Verifone, the company responsible for approximately 300,000 Eftpos terminals across Australia, has announced a push to integrate biometric payment technology into the retail sector. The system allows customers to complete transactions by scanning their faces or palm veins, a process the company is marketing as a convenient way to “pay for your coffee with a smile.”

While the technology promises to reduce checkout times, its implementation is not immediate. Retailers, including cafes and restaurants, will need to upgrade their current hardware to support the new biometric scanners. Because of these infrastructure requirements, industry analysts suggest that it may take a significant amount of time before the technology becomes a common feature in Australian stores. The system is entirely optional, requiring customers to actively opt-in to the biometric data collection process to use the service.