(Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.)

A Japanese company has created an identification device that scans the unique pattern of veins in a person's palm.

Fujitsu's PalmSecure System is planned for public use in ATMs as well as for PCs to increase data security in the home.

The device is said to be superior to fingerprint-based systems, because those require the scanner to be touched, which creates smudges that can decrease accuracy and potentially spread germs.

The company has not said whether the system will have the ability to identify the habits of users with hairy palms.