London, Apr 15 (IANS): Last year thousands of quake victims fled homes in Japan, leaving their cash cards behind in the hurly burly of survival. Luckily, one bank has the answer, ATMs that use a palm-scanner to issue money.

The announcement follows a trial started in December by Kraft of the iSample vending machine, which uses a biometric scanner to 'read' the age and gender of people standing in front of it, and will serve adults, but refuse children.

The two machines went on trial in Chicago's Shedd Aquarium and New York's South Street Seaport. The biometric technology is already under test by companies such as Gillette, the Daily Mail reported.

The scanner uses biometric data to 'guess' the age of people standing in front of it, dividing adults into four 'age brackets.' Other software has already been shown to be able to 'guess' ages to an accuracy of around five years.

Biometric security systems on home laptops, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly popular. HP's new DV6 and DV7 machines, for instance, both feature finger-scanning security.