Over the next month, Dining Services will be testing a pilot program that uses a scan of an individualâs palm in place of his or her MaineCard. The program uses infrared technology to recognize the meal plan userâs palm and links that image to that personâs MaineCard account. âInstead of swiping your MaineCard, the program is going to identify you by the palm of your hand,â said Benny Veenhof, director of technology management at UMaine. âIt takes a snapshot of the veins and creates a black pattern that it then converts into an encrypted algorithm.â