Pay for a coke with your finger

Hitachi is set to debut a new biometric authentication technology aimed at allowing customers to purchase a soft drink from a vending machine with just their finger print.

The new technology can read the finger veins and then match the customer with the credit card they have pre-registered, so that exact change is no longer needed at the vending machines.

After swiping your finger the machine will simply charge the credit card for any item that is taken from the vending machine.

The vending machines, which will be placed inside offices, include a large LCD screen display that contains streaming advertisement which may be tailored to reflect each user’s buying history.

The vending machines are due to be first distributed at Hitachi’s offices and tested on its employees.

The bright side is that vending machines will no longer eat your cash, just be sure to sign off, or swipe off before walking away if you do not want to be responsible for providing the office with their snack options for the rest of the day.

Samsung also has revealed a new vending machine prototype but this model is a touch screen vending machine that allows you to enter credit information instead of your fingerprint, which seems a little less Aldous Huxley like.