---
title: "Amazon Wants You to Pay for Things With Your Handprint"
description: "Amazon is working on a system called Orville that would let people pay for things by waving their hands in front of a scanner."
date: "2019-09-04"
modified: "2019-09-04"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-pay-handprint"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "Amazon"
  - "biometrics"
  - "the digest"
---

# Amazon Wants You to Pay for Things With Your Handprint

![Amazon is working on a system called Orville that would let people pay for things by waving their hands in front of a scanner.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/amazon-pay-handprint.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Hand Waving

Amazon is working on a new payment system that would build a 3D map of customers' hands, letting them check out at Amazon stores by scanning their handprint.

For now, the company is doing a test run — it integrated the hand scanners into the vending machines at the company's New York offices, meaning Amazon employees are serving as guinea pigs in exchange for regular-priced snacks, [according to *MIT Technology Review*](<https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614257/amazon-is-apparently-testing-a-system-that-lets-you-pay-by-scanning-your-hand/>). Down the road, the hand-scanners, dubbed the "Orville" system, could make their way to [Amazon-owned Whole Foods](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-testing-cashierless-tech-big-box-stores>), potentially upending the way we interact with and spend our money.

## Doctor Carmack!

Orville's computer vision system would scan a customer's hand to store a detailed rendering of its shape and size, linking that information to their accounts so in the future they could check out by waving their hands [like a Jedi](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/neural-network-luke-skywalker-surfing-baseball>).

But Orville could lead to sticky security situations. As *MIT Tech Review* points out, credit cards can easily be replaced when compromised or stolen, but it's harder to swap out the hand that you've linked to your bank account.

**READ MORE:** [Amazon is apparently testing a system that lets you pay by scanning your hand](<https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614257/amazon-is-apparently-testing-a-system-that-lets-you-pay-by-scanning-your-hand/>) \[*MIT Technology Review*\]

**More on retail:** *[Amazon Is Testing Its Cashierless Tech in Big Box Stores](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-testing-cashierless-tech-big-box-stores>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)