At some of the stores of the supermarket chain Albert Heijn it's now possible to pay by fingerprint. After showing some ID and a means of payment a scan is made of the unique points of the fingertip and name, address, bank account and, if wanted, the number of the customer bonus card will be registered. After this consumers can pay by placing their finger on the reader at the cash desk.

Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article

This is how an important part of the dialogue, the direct recognition of the customer, is taking shape. For now with the tip of one’s finger, but later a camera will have seen who’s coming long ago and payment is just a formality. Brands will recognize people better and faster than people can do this themselves now, and then they’ll be able to create an anticipating dialogue even better than any human ever could. This’ll take a while, but it’s a development that fits in this long term trend.

• in Dutch