Regardless of already existing contactless communication standards such as NFC and EMVCo, the payment service providers and terminal vendors are still coping with teething problems resulting from the large number of smartphones, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and technologies used.
Test solution manufacturer COMPRION and test service provider P3 have teamed up to develop a dedicated test tool – the nano tracer – making sure that NFC based payment transactions can be monitored at the POS.
Markus Michelt, Project Coordinator at P3 explains, “The nano tracer is a testing solution hidden in a smartphone case which is able to trace payment transactions under real-life conditions. While carrying out a common mobile purchase at the point-of-sale, nano tracer captures the contactless transaction data between the smartphone and the POS terminal. The whole tracing process happens in a very inconspicuous way without affecting the daily business and without influencing the payment transaction itself.”
Once collected, COMPRION’s monitoring software processes, displays and analyzes the communication data. Ralph Kamp, Product Manager at COMPRION explicates, “Our nano tracer helps engineers to identify and solve issues that might be observed in the field. The analyzing software visualizes if communication failures were caused either by the mobile phone or the POS terminal.”
The smartphone case will be available as a standard for Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6S but can also be customized for other smartphones.