❸Shopping with your finger

By Katie Morley/王群艳（译）

◆语篇导读

英国一家超市成为世界上首个允许顾客在购物时使用指静脉付款的超市。这一技术的原理是利用红外线扫描将顾客手指的静脉与其银行卡相关联。之后顾客便可以空手逛超市，只需花3秒钟即可完成支付。

A UK supermarket has become the first in the world to let customers pay for goods using just the veins.

Customers at the Costcutter Store can now pay using their vein pattern to identify themselves.

It works by using infrared light to scan customers’finger veins and then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards.Customers’bank messages are then stored with Worldpay,in the same way you can store your card details when shopping online.Customers can then turn up in the supermarket with nothing on them but it takes just seconds to place your finger in a scanner each time you reach the supermarket checkout.

It comes as studies have found that the finger recognition,used widely on mobile phones,is easy to be hacked and can be copied even from the phone screens.

But Sthaler,the company behind the technology,states vein technology is the safest method as it cannot be copied or stolen.

Sthaler said lots of students were already using the system and it expected 3,000 students out of 13,000 to be members of this system by November.

The technology uses an infrared light to create a detailed map of the vein pattern in your finger.The person should be alive,meaning in the unlikely event a criminal hacks off someone’s finger,it would not work.Sthaler said it take just one minute to sign up to the system at first and,after that,it takes just seconds to finish your shopping.

Simon Binns,director of Sthaler,told the Daily Telegraph:“This makes payments so much easier for customers.”

◆词语积淀

vein/veIn/n.静脉；纹理

identify/aI'dentIfaI/v.识别；确认

infrared/,Infrə'red/adj.红外线的

unique/ju'niːk/adj.独特的；唯一的

biometric/,baIəu'metrIk/adj.生物识别的；生物统计的

detail/'diːteIl/n.细节；详情

recognition/,rekəɡ'nIʃn/n.识别；认识

hack/hæk/v.砍；非法获取

criminal/'krImInl/n.罪犯

◆典句赏析

1....but it takes just seconds to place your finger in a scanner each time you reach the supermarket checkout.……但每次在超市结账时，只要花几秒钟把手指放在扫描仪上。

it takes(sb.)some time to do sth.是固定句型结构，意为“（某人）做某事花了多少时间”，句中的it为形式主语，动词不定式to do sth.才是真正的主语；each time意为“每次；每当”，引导的是时间状语从句。

【即时尝试】读完这本小说花了我一个小时。

2.The technology uses an infrared light to create a detailed map of the vein pattern in your finger.该技术利用红外光创建你手指静脉的详细图像。

use sth.to do为固定句型结构，意为“用某物做某事”，其被动语态形式为be used to do，意为“某物被用作”。

【即时尝试】我哥哥经常用钢笔写信。

译文助读

英国一家超市成为世界上首个允许顾客购买商品时使用指静脉付款的超市。

顾客现在可以在Costcutter商店通过静脉特征验证身份付款。

这一技术的原理是利用红外光扫描顾客手指的静脉，然后将这种独特的生物识别地图与顾客的银行卡相关联。顾客的银行信息随后将存储到Worldpay的系统中，同样地，网购时也是这样留存银行卡信息的。之后顾客便可以空手逛超市，但每次在超市结账时，只要花几秒钟把手指放在扫描仪上。

此前的研究发现，在手机上广泛应用的指纹识别技术很容易被黑客攻击，甚至从手机屏幕上就可以复制指纹。

但支持此科技的Sthaler公司声称，静脉识别技术是最安全的方法，无法被复制或窃取。

该公司表示，很多学生已经使用该支付系统，预计截至11月全校13000名学生中将有3000人成为该系统的会员。

该技术利用红外光创建手指静脉的详细图像。支付者必须是活着的本人，这意味着一旦犯罪分子切下某人的手指去支付，那也是行不通的。Sthaler公司表示，你只需要花费一分钟时间先在系统上注册，之后每次在超市结账时，只需几秒钟就能完成付款。

Sthaler公司总监西蒙·宾斯对《每日电讯报》表示：“这项技术让付款变得更简单。”