Backers of a pilot program at a small South Dakota university are testing a technology that they hope is another step toward creating a cashless society.
More than 50 students and faculty members are taking part in the month-long pilot at the state's School of Mines and Technology.
Instead of using cash or credit cards to buy items at two campus shops, users scan their fingers with a device that recognizes their prints and detects hemoglobin in the blood beneath the skin.
That ensures that the finger being used to purchase has a pulse.
Students who've enrolled in the program say their school's role in the testing helps put the 2,400-student university on the map.
The first-of-its-kind pilot has been so successful that university officials are hoping to expand it.
