Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department is to introduce contactless triage or casualty classification cards containing an NFC chip and a QR code that enable rescue workers to communicate accurate real-time information about the injuries of individuals involved in large-scale accidents to other frontline staff, public hospitals and dispatch centres... More
QR Codes
Colombia to let citizens use digital ID for contactless cross-border travel in South America
Residents of Colombia will soon be able to use an updated version of their digital national identity card — known as La Cédula Digital Colombiana — stored on their Apple or Android smartphone as a passport when travelling to eight other South American countries... More
Nike and Rtfkt use NFC to link physical clothing with NFTs
Nike and its digital fashion brand Rtfkt have launched a hoodie incorporating an NFC chip that enables purchasers to connect it to a digital version of the garment in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) that can be ‘worn’ by digital avatars in Rtfkt’s Clone X avatar ecosystem... More
Global digital wallet spend to exceed US$12tn in 2026
The total value of digital wallet transactions globally will exceed US$12tn in 2026, up from US$7.5tn in 2022, and the total number of digital wallet users worldwide will increase from 3.4 billion in 2022 to more than 5.2 billion in 2026, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Survey finds four in ten businesses are planning to upgrade to a mobile-ready contactless access control solution
More than four in ten businesses are planning to adopt a mobile-ready contactless access control solution (42%) while just under one in four have already upgraded to a mobile-ready system (24%), a survey of professionals from across a range of industries worldwide reveals... More
Greece rolls out digital ID cards and driving licences
Greek citizens can now create, store and present digital versions of their national identity card and driving licence using a digital identity wallet on their smartphone... More
Nearly 100m US consumers will be scanning QR codes by 2025
The number of US consumers who use their smartphone to scan QR codes to make contactless payments and for a wide range of other use cases such as scanning codes in print publications, on restaurant menus and in retail outlets will rise from 83.4 million in 2022 to 99.5 million by 2025, according to an Insider Intelligence forecast... More
US police officers pilot contactless badges that citizens can tap with their NFC phone
Police officers in the city of Alpharetta in Georgia have become the first in the USA to be issued with contactless smart cards that let members of the public access an officer’s ID badge information and contact details by simply tapping the card with their NFC smartphone... More
UK cinemas roll out support for contactless IDs
UK cinema-goers who need to verify their age in order to purchase tickets for age-restricted films can now do so using a digital ID card stored on their Android or iOS smartphone that can be authenticated using a QR code... More
Global QR code transaction values to exceed US$3tn by 2025
The total transaction values for payments made using QR codes worldwide will reach more than US$3tn by 2025, an increase of 25% from US$2.4tn in 2022, driven by an increasing focus on financial inclusion in developing markets and alternative payment methods in developed regions, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Vietnam lets citizens add internationally standardized vaccine passports to their mobile phones
Residents of Vietnam will soon be able to store a digital vaccine passport on their Android or iOS device that enables border officials to verify an individual travelling abroad has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by scanning a QR code... More
Contactless P2P payments to drive adoption of digital euro, central bank survey finds
European consumers consider the ability to make instant contactless payments, including person-to-person transfers, to be a priority and “a very important selling point” for a digital euro, according to European Central Bank (ECB) research... More
Hindu temples pilot contactless payments in India
Devotees will soon be able to make contactless offerings and other charitable payments at some 536 Hindu temples across India using a QR code-based payment system being piloted by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department... More
JustKitchen to pilot smart lockers for contactless food delivery in Taiwan
Employees at Panasonic Taiwan’s head office in New Taipei City will soon be able to order and pay for meals online and collect them from on-premises contactless smart lockers by scanning a unique QR code... More
Holland America Line lets cruise passengers check in with their face
Passengers on Holland America Line cruise ships will soon be able to check in before embarkation with their face using contactless biometric face verification technology and confirm their health status with a digital version of their Covid-19 vaccination certificate or test results stored on their mobile device... More
7-Eleven Japan trials holographic contactless self-checkout
Customers at six 7-Eleven convenience stores in Tokyo, Japan, can now make cashless payments for their purchases by interacting with a holographic screen projected from a contactless self-checkout kiosk... More
AirAsia migrates 95% of passengers to contactless self-check-in
Some 95% of passengers travelling with AirAsia now use the Malaysian airline’s contactless self-check-in service that enables them to receive an e-boarding pass, choose their seat and add baggage, in-flight meals and travel insurance via the airline’s app or website... More
Santa Maria gets mobility app for contactless fare payments and trip planning
Santa Maria Regional Transit (SMRT) in the US has launched a mobility app that enables passengers on the Californian city’s public transport network to make contactless payments for all available fare options and validate their ticket or pass by scanning a QR code at an on-board validator... More
EMVCo reveals plans to extend specifications and testing programmes
EMVCo is to launch an initiative to evaluate the role of wireless technologies not yet covered in its specifications — including Wi-Fi, ultra wideband (UWB), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and mobile data — in creating “flexible and convenient payment experiences”, the technical body’s annual report reveals... More
NFCW to host Contactless World Congress
NFCW is pleased to announce that registration is now open for Contactless World Congress, a new kind of event that will bring together innovators, policy makers and technical experts from across the globe to share the latest thinking on how to build a contactless world — online, year-round, with no travel required... More