Amazon is reportedly working on a new payment system. A new report from the New York Post revealed Amazon’s plans for its new payment system, codenamed Orville.

The new payment system reportedly uses your hand as ID. The system will use computer vision and depth geometry to identify the shape and size of each hand and use it to identify your account. The biometric tech will be installed at Amazon’s Whole Foods supermarkets across the United States by early 2020.

The idea here is that when you are about to check-out, you can simply scan your hand, and Amazon will automatically charge your credit card it has on record, without you needing you to get your phone or credit card out. The system is apparently accurate to within one ten-thousandth of 1%, although Amazon engineers are apparently “scrambling” to improve that to a millionth of 1%. Amazon’s new system can apparently process a payment in less than 300 milliseconds, which is stupendously fast.

Amazon plans to start installing the new tech at Whole Foods stores by the beginning of 2020, and it’s expected to expand to all US locations eventually. The speed of rollout, however, could be affected by how long it takes to get the new systems installed and to train employees at stores.

But whether people actually want to use their hands to identify themselves remains the big question. Companies like Amazon and Facebook already have a ton of data on you, so do you really want to let them analyze your hand geometry data, too?

Tagged with Amazon, Privacy, Whole Foods