Monday, November 10, 2014

Credit Cards on your Wrist

Royal Bank is running a pilot testing an innovative concept in the race to find a workable means of electronic mobile payments. Much effort by various parties has gone into the use of mobile phones, and this ill continue, but there are other means being researched.

Royal may be onto something with this product, which involves wearing a band that is equipped with NFC technology enabling it to communicate with similarly equipped cash registers or terminals. The band would be linked to the wearer's credit card and the authentication process, rather than a password or pin, would be the heartbeat of the wearer. So if the band is lost, it wouldn't be able to be used, as everyone has a unique heartbeat. Kind of a portable cardiogram.

We can expect other innovations in the payments space, but this one has a lot of potential. Wearable technologies are the future and perhaps we will see technological rings, pendants, and other things that will be able to facilitate our shopping for us. For more on the Royal initiative, check this link.

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