Amazon wants to make it easier for shoppers to sign up for its biometric security service that enables cashless purchases.
The company has launched a new mobile app for its Amazon One technology, allowing users to scan their palms at home to register for the service before visiting a store.
Launched in September 2020, Amazon One uses a biometric palm recognition scan that allows users to register purchases at hundreds of Whole Foods Market locations, as well as Amazon’s own stores and more than 150 other third-party outlets.
Amazon One mobile app
In a blog post Detailing the news, the company explained how the new Amazon One app will allow customers to create an online profile by logging into their existing Amazon account on their device, then taking a photo of their palm and adding a payment method to add, all within the app.
Previously, users had to visit a store and hold their hand over an Amazon One device to sign up for the service.
Amazon says the new app is supported by some powerful new generative AI capabilities that combine the phone’s camera view with Amazon One’s own library. This means that a photo from a camera phone can be matched to the near-infrared images from an Amazon One device, allowing for a secure and accurate match.
The service can create a “palm signature” by examining both a user’s palm and the underlying vein structure, creating a unique numeric vector representation that the company says is “99.9999%” accurate.
Once complete, the AI system can compare and match the palm and vein images captured by the Amazon One in-store device when a user moves their hand over it, with the images captured via a phone photo, and complete the registration .
The company says that all images taken through the new app will be encrypted and sent to a secure Amazon One domain in the AWS cloud, and the images cannot be downloaded or saved to your phone, so there is no danger of them being accidentally leaked with the app. also offers “additional layers for spoof detection.”
The new Amazon One app is now available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.