AMBER HUNT
Associated Press

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - 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.

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