Pay with the palm of your hand! AEON and Fujitsu test new cardless payment service
AEON Credit Service and Fujitsu will conduct a field trial of a cardless payment system using Fujitsu’s palm vein biometric authentication technology.
The scanning of one’s eyes and fingerprints for authentication may be soon outdated, as the financial services industry is testing a new cardless payment technology based on palm vein biometric authentication.
Aeon Financial Service Co Ltd (TYO:8570), its subsidiary AEON Credit Service Co., Ltd., and Fujitsu Ltd (TYO:6702) have announced that they will conduct a field trial of a cardless payment system using Fujitsu’s palm vein biometric authentication technology.
The test, which is set to begin in September 2018, will be carried out in selected Ministop convenience stores. This initiative will be Japan’s first example of palm vein authentication-type cardless payments at actual retail stores.
AEON Credit Service has been considering the development and implementation of credit card payment methods that customers can use with more convenience and security. Now, from a number of biometric authentication technologies that can identify a person from a part the individual’s body, the company has selected Fujitsu’s palm vein authentication technology for its payment scheme given that it offers high authentication accuracy, and also because it is contactless and sanitary.
This will enable people to go shopping “empty handed” as credit cards and smart devices will be unnecessary.
Customers may use this service by registering in advance and adding their palm vein pattern to their AEON card information. When paying at a register, customers can pay with their registered AEON card by inputting their birthdate and then scanning the palm of their hand over the reader.
The method has high authentication accuracy as there are many veins within the palm of the hand, and their arrangement is complex, providing outstanding personal identification capabilities, the companies explain. In addition, because the information is within the body, this method can both reliably authenticate a person, with little chance of outside interference, and can be used safely, due to the difficulty of falsification.
Based on the results of the field trial, the companies plan to roll out the technology for use in store locations for the various AEON Group companies. AEON Credit Service and Fujitsu will continue to enhance services to meet the wide ranging needs of customers using new technology.
Let’s recall that the Fujitsu palm vein authentication technology was first adopted for identifying people at bank ATMs in 2004. It is now used by over 70 million people in about 60 countries around the world for a broad range of applications, from security, such as for corporate PC access and room entry management, to the current trend of going cardless for convenience applications.
