Payment Innovation Hub studies the implementation of the payment with facial recognition in restaurants, doing pilot tests in Knee and Vienna.
The innovation center Payment Innovation Hub of Barcelona, promoted by CaixaBank, Visa, Samsung, Global Payments and Arval, has launched two pilot tests with Knee and Vienna, in order to study the implementation of payments with facial recognition.
The new solution employs biometric technologies that allow payment to be made through face recognition automatically
The pilot project of Rodilla, in the Pier01 building in Barcelona, with more than 1,000 daily customers, has already begun, considering the first technology of this type applied outside a corporate environment.
The pilot test of Vienna will be tested also this year but with a much more heterogeneous audience
Payment Innovation Hub has been focused on the creation of solutions applied to shops for a year, which facilitate the consumer purchase process using invisible payments. Likewise, “Grab & Go” and “Scan & Go” have been launched, allowing automatic checking of products through different technologies
In addition, they have counted on 100 employees from the five partner corporations that have joined forces to work with the dozen professionals who are developing the projects at the center. In it, 115 events have already been organized, receiving more than 7,000 visitors in 2018.
The acceleration of innovation
Joan Morlà, CEO of CaixaBank Payments, said that “the usefulness and success of the hub is in the dissemination and in teaching how we can accelerate innovation, how it can be translated into concrete proposals for our global clients”.
The five companies have integrated perfectly, despite not having other equipment in common. “We have surpassed the interests of each one, and I believe that thanks to the team of the center we have managed to harmonize all the visions and that the differences become a wealth”, highlighted Morlà.
Plans for 2019
In 2019, the innovation center wants to continue researching, so that it can present new projects for emerging companies and the fintech sector to increase the capacity for developing solutions, focusing on tourism, mobility and restoration.
Both CaixaBank, as Visa, Samsung, Global Payments and Arval, see the creation of new methods that end with physical payment very important. The idea is to do it through the cloud to increase security, establishing itself in Spain in the next two or three years.