Wearables. An expression of payment?
A few days ago, I was shown a little video in which a bloke, dressed as the Harry Potter character Prof. Dumbledore, got on London buses and waved his wand at the terminals to pay. No magic, of course, the clever prankster had placed one of the Oyster card chips in the tip of the wand and was using that to make a contactless payment - much to the bemusement of TfL drivers and fellow passengers. Well, he could have come straight from the catwalk, because…
Contactless payment using items other than mobile phones or cards appears to be the next (big) thing, if last week’s news features are to be believed. First there was the news of British designer Henry Holland teaming up with Visa Europe to combine fashion, wearable technology and payments. At his London Fashion Week show on 19 September, he demonstrated how an NFC chip embedded in an e-ring (as opposed to an earring *chuckle*) could be used to purchase items directly from the runway. Specially designed rings in the shape of bugs were allocated to 10 VIPs at the show, including models Alexa Chung and Daisy Lowe. The rings contained NFC chips and were pre-loaded with £500 credit. At the end of the show, the VIPs were able to walk up to one of three models and touch a giant brooch in the shape of a leaf with the bug ring, in order to purchase one of the items they were wearing.
House of Holland worked with Visa Europe's innovation hub, Visa Europe Collab, to develop the technology as part of a 100-day "sprint". The NFC brooches were linked to virtualised payment terminals via Bluetooth Smart technology, allowing Visa to process the transactions in the background as the show went on.
Last week, Visa Europe also released three videos that demonstrated a wearable design concept; Small Change, Budgeteer and Thread. Visa Europe teamed up with world-renowned art and design institution, Central Saint Martins, and challenged five of its top design students to explore the future of wearable payments. The young designers, who are all either students or graduates of the MA Industrial Design course at the London-based university, were asked to imagine the form and functionality of contactless wearable devices by 2020. The project culminated in the presentation of three design concepts at the annual Visa Europe Technology Partner Forum in London last week.
Speaking about the project, Nick Mackie, head of contactless at Visa Europe, said,“At Visa, we envisage that contactless technology will become a standard feature on many wearable devices by 2020; in fact, there’s no reason why the payment function on a wearable device wouldn’t become as ubiquitous as the alarm function on a digital watch.” These are all design concepts– which Mackie emphasises are intended to inspire ideas and conversation about the future of wearable payments, but not for mainstream consumption.
However, another wearable that IS being made for mass consumption is the Kerv. Developed by a London fintech start-up, this contactless payment ring is being launched on Kickstarter looking to raise £77K to move the product to mass production. Kerv wearers can make instant contactless payments of £30 or lower with a single gesture – no card, PIN, or paired smartphone required - just load it up online.
Beyond retail payments, Kerv can be used on the Transport for London network (and other global cities’ mass transit systems). Kerv also offers instant sharing of emergency, medical or contact details at the tap of an NFC-enabled phone, plus one-touch access via compatible NFC locks and security systems – which means even more pocket junk can be left at home.
Kerv founder, Philip Campbell, said, “Currently, wearable payment devices are either eye-wateringly expensive or thoroughly unattractive. But the biggest issue I have is that they’re all worn on the wrist, which has to be placed flat against the contactless reader in a way that feels extremely unnatural and awkward. With a creative background – plus eight years experience in payments – I felt we could do better. So we did, designing Kerv to be the most ergonomic, natural and convenient contactless payment method possible.”
Will we now see a plethora of augmented jewellery, hand signals (check out the Visa video for budgeteer) or dance moves designed for individual payment processes and avoidance of card clash? The future of payment looks to be quite… physical. Expect us all to look like a bunch of mimes pretending to pay for stuff in the future.
Or Jedi Knights. *waves hand over POS* “This IS the coffee I am looking for”. Beep.
The rest of the UK may be a little more mainstream when it comes to contactless, but they are looking to London for the best use cases for contactless implementations across all kinds of applications. We at Contactless Intelligence are helping to facilitate this and have organised a roundtable - aptly names Contactless Britannia - where UK BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) as well as representatives of local authorities can exchange ideas with the top tech experts in the industry. The first of this roundtable series, taking place on October 14th, is now sold out. Experts from NXP, Creditcall, Samsung Media and other renowned companies will be present to share their visions and expertise. It looks set to be a very intense but rewarding day.
Until next time,
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
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