Tech Lets You Pay With Your Finger

Aug. 16, 2007 — Nowadays, giving someone the finger has a negative connotation. But soon, it might just mean that you're paying for something. Researchers have developed a cashless, cardless payment system that allows a person to make purchase simply by scanning their finger.

The system uses the unique vein pattern under the skin of a person's finger as a form of identification and then ties that so-called biometric to credit card information. The finger credit card could make shopping easier and help reduce fraud and identity theft.

"Vein patterns are unique, as unique as your fingerprint. If you have worn-off, or damaged, or dirty fingertips, it's difficult to get those prints. But the vein pattern remains no matter what condition the outer surface skin is in," said Lewis Iadarola, a sales manager at Hitachi America.

To use the system, customers would first enroll with a participating bank and open an account in much the same way they would to receive a debit or credit card. Along with filling out the appropriate paperwork, they would also provide finger scans of two or three fingers.

To make a purchase, customers slip their finger into a holder to keep the digit steady. A light illuminates the veins and records the pattern. Then image-processing software converts the image to a number uniquely linked to the person's account. Once software matches the number to the account, the purchase is authorized.

The system could also be used in addition to a PIN for an added layer of security.

"Financial markets in Japan were very interested in finger vein technology because of a law recently passed to upgrade security at ATMs," said Iadarola.

Analysis shows that, in addition to being a contactless biometric method, finger vein technology is more accurate than a fingerprint and just as accurate, but possibly cheaper, than iris scanning.

"It's an interesting technology and it has some advantages," said Vijayakumar Bhagavatula, a professor in electrical and computer engineering and an expert in biometrics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "It's going to be very hard to spoof this because it's imaging something internal to the finger rather than external."

Still, he added, that doesn't make it a ringer.

"The difficulty with the finger vein pattern approach is that there is very little [research] published, other than from the group at Hitachi," he said.

There is no standard that everyone in the biometric community agrees upon and nothing to compare testing results to, to show that the overall performance of the system is good or bad. Ultimately, if the system is not precise and robust enough, it could unintentionally accept imposter customers or reject the real McCoys.

Hitachi recently partnered with credit card maker JCB International, headquartered in Tokyo, to launch an experiment in Japan this September to see how the finger vein system might work in shops, banks and other places. As the technology makes it way to the United States, though, it will most likely start out in the healthcare system, said Iadarola.

A finger scan could give a nurse quick access to patient data in an emergency room setting, for example, or authorize healthcare workers to dispense drugs from an electronic cart during patient rounds.

The Biometrics Consortium

Vijayakumar Bhagavatula: Expert in biometrics

Hitachi: Finger vein authentication technology