French terminal vendor Ingenico has developed a prototype payment terminal capable of communicating with IPods and other MP3 music players.
Ingenico’s i5100 terminal integrates with Atlantic Radio System’s FM data extraction module, allowing it to communicate with the iPod via the FM band while enabling users to pay for goods using their MP3 player.
At the recent Cartes exhibition in Paris, Ingenico demonstrated how travellers could book plane tickets and receive them via MP3 format by e-mail. He or she would then just need to store the MP3 receipt on an iPod before going to the airport. When preparing to board, the traveller would play the MP3 ticket on the iPod to send all ticket information securely and in real time to the boarding gate. Ticket information might include passport, itinerary and price data as well as pre-encoded biometric features for passenger verification at the gate.
While acknowledging that the demo offers a purely hypothetical scenario, the vendor says the same user-friendly payment system can also be used for gift vouchers, tickets and virtually all other forms of prepaid transaction.