A method and a system as described are known from, inter alia, Norwegian Patent Application No. 20021679.

However, there has long been a need to be able to avoid the use of tokens in the form of slips of paper, cards or the like, as these result in extra processing routines, operational maintenance of technical equipment such as token printers, and the emptying of tokens collected in connection with validation and/or delivery of goods.

According to the invention, the method is characterised in that as token at least one biometric characteristic of the consumer is used.

According to another aspect of the method, said biometric characteristic or characteristics is/are selectable from: fingerprints, hand characteristics, eye characteristics, facial contours, voice spectrum.

Advantageously, the token's validation data is deleted or invalidated when the selected product is delivered to the consumer.

The aforementioned system is characterised, according to the invention, in that the token used is at least one biometric characteristic of the consumer. According to one aspect of the system, the said biometric characteristic is selected from: fingerprints, hand characteristics, eye characteristics, facial characteristics, voice characteristics.

According to one embodiment of the system, the product delivery point is designed to delete or invalidate said validation data when the selected product is delivered to the

consumer. The product register unit, the point of payment and the product delivery point are each equipped with a device for scanning specific biometric characteristics of the consumer.

The product register unit is equipped with a means for communication with the point of payment, and similarly the point of payment will have a means for communication with the product delivery point.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the attached drawing.

A consumer 1 who wishes to select at least one product from a product register unit views a display 10 on which a number of products 10'are shown. These products 10' are related to the products contained in a product register 10".

Advantageously, the display 10 is a so-called touch screen, so that the consumer 1 can mark with a finger 2 the product or products 10'that are shown on the display 10 so as to order such a product and confirm the selection of the product, or in effect a product reservation, by using scanning of at least one biometric characteristic of the consumer selectable from, for example, fingerprints, hand characteristics, eye characteristics, characteristics of the consumer's face or his/her facial contours, and voice characteristics such as voice spectrum.

As shown in the drawing, fingerprints from, for example, an index finger 2 of the consumer can be scanned by a fingerprint reader 6. Alternatively, the reader 6 can scan the hand characteristics of the hand 2'.

The use of a detector 7 for scanning the characteristics of one or both of the consumer's eyes 3 is also conceivable. If it is the consumer's voice that is to be used as biometric characteristic, such as the voice frequency spectrum, the voice or sound that issues from the consumer's mouth 4 can be captured by a detector 8. In another case, it may instead be desirable that the consumer's face should form said characteristic, and for this purpose a detector 9 is used to recognise, for example, the consumer's facial contours or details of his/her face. The consumer's face is generally indicated by the reference numeral 5 on the figure.

Thus, the consumer does not receive a token printed out by the product register unit 11, as it is only the at least one biometric characteristic of the consumer that serves as a token throughout the whole process until delivery of the product. Since the biometric characteristics of a person are as a general rule unique to that person, the danger of fraud is almost entirely eliminated.

A signal processing unit, for example, a microprocessor 12, communicates with a point of payment 16 signal processor 15 via a data bus 13. The point of payment 16 has detectors similar to the detectors 6-9, indicated respectively by the reference numerals 6', 7', 8'and 9'in connection with the point of payment 16. When the consumer, on arrival at the point of payment, uses his biometric characteristic as a product token, this characteristic is captured by, for example, one of said detectors 6'-9'and compared with said biometric characteristic that was registered by one of the detectors 6-9. The biometric characteristic or characteristics registered by respectively the product register unit 11 and the point of payment 16 are compared in a comparator 14 and if they match, the signal processor 15 is further activated in order to signal to the cash register unit 16' at the point of payment that the product is to be paid for.

When the product has been paid for by the consumer, a signal to this effect is sent via a data bus 17 to a signal processor 18, for example, a microprocessor, located at the product delivery point 21. When the consumer then moves on to the product delivery point after paying for the product, the consumer 1 has his/her chosen biometric characteristic scanned by detector 6", 7", 8"or 9", and token data related to the data that were compared and approved at the point of payment 16 are then compared by a comparator 19 at the product delivery point 21. If there is a match, the signal processor 18 is reactivated to initiate delivery of the product in question from a product delivery unit 20. When the selected product is thus delivered to the consumer, the product delivery point will be designed to delete or invalidate the validation data that has been transferred from the point of payment so as to prevent further delivery of products that have not been paid for.