Amazon Expands Palm-Reader Checkout to Seattle Whole Foods Stores

using the palm readers in Amazon’s Go, Go Grocery, Books, 4-star and Pop Up stores, with “thousands” signing up for the service, said Dilip Kumar, vice president-physical retail and technology. The Whole Foods Market at Madison Broadway in Seattle is the first of that chain’s stores to offer the contactless payment option at checkout. To use the service, customers sign up at an Amazon One kiosk or device in participating stores; enrollment takes less than a minute, Kumar said. After inserting their credit card, customers hover their palm over the reader and follow prompts to associate the credit card with the unique palm signature being created in real time by computer vision technology, he said. Customers who link their Amazon One ID with their Amazon account can automatically get their Prime member discount without having to scan that app separately. When a shopper holds her palm over the reader, the technology looks at multiple aspects of the palm and selects “the most distinct identifiers” to create the palm signature, said Amazon. The Amazon One device is protected by multiple security controls and doesn’t store palm images; instead, they’re encrypted and sent to a “highly secure area” in the cloud and are created there. Customers can un-enroll at an Amazon One device or via the online customer portal at one.amazon.com, it said; biometric information will be deleted after remaining transactions are completed. Amazon One is in discussions with third-party retailers about using the service but didn’t give details.