Biometric Payment System May Replace Credit Cards

Credit Cards may soon become a thing of past as a Y Combinator backed startup 'PayTango' wants to make your fingers act as your credit card. The company is developing a system that will use person's fingerprints and other biometric identification to process payments. The startup has already partnered with a few Universities where the system allows students to use their fingers to uniquely identify themselves and make payments without the physical credit cards. The PayTango is a fresh new startup from Carnegie Mellon University, founded by Umang Patel, Christian Reyes, Brian Groudan and Kelly Lau-Kee who will graduate in the next few months but have already floated their startup.

The PayTango founding team has experience in human-computer interface, interaction and information systems. Their initial prototype was a fingerprint scanner coupled with a credit card reader which they developed with a budget of ~$1700. The team is working hard on bringing the cost of development & product down by iterating their design.

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The PayTango system asks the users to scan their index and middle fingers simultaneously and checks whether the database has the user information. If the user is new, the system will ask the user to swipe their credit card and then link the biometric data with their credit card. All the further transactions will be linked with credit card without the user having to swipe the card every time they want to make a transaction. The system is fast enough to scan about a 100 students in just about 4 hours.

The company is figuring out a business model for their project and may consider offering monthly subscription. If the pilot at Carnegie Mellon University is successful, the system will be implemented throughout the University in coming days.

paytangoteam

We believe this is an interesting system and as we port our lives from real world to virtual world, carrying credit card looks stupid. The PayTango system is actually solving that problem and we wish the team all the best for their future developments & research.

Via: Fingerprints Instead Of Credit Cards? YC-Backed PayTango Aims To Make Payments Work Through Biometrics • TechCrunch

Replies

  • SDKING
    SDKING
    nice one......
  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    This is undoubtedly a REALLY useful feature.
    Given that I lost my debit card a few weeks back and the tension that followed, I now think how awesome it would be to be not bothered about carrying the stupid card everywhere with me.

    Such projects should be developed as final year projects more often. So much room for innovation here.
  • Anand Tamariya
    Anand Tamariya
    Given that I lost my debit card a few weeks back and the tension that followed
    One needn't lose sleep over a lost card. The card is insured against misuse once the loss is reported. In case of Amex, one can even dispute the charges if the purchases are not made by the person.
  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    Anand Tamariya
    One needn't lose sleep over a lost card. The card is insured against misuse once the loss is reported. In case of Amex, one can even dispute the charges if the purchases are not made by the person.
    Yes. Thankfully, I called up the Bank guys within 15 mins and it got locked over the phone call within seconds. I even got one issued and delivered at my place sitting back at home.

    Technology and Digitization rules!
  • Jeffrey Arulraj
    Jeffrey Arulraj
    The only pass code we leave every where is our finger prints So I doubt the security in this mode of payment

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