Amazon trials Whole Foods biometric payment system

Amazon is testing out biometric payment tech that it plans to roll-out to Whole Foods stores by early next year.

The project, dubbed Orville, can scan an Amazon Prime customer’s hand and process their transaction in less than 300 milliseconds. According to a report by the New York Post, employees at Amazon’s New York offices are currently using the tech at vending machines to buy such items as sodas, chips, granola bars and phone chargers.

The sensors involved are different from fingerprint scanners found on devices like the iPhone and don’t require users to physically touch their hands to the scanning surface. Instead, they use computer vision and depth geometry to process and identify the shape and size of each hand they scan before charging a payment card on file.

Amazon hopes to introduce the tech to a handful of its Whole Foods stores by the beginning of next year and to eventually expand to all US locations, sources told the New York Post. “We don’t comment on rumours or speculation,” an Amazon spokesperson said.