Vodafone Utilizing Palm Vein Scanner For Smartphone Recharging

Vodafone has offered a VIP Recharge Truck for festival goers in the past, keeping smartphones topped up so that everyone could tweet about how great [Insert Current Popular Band] is. The telecoms company will be rolling out the truck once again this summer, but is trying to ditch wristbands or or photos of customers dropping off their smartphones. Instead, a new biometric system will be used.

Previously Vodafone took pictures of customers dropping off their smartphones to be recharged, or used wristbands with barcodes, but as the company notes, "wristbands get lost [and] faces need a human to make a judgement call on identity." The truck will instead be fitted with infrared palm vein readers, designed to build a map of the blood vessels in your hand which is unique to each person. Vodafone say the system offers great security, already employed by several Japanese banks, and is impossible to fool.

The readers even work if your hands are dirty thanks to the use of infrared, and should detect the customer in just a couple of seconds. The new system should be much faster, and the truck itself can accommodate up to 2,000 smartphones. Vodafone say they have chargers for all kinds of phones, so no need to worry about standing in a muddy field without any battery left. The truck should be making its way to various festivals shortly.

[via Vodafone]