Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out.
An Edeka store in the southwest German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November, cutting out on time otherwise wasted scrabbling for coins or cards.
Store manager Roland Fitterer said: "All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away".
The technology is based on comparing the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details. Edeka bosses said they were confident the system could not be abused. The chance of two people having the same fingerprint is about one in 220 million.
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