NEC Corporation is testing out a biometric payment solution at its main office building in Tokyo.
It’s based on facial recognition, linking individuals’ faces to their payment information. In a trial project that started at the end of last month and is expected to run until the end of August, NEC employees are paying via face scan at small shops in the building of its head office in the city. Continue reading
The fallout from the Brexit vote continues to rock the European financial system. On Wednesday, the British pound dropped to a fresh 31-year low as confidence in the currency continues to plummet. At one point it had fallen as low as $1.2796 before rebounding a bit. As I write this, it is still sitting at just $1.293. Meanwhile, the problems for the biggest banks in Europe just continue to mount. At one point on Wednesday Credit Suisse hit an all-time record low, and German banking giant Deutsche Bank closed the day at an all-time record closing low of 12.93. Overall, Europe’s Stoxx 600 Bank Index closed at the lowest level in almost five years. What we are watching is a full-blown financial meltdown in Europe, but because it is not personally affecting them yet, most Americans are not paying any attention to it. Continue reading
US-based computer vision specialist Sighthound has launched a new facial recognition system for mobile applications. The company is presenting its eponymous app at the CVPR conference in Las Vegas this week.
The software enables not only facial recognition, but also face detection and tracking, and all via live video feeds. At the CVPR conference, Sighthound is demonstrating the technology on an iPhone 6 and an iPad Pro, but the company says its software isn’t restricted to iOS. It’s marketing it to OEMs interested in bringing such technology to mobile applications, with CEO Stephen Neish asserting in a press release that the company’s aim “is to make computer vision easy to use – that now includes customers who want to deploy solutions on mobile devices.” Continue reading
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – “It’s all doable. It’s just a matter of doing it.”
This was President-elect Rodrigo Duterte response to a 10-point wishlist presented to him by businessmen on Tuesday, June 21.
“Sulong Pilipinas,” a two-day forum held in Davao City, gathered some 450 businessmen who came up with recommendations for the incoming Duterte administration on how to improve the country’s economy and business environment.
The recommendations include improving the country’s transportation network, reduction of corporate and personal income tax, a national ID system, and improving Internet connection all over the country. Continue reading…
The banking password may be about to expire — forever.
Some of the nation’s largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts.
Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely use fingerprints to log into their bank accounts through their mobile phones. This feature, which some of the largest banks have introduced in the last few months, is enabling a huge share of American banking customers to verify their identities with biometrics. And millions more are expected to opt in as more phones incorporate fingerprint scans. Continue reading…
The one state that has gone complete anti-democratic is Oklahoma. It is wise not to travel in that state at all. Oklahoma should be on a no-fly zone. Now, Oklahoma police can outright seize everything you have from debit cards to bank accounts on a traffic stop without any criminal charges being filed. If some policeman thinks you’re doing something illegal, your life is over. Without money, you cannot hire a lawyer and they can just rob everything you have on a whim.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has introduced a device called Electronic Recovery and Access to Data (ERAM) that allows police officers to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards. State police began using 16 of these machines last month, and now the police have become literal highway robbers. This makes the traffic cops in Russia, who you can bribe to go away if they pull you over for a speeding ticket, as a far more civilized arrangement. Here, they can rob you of everything. Continue reading…
In 1661, Stockholms Banco, the precursor to the Swedish central bank, issued Europe’s first banknotes, on thick watermarked paper bearing the bank’s seal and eight handwritten signatures.
Last year – as Britain did last week – Sweden launched a new series of notes, cheery affairs featuring 20th-century Swedish cultural giants such as Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking, Greta Garbo and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. But like its Nordic neighbours Norway, Denmark and Finland, Sweden is fast becoming an almost entirely cashless society. Continue reading…
Last week, SmartMetric, for the first time in an exhibition, demonstrated its biometric payment card with built in fingerprint reader at the Smart Card Alliance Payments Forum.
“We had a constant stream of some of the largest credit card issuers in the country come by our stand to see first hand the new biometric credit card,” said SmartMetric’s President & CEO, Chaya Hendrick. “What amazed so many was the fact that we had embedded a fully functional fingerprint scanner inside a credit card while conforming to credit card industry standards regarding card size and thickness. It was also recognized that the card is able to be issued by banks without them having to change any of their existing systems since the card operates using existing chip card readers and ATM’s. Another big issue that pleased the banks seeing our card was the fact that SmartMetric can produce currently up to 1 million cards a month with the ability to ramp this up considerably within a relatively short space of time.” Source
Rwandan buses are among the first in Africa to switch to cashless payment. Chris Matthews asks what will become of the bus conductor. Snaking through the green streets of Kigali, as a stream of motorbike taxis, known as motos, fly along the hilly roads, the 109 bus is making its familiar route west to the suburb of Gikondo. Source