British voice recognition technology developer VoiceKey has completed a successful government contract and is now ready to bring its mCommerce platform to the private market. The company is marketing its Voicekey mPOS platform as a solution for both consumers and retailers.
The company initially rolled out the platform as part of a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) – a system connecting private sector companies’ products and services with private sector needs. The contract was apparently a resounding success, with Voicekey CEO Dr. Tony Allen expressing that his team is “delighted with the final outcome of this contract. The market ready mCommerce solution that has been developed enables mobile commerce to be conducted in a convenient, secure and inclusive manner.”
The platform uses a combination of voice authentication certificates and dynamic barcode displays to turn mobile devices into mCommerce platforms, with an eye to inclusivity. It’s a fairly unique mCommerce system; most of the burgeoning mobile payment platforms use the fingerprint scanners now appearing on all kinds of smartphones for user authentication; voice biometrics is more often used for customer authentication by businesses requiring above-average levels of security for such purposes, such as banks.
It seems fairly likely that consumers and retailers alike will opt for the ease-of-use of systems like Apple Pay – which opt for fingerprint-scanning and NFC technology – over an m-commerce platform that requires consumers to speak aloud and scan a barcode, but Voicekey may nevertheless be able to find a niche with its focus on inclusivity.
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December 8, 2014 – by Alex Perala
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