Japanese tech giant Toshiba has revealed a biometric retail solution that simultaneously scans a shopper's face and all their items at checkout, potentially reducing transaction times to mere seconds and kiling the checkout queue.Toshiba's Touchless Commerce was debuted this week at the National Retail Federation show in New York this week.Spokesperson Renee Kiefer told Planet Biometrics: “This futuristic concept demonstrates a first step towards a future that represents a potential 90% reduction in transaction times, ߪ and the potential elimination of traditional front-end checkout allowing the consumer to shop faster and with greater ease via the channel that is most convenient for them”.Using camera to identify all of the items in this basket or bag simultaneously, not serially, it reduces item recognition time dramatically compared to scanning items manually or using automated systems. In parallel,facial recognition software identifies the shopper, which adds loyalty, payment, and receipt information to the transaction. A proprietary weighted security algorithm verifies that there is nothing unexpected in the basket or bag.”It literally takes longer to explain how the shopper would check out than it does for it to happen,” added Kiefer.Last November, Planet Biometrics reported that Finnish tech firm Uniqul plans to launch a pilot of a facial recognition-based payments system at cafes in early 2015.Uniqul's payment system, which recognises customers based on their geometric facial proportions, has been in development for about two years. The pilot will be launched in the country's capital region, which includes the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.

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