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Pay with your hand system possible soon

Amazon is trying to create a new kind of technology for helping shoppers. A filing submitted last year shows that Amazon is trying to patent a technology for identifying people by scanning their hands. The technology would analyze characteristics such as wrinkles and creases along with deeper structures including veins, bones and soft tissue. It would then upload the image to a database, and use that image to identify a person by hand. In September, Amazon developed a payment system for the grocery chain Whole Foods, which would let customers pay by simply swiping their hand under a scanner, rather than using a card.

Visa-free entry lures more Chinese to Malaysia

The Malaysian Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry has announced a 15-day visa-free entry for Chinese visitors to Malaysia for a one-year period from Wednesday. Malaysia has set a 30-million-tourist-arrival target for Visit Malaysia Year 2020 which begins on Jan 1 in a bid to make the country the destination of choice for leisure and business. Chinese tourists who have been the key growth driver across Southeast Asia over the past decade will continue to support Malaysia's tourism growth, said Malaysian research house Maybank Kim Eng. Although Malaysia's overall tourist arrivals dipped 0.4 percent year-on-year to 25.83 million last year, Chinese tourists surged 29 percent to 2.94 million. Meanwhile Malaysia's tourism receipts rose 2.44 percent year-on-year to $20.3 billion, Chinese tourist expenditure surged 35.9 percent to $3 billion.