14 DAY TRIAL // Companies like Samsung have developed services like Samsung Pay, which will let users of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge fire up an app and tap it to the side of the card terminal in order to pay.
Apple has its own fingerprint-based alternative called Apple Pay, but similar technology isn't so widespread yet.
Anyhow, Chinese retail giant Alibaba could be jumping ahead of everyone else in terms of mobile paying technology, while making things a lot more pleasurable in the process too.
Just smile at your smartphone to pay for your goodies
The e-commerce behemoth is developing facial recognition technology that will allow mobile shoppers to replace their passwords with selfies.
The announcement was made during the CeBit trade fair which is taking place in Germany at the moment, by Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma.
He explained where the idea sprang from. According to him, online payments for things you buy on the web always tend to cause quite a big headache. Users always forget their passwords or worry about security while inputting their personal card data.
So Alibaba has tried to come up with a better solution to shop online, which they have dubbed “Smile to Pay.”
The new system uses facial recognition rather than fingerprint scanning to allow you to pay for the stuff you have purchased online.
As the name vividly indicates, and as Ma has demonstrated himself, all you need to do is to smile at your smartphone and let the camera scan your visage in order to confirm the purchase you have made.
Smile to Pay is still in early beta
The technology is being developed by Alibaba’s Ant Financial unit for use with Alipay Wallet and an online payment service, but details about how this will work are pretty scarce at the moment.
The company’s CEO didn't go into details about how this facial recognition software is capable of discerning your face’s feature, but as the system nears completion, we’ll surely hear more about it soon.
Alibaba is not the only company experimenting with alternative modes of paying online. For example, Halifax is currently trialing out a wristband capable of identifying a person using ECG data. Hopefully, the world of online shopping is getting safer and safer.
Jack Ma demonstrates the future of payment technology @cebit pic.twitter.com/PUQWyguRvc
— Alizila.com (@Alizila) March 15, 2015