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Amazon.com Inc. is adding another feature to its Amazon One palm-based identity service, and Chinese site WeChat has brought palm recognition to cameras used for facial recognition.
Amazon One has added an age-verification component, Amazon said in a blog post. Launched in 2020, the technology recently expanded beyond Amazon properties to Panera Bread.
Already, users can hover their open palm above an Amazon One to pay for goods at many Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, and Whole Foods stores as well as multiple third-party locations. The Panera expansion is in the early stage at limited locations. The new age-verification element is debuting at Coors Field in Denver.
Amazon says consumers already enrolled in Amazon One can use the age element by visiting one.amazon.com and uploading front and back images of their government-issued ID card and a selfie. Amazon says it does not store the ID. Once that is done, customers no longer need to show an ID when purchasing alcoholic beverages at participating locations.
The service will help reduce transaction times, Amazon says. Servers will see a “21+” message and the customer’s selfie when they scan their palms. To pay, customers hold their palm over the Amazon One device again.
Amazon One kiosks are in the Sandlot Brewery and the Silver Bullet Bar at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team.
In related news, WeChat, a chat and messaging app that operates WeChat Pay, has made facial-recognition devices read the palms of its users.
According to technology Web site The Register, the new WeChat technology enables users to make a payment when hovering their palms over these devices. The system identifies the palm and its elements—veins and the stretch of the hand, the site says—to complete the payment. To date, it appears the system has only been tested in China.
