Scanning veins in the human hand could become the biometric measure of choice for authentication when we pay for things or want to unlock devices such as smartphones, an Australian professor says.

Thanks to the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5 smartphones, fingerprint scanners are going mainstream quickly. But how will they fare against vein scanning?

Fujitsu's vein-recognition technology identifies a person by scanning the unique pattern of veins.

According to computer science Professor Willy Susilo of the University of Wollongong, fingerprint scanners are a "gimmick" and iris and vein scanners are likely to trump them.

"Using our fingerprint is not a secure way to do [authentication]," Professor Susilo said. "It's just like a gimmick."