Forget your smartphone or smartwatch and need to make a contactless payment? Well, there’s Alipay’s PL1, which lets you pay using your palm print. This device comes from Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, and is part of Alipay’s push to expand biometric payment options beyond QR codes and facial recognition.
How does it work? First, people sign up their palm details (palm print and vein patterns) with Alipay, tying them to their payment account. At a shop with a PL1 device, they just hold their palm over the sensor (no touching needed) to verify and approve transactions in a few seconds.
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You might wonder, “Is it safe?” The PL1 uses both palm print scanning (the lines you see) and palm vein patterns (the veins under the skin), which are unique for each person and nearly impossible to replicate. This dual-approach makes it really secure, since vein patterns can’t be faked like fingerprints or pictures.
Besides paying for stuff, the PL1 can also let you into buildings or through public transit gates, like metro turnstiles. It’s built to work for all sorts of things, like shopping, riding buses, or getting into secure places. For those familiar with Alipay, this is different from the company’s Tap! feature, which uses NFC, as the PL1 requires merchants to install dedicated scanners.
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