Apple Pay’s fingerprint authentication is already miles better than the laughable magnetic strip on our credit cards. But to try and create the
The Nymi Band is like a contactless credit card, which only works when you (and only you) are wearing it. It uses a sensor to record the electrical activity of the wearer’s heart, the same kind of thing a hospital uses during an ECG.
That electrical activity is apparently unique to each individual, which allows Nymi to build a ‘Heart ID’, which is used to authenticate the wearer and allow them to make payments using NFC, the same technology that powers contactless credit cards (and Apple Pay).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-xC4DorC6Y
It sounds like a pipe-dream technology, but Nymi actually has a trial up and running for Canadian Mastercard users who bank with TD. The trial will expand to more Canadian banks later this year.
But I don’t think that you’ll be seeing the Nymi Band in stores any time soon — far more likely is the technology being integrated into smartwatches, which already have most of the sensors and smarts to pull the trick off.
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