New Palm Scanners in School Lunch Lines
This futuristic technology does not take up any more space in the lunchroom than traditional pay points. However, there is a small change that may allow students a little more time to enjoy lunch. There is a scanner shaped like the palm of a hand. Students place their hands on it and the cashier will see a pop-up detailing their payment and food allergies.
Seen only at Hawthorne and Ramona, this new technology in school cafeterias intends to shorten lines, giving students more lunch time. It is making some people uncomfortable, which led to some parents refusing to allow the school to include their children. There is even a student who called the practice "Big Brother" and will not scan his hand.
Food service director for the school Anna Apoian has stated that the school is not gathering information and that the device does not save images of the children's palms. Instead, it just connects the child to a code that the children have already been using to access the same information. What the schools are really trying to do is save time. The hope is that kids who get into the line late will not have to chomp their lunches down fast or go without. Unfortunately, the question of why the schools have children chomping down lunch or going without is not addressed.
While Anna Apoian has stated that the school is not gathering information, she is not completely on board with the new technology. She works in a building that uses facial recognition to punch school staff in and out of work, so she is used to this kind of in-depth technology. Her problem is that the palm scanner is actually slowing down lines when it is unable to read a hand or when the system crashes. The bottom line is that the key code method they already had in place is still faster, though they will keep testing the palm scanner to give it a full trial run.
