Ingenico says it has developed the world’s first terminal accepting a payment on an iPod. The invention, which was demonstrated last month at the Cartes 2005 exhibition, uses the company’s i5100 terminal, Atlantic Radio System’s FM data extraction module and Griffin’s iTrip FM transmitter to “communicate with the iPod via the FM band while enabling users to pay for goods using their MP3 player,” according to Ingenico.
“At this past Cartes exhibition, Ingenico demonstrated how, in a hypothetical future, travellers could book plane tickets and receive them via MP3 format by e-mail,” the company explains. “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 simply 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.
