Chinese consumers taking part in the large-scale testing of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Beijing over the Chinese New Year period are trialling a biometric ‘hard wallet’ card developed by the Postal Savings Bank of China... More
The Green Leaves+ shop-and-go store in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel in Japan is piloting a biometrics-enabled checkout-free service that allows customers to enter the store by verifying their identity with just their face and a swipe of their palm... More
A coalition of technology and healthcare providers in the US has launched an initiative to develop a solution that will enable individuals to store and access their Covid-19 vaccination records in their digital wallet “in a secure, verifiable and privacy preserving way”... More
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is to roll out a digital travel pass that will enable passengers to store verified identity documents such as their e-passport and verified Covid-19 test results or inoculation records on their iPhone or Android device... More
Residents of Los Angeles County in the USA will be able to verify that they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and receive a reminder to have a second dose of the vaccine via a digital record they can store in their Apple Wallet or “competing Google platform”... More
Researchers at Penn State University in the USA have developed a wearable wireless sensor that can be printed directly onto a person’s skin to take precise biometric measurements and transmit data to an NFC smartphone or similar device... More
PARTNER NEWS: NFC-based intelligent labels and packages offer “the safety and security necessary to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 while giving scientists, medical staff and patients the ability to interact with products so they can verify authenticity, check expiration dates and even gain useful insights into the nature of the virus,” NXP has explained... More
The Government of Madeira is to issue biometric cards containing an in-built fingerprint sensor to 3,400 of its citizens for the pilot test of Smart Island, a decentralized digital identity project encompassing 12 education, healthcare, port security, transport, payments, tourism and government services... More
PARTNER NEWS: A new NFC tag inlay, jointly developed by NXP and Identiv, is now available to order at an “unrivalled” price of US$0.05 per unit, “enabling a new generation of smart products across a wide range of end markets where NFC may have been previously considered price prohibitive.”... More
Beauty giant L’Oréal has launched an NFC-enabled sun safety sensor that measures the wearers exposure to UV light and comes with a companion app that iPhone users can use to tap their sensor to get advice tailored to their skin tone and skin type... More
Tokenization technology is an immediately available solution that can be used to address critical gaps in blockchain and cryptocurrency security and promote consumer and institutional confidence, Rambus explains in a new paper which is available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Four NFC Forum technical specifications speed and enable new NFC services — NFC Forum — “The Connection Handover Technical Specification 1.4 allows users to define additional specific services when two devices are paired together using other wireless communication technologies, such as Bluetooth or WLAN by a tap of an NFC-enabled device. The Personal Health Device Communication (PHDC) Technical Specification 1.2 defines the exchange of ISO/IEEE 11073 messages often used for personal healthcare devices such as heart, blood pressure and glucose monitors. Also, updates were made to the NFC Digital Protocol Technical Specification 2.1 and NFC Controller Interface (NCI) Technical Specification 2.1.”
Russia’s multi-bank remote customer identification facility, which has been in beta testing since early 2018, has launched with Know Your Customer (KYC) enrolment points now working at more than 400 banks in 140 cities... More
Japan airline ANA aims to build digital payments business — Financial Times — “The plan is part of a broader digital push by ANA, which hopes to build on data collected from the 31m users of its airline miles to provide a range of services including real estate, insurance and health to consumers across Japan… ‘We are aiming for ANA’s version of Alibaba’s Alipay,’ Shinya Katanozaka, ANA’s chief executive, said in an interview.”
Tokenization has the potential to increase the security of a wide range of applications beyond payments, from healthcare to social security, logical access control and blockchain applications, Rambus explains in a new ebook which is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Maldives introduces most innovative ID card — Dermalog — “Maldives Immigration has just introduced a new, very innovative type of ID card: It can be used for payments, but also serves as a national ID card, as a driver´s license as well as a health card and insurance card. Last but not least it is also used like a passport for easy travelling… The new card is certified by the Bank of Maldives as well as by MasterCard.”
Norwich hospital charity introduces cashless donations for visitors — UK Fundraising — “Visitors to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals are now able to make donations to the NHS Trust charity using a variety of tap-to-donate tools ranging from vinyl stickers and ‘smart’ posters… The Trust is also using the technology to turn (charity-funded) wheelchairs into instant donation points.”
Khushi Baby, a service that uses NFC necklaces to track the healthcare given to mothers and babies in India, has added biometric security to its platform to further protect the personal information of patients... More
Mastercard and Western Union explore digital model for refugee camps — Mastercard — “Mastercard and Western Union examined the needs, challenges and opportunities for refugees and their host communities at two settlement camps in northwestern Kenya. The findings have led to the development of Smart Communities: Using Digital Technology to Create Sustainable Refugee Economies, a blueprint that would combine digital access to remittances, banking, education, healthcare and other basic needs.”
Some 41% of all secure elements deployed globally between 2010 and 2016 were based on GlobalPlatform specifications, totalling 22.018bn, the standards body has revealed... More
