While the prospects for mobile financial services [1] are just beginning to come to see light in the U.S., Japan has enjoyed NFC [2]-enabled mobile payments for quite some time. Swiping your phone over a turnstile to pay for a subway fare, for example, is common in cities in the country. Now DoCoMo is looking to make that swipe obsolete with a concept phone that lets users pay through their mobile without it even leaving their pocket. The phone has a sensor built by Kaiser Technology that sends electric signals through the human body to transmit data. Payments at the tip of your fingers, literally.
For more on the concept:
- read this write-up [3] over at Textually.org
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/tags/mobile-payments
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/ex-philips-unit-sony-partner-for-nfc/2006-11-20
[3] http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2007/10/017498.htm