May I read your Palm? | The ATM that reads your veins

London - Fingerprints, signatures, and chip-and-pin are all passé. The future of banking security is in your veins.

The first cash machines that can read the unique pattern of your blood vessels have been launched in Europe.

Almost 2 000 ATMs are being installed in Polish banks and supermarkets, alongside an advertising campaign heralding the arrival of “cash within your finger”.

The technology was developed in Japan, where the machines are now commonplace.

Customers insert one finger, which is exposed to a near-infra-red light capable of analysing an individual’s unique vein configuration.

The scan takes about half a second, is more accurate than finger-printing machines and as reliable as iris-reading scanners used at airports.

There is no known method for duplicating veins, and technology giant Hitachi insists that there is only a 0.0001 percent chance of someone having the same pattern as you.

The company also says that a person’s vein pattern remains the same no matter how much weight they gain or lose.