Biometric payments tech taking off

Numerous customer surveys over the last two years point to the impending demise of PINs and passwords as a sufficient method of authentication in an increasingly connected world. The evolution of payment tech has fuelled the rise of biometrics as the strongest defence against increasing levels of identity theft. The sci-fi ideal is already in the here and now with biometric payment tech already using fingerprint verification, iris scanning, vein and voice recognition.

Previous fears regarding privacy seem to be evaporating. A survey conducted by Visa Europe earlier this year suggests UK millennials are ready to ditch old school password verification. It said 70% of people think some method of biometric scanning will be the primary form of identification by 2020.

The arrival of Apple Pay has brought the issue of biometric powered mobile payments to the fore, but it is by no means the only show in town. Samsung and Microsoft have already taken up the challenge while Visa and Mastercard have climbed aboard the biometric bandwagon.

The Mobile biometrics market is rapidly gaining traction and is slated to become a $33 billion industry within five years. There is an increasing number of innovative (and well funded) start-ups making waves in the biometrics space, where potential newly discovered game changers are appearing almost on a weekly basis. Here is a snapshot of some of the latest innovations announced this month:

Voice activated payments
Voice biometric payment start-up SayPay Technologies this month teamed up with identity verification firm VoiceVault. The latter provides algorithms that analyze the distinctive characteristics found in each voice using multi-dimensional modeling of the vocal range. Customers simply utter a unique, one-time use SayPay token into their mobile phones to verify identity and authorize a payment.

Fingerprint smart card
SmartMetric brings a slightly old school twist to biometric authentication. It offers a fingerprint activated payment card, much like a EMV compliant ‘chip and PIN’ card which is activated only by the owner’s unique fingerprint. The card is self-powered with a rechargeable battery and contains an EMV chip so it can be used at EMV compatible point of sales terminals and ATM machines. With the PoS hardware already set up and ubiquitous, it’s a potential game-changer. The company said this month it is scaling up production of the cards and hopes to roll out the service this summer.

Selfie payments
Alibaba’s Jack Ma recently gave a demo of the ‘FACE++’ facial recognition software which analyzes 83 different points on the human face for verification. The developer claims an average smartphone camera provides high enough resolution quality for it to analyse facial features. There is no word yet on if or when an Alibaba FACE++ app will come to fruition, although the developer announced last week it would rollout ‘a new commercial application’ later in the year after just receiving new funding of $25 million. Alibaba’s mobile payment service Alipay has a reputed 300 million users.

Iris-enabled smartphones
The world’s first iris-scanning smartphone is about to hits stores in Japan.  The Arrows NX F-04G phone running Android 5.0 Lollipop OS is a fairly average piece of hardware for today’s standards, but authentication within the blink of an eye could well be a game changer. The built-in iris scanner, made by Fujitsu, has an error rate of just 1 in 100,000.  Conforming to FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) standards, the scanner is good for phone unlocking, signing into apps and to authorize payments.    

The password pill
We have saved the best (and most bizarre) until last. PayPal’s Jonathan LeBlanc recently highlighted some far-out ‘innovations’ the company was allegedly considering during his ‘Kill all Passwords’ presentation road show. One standout idea is a so-called ‘password pill’ which would be ingested and can recognise individual glucose levels along with ‘other unique internal features’, via an imbedded microchip in the pill. So when you log in to PayPal, this data would be transmitted straight to your computer to authenticate your identity. Other ideas mooted in the presentation included ‘wearable computer tattoos’ and ECG heartbeat sensors.  Back to reality, PayPal admits it is not seriously developing any injectable or ingestible devices at the moment, but it could well be something that appears somewhere in the non-to-distant future.