The use of mobile telephones at retail checkout counters will be one of the five innovations with the potential to change the way people live over the next half-decade, according to Armonk-based IBM.
On its new list, Big Blue also included the ability to monitor and control appliances from cell phones or Web browsers, systems to help drivers avoid traffic and accidents, information on the origin of food products, and improved medical records to help doctors treat patients.
Â
IBM envisions consumers using a camera phone to snap a picture of someone wearing an outfit, execute a search for the product, create an image of the consumer wearing the outfit and solicit advice from friends and family.
Â
If that sounds a little farfetched for 2012, so did the cell-phone technology IBM included on its debut “five in five” list a year ago ”“ “mind reading” cell phones it has been developing that would use existing tracking technologies to know when to automatically divert to voice mail when an individual enters a meeting.
Â
IBM”™s latest prediction, however, is amply reinforced by actual consumer trials underway. A year ago, Purchase-based MasterCard International Inc. began trialing a “tap and go” payment system in New York City using so-called “near field communication” technology that allows devices to communicate over short distances. A similar trial is underway in London for Nokia”™s new O2 Wallet device for O2 UK Ltd., which in addition to purchases allows commuters to pay for entry into the city”™s Tube subway system.
Â
NXP Semiconductors, a Philips spinout in the Netherlands, reached a deal to acquire California-based GloNav Inc., whose GPS systems might help SPX more fully integrate payment and location technologies.
Â
Apple Inc. recently filed a patent application that would allow one to place an order via a mobile phone at a retail location such as a coffee shop, then receive an alert when the order is ready.
Â
Similar to Exxon Mobil Corp.”™s pioneering SpeedPass system, the MasterCard PayPass system allows consumers to wave a handheld device near a terminal to process a payment, which is then charged to a credit or debit card.
Â
In the lower Hudson Valley, MasterCard PayPass cards and fobs can be used at McDonalds restaurants and CVS Inc. stores, in addition to a few other merchants. As a security check, personal identification numbers must be keyed in for larger payments in excess of $25.
Â
Other companies participating in the initial MasterCard trial included Citigroup, Cingular Wireless (now AT&T Wireless) and Nokia, which has a research center in Westchester.
As fast as cell-phone makers like Motorola and Samsung have been working to install the technology in their own telephones, MasterCard competitors like Visa and American Express Co. have been rounding up merchants to participate in their own trials.
Â
The PayPass pilot was followed last April by MasterCard Nearby, which allows cardholders to use mobile telephones to access store and ATM locations, driving directions, special offers and other perks.
Â
“We”™ve seen really good uptake with them,” said Erica Harvill, a spokeswoman for MasterCard, though she said adoption has been slower in the United States than in South Korea and other overseas markets.
Â
MasterCard is using content from Boston-based Go2 Media, whose CEO previously ran CCBN, an online investor communications provider that was acquired by Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson Corp.
Â
Retailers can get a premium listing on Go2”™s network for about $20 a month. The company says more than 300,000 businesses have purchased a listing, and the company says 64 percent of users polled say they have made a purchase after getting information from the network.
