Pay for Coffee Using Only the Palm of Your Hand

Waiting in a long line at the supermarket while the person at the register rummages for cash can try anyone's patience.

Inspired by such an incident, Fredrik Leifland, a student at Lund University in Sweden, thought of a way to speed up the payment process, and created Quixter — a company that uses vein recognition technology to let customers make purchases using only the palms of their hands. 

Biometric identification, or programing a computer to identify someone based on human characteristics, is not a new concept. Vein scanning technology, specifically, has existed for several years, and customers in Japan already use it as a quick way to withdraw cash from an ATM. However, this is the first time vein scanning has been adapted as a payment method.