A research team from Sweden’s Lund University has created a technology that is enabling students on campus to pay using just their handprint.

People can sign up (in a slightly clunky process) by visiting a store on campus, scanning their palm, which has a unique vein pattern, then entering their Swedish social security number and mobile number. They then receive a text with a link to a website where they have to fill in a form with additional info – link their bank details. When paying, users enter the last four digitd of their phone number before putting their hand on the scanner – this is done to ensure they check the amount before authorising the transaction.

“We had to connect all the players ourselves, which was quite complex: the vein scanning terminals, the banks, the stores and the customers,” said Fredrik Leifland, who came up with the idea and has gone on to build it together with a group of classmates. “The next step was finding ways of packaging it into a solution that was user friendly.”

There are now 15 stores on the university campus that offer the option to use these payments terminals, with 1,600 active users. The startup, now called Quixter, believes it is the first on the market with this kind of biometric technology and is hoping that this will be implemented internationally.