Biometric cashless payment solution hits the spot !
After successfully trialling fingerprint recognition technology at Lyndon School in Solihull in the Spring of 2006, this new technology is now available on general release and is proving to be very popular.
Schools and students like the fact that the technology eradicates the need for cards, along with their associated costs and management issues.
Instead of using cards to recognise a user and to activate their account, it is now possible to do away with the card by scanning the user's fingerprint. At the initial 'registration' stage, each user has their fingerprint scanned, converted into digital data and recorded. The image of the print itself is not recorded and cannot be regenerated from the digital data which cannot, therefore, be compared to existing records of fingerprint images.
The system has now been adopted by 20 schools in England, and is rapidly becoming the preferred solution for many. Meal times are speeded up by eradicating that "Where's my card? moment" and catering managers are reporting that hitherto 'lost customers' (students who has lost their card and never used the in-house catering facilities) were now able to try the new menus without having to buy or remember a card. Footfall and takings are, therefore, up.
