvent the wheel. Microsoft, likewise, has partnered with Kroger and Walmart for futuristic hi-tech grocery pilots intended to guide shoppers to find items on their shopping lists, and serve recommendations and targeted ads based on their demographics and shopping habits. With this new tech, however, you wouldn’t even have to bring your phone with you. What’s more, by seamlessly integrating payments with the shopping experience, the solution could incentivize shoppers to spend more when they visit its retail locations. And there’s the obvious elephant in the room: you can change your passwords or get a new credit card when a data theft occurs. It’s not so easy to change your hand print. At a time when the company’s involvement with Rekognition facial recognition software is attracting its fair share of surveillance concerns, one can only hope there’s enough oversight and it’s done the right way. Because once the tech is out there, it’s hard to roll it back.
