PulseWallet Lets You Make Payments With Just Your Palm
“Why should you have to present anything to make a payment — and to prove your identity — other than yourself?” That simple thought lead to the birth of PulseWallet, a simplistic way to charge your credit/debit for transactions at retail outlets, and more. Like a palm scanner, PulseWallet scans the vein patterns in your palm to charge your card.
What makes it tick: In the age of retina scans, PulseWallet, which is a credit card terminal and register with a built-in biometric palm reader, has a non-invasive approach (Wouldn’t you rather hover your hand over a reader than have a laser scan your eyes?), despite which it is 99.99992 per cent accurate and works in under a second.
The technology: PulseWallet uses Fujitsu’s PalmSecure technology, which converts an infra-red image of your palm into a biometric template, which is then stored in the cloud. When you place your palm over another PalmSecure reader, say one kept at a retail outlet, the device looks in the database for a match, by which your identity is verified. Registered with a credit card, like PulseWallet does, it can make payments from your card/account too at a go.
Why it is reliable: It is said that the vein patterns stay constant once you’ve completed eight years of age. So, you don’t have to re-scan your palm every now and then to keep it updated. There is no possibility of identity theft either, as vein patterns are not easily replicated like finger prints.
For immediate use: The PalmSecure technology is being used in about 35,000 ATMs in Brazil and Italy, but is there is the wide untapped market of the US, China, India and other countries. All that business owners need to do is hook up their cash register to PulseWallet or use PulseWallet’s bundled register, which includes a Windows tablet. This package is set to retail next month.
In the future: PulseWallet could also be used to check in and check out of hotel or hospital rooms, make payments at schools, and so on.
What a startup can learn from PulseWallet:
- Tap the future—as Biometrics is the future, what PulseWallet has done is to create a viable space in it
- Your target need not be big enterprises, there is a huge market in small businesses—PulseWallet aims at getting small businesses to use its system first.