Have you ever forgotten your credit/debit card or money when buying something? It’s certainly embarrassing for the consumer, and not only that, the retailer then loses the sale. Wouldn’t it be nice if one could pay by using a different form of identification? Well, there is a new possibility brought to consumers from Nets, a Nordic payment provider.
Nets has launched a service called ‘Fingopay’ – a biometric payment system that uses a consumer’s finger-vein reading system to access credit cards and PIN numbers, while still maintaining a person’s security. The system uses infrared lights to scan the consumer’s prints, creating a 3D map of the veins in the whole finger (not the fingerprint). This can be registered as a preferred payment method, linking the finger tips to the bank account. The biometric signature is a one-of-a-kind identifier. It can’t be stolen, forged, or damaged. If the vein print matches the registered pattern, the sale is made!
Fingopay is now in use at the Copenhagen Business School and at Brunel University in London. Readers are installed at points of sales in the campus store and cash-free transactions ensure that purchases can be made, even without wallets or phones!
Purchasing is now at your finger – really!
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: How many have forgotten their wallets or id recently when trying to make a purchase? What happened?
- Show Fingopay’s Web site: http://fingopay.com/
- View the video on the site that shows how the system works.
- Another video on U.S. news: https://youtu.be/bwDvUolnf8Y
- Poll students: Would they use this system? Why, or why not?
- For all the objections to using the service, have teams of students develop promotional tactics that could counteract the objections.
Source: Trendhunter.com.
