Seamless Transactions, Thermo-Sensitive Ink, More

Posted on October 11, 2009

For retail transactions in the physical world, order selection continues to get easier for consumers with the help of digital services. Most recently, I was excited to find the Starbucks Card Mobile application example (see below for video) as well as the San Francisco Giants Loaded Ticket announcement.—Using your mobile phone or physical ticket to load funds and make payments, as you would a card, are interesting options.—But whether your phone has to use a 2D code like the Starbucks app, alphanumeric code or barcode (Yowza and SF Giants Loaded Ticket), or RFID (McDonald’s Japan ), payment solutions still require a smart reader (device or human) to process transactions at checkout. It will be exciting to see developments that circumvent or evolve digital readers, to become smarter and more ubiquitous, especially within the hustle and bustle of the sporting venue experience.

Some other quick hits from September / early October:

I have posted about electronic paper and inks in the past, relevant to how they could enhance print media, game collateral, etc. While not electronic, Murmure’s thermo-sensitive ink could provide some tactile benefits of its own with these touch points.
There’s nothing remarkably new about Chyngle’s linear interface, and its feature set is very limited, but it has launched an application with the University of Michigan Football Program and certainly worthy of sharing in the context of my interest in sports marketing technology propositions—and bias toward my home state of Michigan.
Although I haven’t yet tried it out myself, Animoto’s video mixing pitch seems like an interesting way to transform assets into more compelling mementos for consumers.
There have been some other interesting movements with RFID and AR that I would like to share as well.

Mobile 2D Code Payment and Loading Funds

Starbucks Card Mobile