Illustration by Glenn HarveyBiometric mobile wallets — payment technologies using our faces, fingerprints or retinas — already exist. Notable technology companies including Apple and Amazon await a day when a critical mass of consumers is sufficiently comfortable walking into a store and paying for goods without a card or device, according to Sinnreich, author of “The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property.”
Removing the last physical barrier — smartphones, watches, smart glasses and credit cards — between our bodies and corporate America is the final frontier in mobile payments.
Shopping will be easier for consumers and, if studies on mobile payments provide a barometer, more lucrative for companies. A study carried out by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that the number of actual purchases increased by almost one quarter when people used Alipay mobile payments.
Mastercard and Visa already have security features that require people to use their faces to log into their accounts on their phones. Apple’s iPhone X allows people to use “Face ID” to unlock their phones, and Samsung’s iris scanner. Amazon’s Recognition facial-recognition service can also identify both objects and people.
Ongoing Information & Trends: A Weblog 