The suddenness of its appearance suggested scanning as an unclean process; I thought with horror of the guy who found a finger in his bowl of fast food chili.

Even the modern approach, in which the subject's finger is rolled over a glass plate for scanning, often requires several attempts per finger to get a usable print.

Well, Japanese reputable electronic maker, Hitachi Ltd, has come out a new idea to let customers to make payment simply by scanning their finger instead of using credit card.