According to an article in USA Today by Kathy Chu, published December 2, 2005, a company called Pay By Touch has developed a scanner for stores. It's being used by hundreds of supermarkets. When a shopper goes through the line to buy something, he places his index finger on the scanner. It recognizes him from the pattern of the lines in the shopper's unique fingerprint. The shopper enters in a phone number, and selects a bank account or credit card. Done!

     Using this system, the shopper doesn't have to carry cash or checks or credit cards. Pay-by-finger works twice as fast as a cash payment, three times as fast as a credit card and four times as fast as a check.

     Pay By Touch takes fingerprints when shoppers enroll in the program. The image is converted to about 40 unique points of the finger. An encryption program used by the military services stores the information in a computer system. The fingerprint is not kept. When the customer touches the scanner, it recognizes the points.

     Using a part of the body and its unique characteristics is called biometrics. Using that along with personal identification numbers (PIN) and passwords makes it much more difficult for a thief to steal someone's identity.

     What will they think of next?

Did You Know?

The pay-by-finger technology is already being used in hundreds of U. S. supermarkets, including Albertsons and Piggly Wiggly.