Hitachi develops biometric payment system, uses it to sell junk food
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Jul 22nd 2009 1:13PM
posted Jul 22nd 2009 1:13PM
Looks like Hitachi has made some serious headway on the biometric payment system we first heard about way back in the halcyon days of 2007. According to the Mainichi Daily News, the company is currently testing its Finger Vein Authentication System internally, with the device serving as a method of payment for vending machines and the like. Once it's proven that employees are able to get their Koala's March and Hi-Chew without incident, the plan is to up the ante, with high precision ID systems that combine finger vein and finger print authentication systems for military use.
Hitachi are the one of the best brand of hard drives.
That is exactly why having them build this machine makes perfect sense...
Cool story, bro.
Tell that to seagate lol
What happens when you eat so much junk food that your hand gets fat?
Then they market the Hitachi Buns, Thighs, and Hand Toner.
"I'm sorry, Dave, I cannot let you buy that candy bar."
That's all you can think about... I'm worried about being knocked unconscious from behind to find the entire vending machine empty.
Send this over to MythBusters
I know, weren't they able to fool the biometric security devices they had without much trouble?
They tested fingerprint scanners. In one show, perhaps I missed one where they did something more comprehensive.
This however, uses the vein patterns inside* your finger to distinguish the user.
What if you're disabled and without hands? What then Mr. Hitachi smartypants?? huh?
then you probably wouldn't be using a vending machine
oh this is awesome, pretty soon our vending machines are gonna have touch screen. thats exactly what I want, to touch more things other people have been touching right before I eat my snack/drink my drink
Thank you Toshiba.
I mean Hitachi!
"thats exactly what I want, to touch more things other people have been touching right before I eat my snack/drink my drink"
You mean, as opposed to touching the buttons of a normal vending machine, and handling the cash that has gone through uncountable numbers of hands, then picking up he candy bar in a wrapper that has been handled by workers (or, at the very minimum, the person loading things into the vending machine in the first place), by first pushing aside the flap that everyone else pushes up to get to your candy bar? Yes, touchscreens reading biometric information will surely be the plaguespreaders to wipe out all humanity. Watch out for door knobs/handles as well.
Also, I don't know about you guys, but when I drink, I usually don't touch the liquid. It pretty much goes from inside the bottle, to inside my mouth. But hey, to each their own, right?
AH!! MY HAND!! IT'S EATING ME!!!!!
Why do you think they call it a "biometric payment system?" For the low low price of 1cm of flesh, you can have a cuke!
I don't like the idea of touching things that lots of other people are touching -- call me crazy.
you are CRAZY
This is the alternative to a little thing called change. Have you heard of it? Think about that for a while...
We already have credit/debit cards. I imagine the biometric accounts would be per vendor rather than linked directly to your bank account? It seems like that approach could require pre-loading unless there was some link between your vendor account and your bank account. In any case, it seems like less overhead and more healthy to simply use credit/debit cards.
"I don't like the idea of touching things that lots of other people are touching -- call me crazy." What? Like strippers? Wait...
I love Hi-Chew
Hi-Chew! Bless you.
Actually, there's a very similar thing in some British schools at the moment called "Vericool" - an image of your finger is taken, simplified into some points of data, and then you load money onto an account.
When you want to buy food you just touch a little glowy pad and your account comes up.
Clever, but what's wrong with cash?
Yea this is sure practical, like most things you need an index of fingerprints for this to work, and it this sort of thing was public, I guess they would be working with the police to get it working, and who knows what teenager sneaks in the middle of the night and hacks it
Tell that to seagate
That'll work great until the sensors are covered with orange junk from all of the cheese doodle fiends...
Boy, the Gom Jabbar isn't what it used to be. We'll never find the Kwisatz Haderach at this rate.