Forget credit card, use index finger

Forget about your credit or debit card. Now, you can make payments using the index finger of your right hand.

Place your finger on the register. Decide which account you want to pay from. Without pulling out your wallet, your amount is debited. You get a receipt. Your transaction is complete.

With biometrics, payments have gotten easier and more secure, says a report in ABCNEWS.com.

Biometrics is technology used to capture and encode human characteristic to identify people during financial or other transactions. Readings can be taken from your fingerprints, your eye's iris, the sound of your voice or the shape of your face and hands.

In a few years, such technology may be used at bank ATMs instead of cards, or instead of a password and identity for online banking.

Companies across all industry sectors are expected to spend about $800 million on biometric technology in 2004, according to the Boston based research firm Celent Communications. The figure is expected to jump to $4.3 billion by 2006.

Experts predict that DNA may even be used.