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Google Is Testing Voice-Activated Payment App, Hands Free (cnet.com)
New submitter eedwardsjr writes: If you've ever wanted to pay just by saying something out loud, then Hands Free is the way to go. Google has released to the public a new app called Hands Free, which lets people pay for items in stores by simply telling the cashier, "I'll pay with Google." The app, available for Android and iOS, is only being piloted in a few locations in the San Francisco area, including some McDonald's and Papa John's restaurants. Hands Free works by tracking your location using Wi-Fi and other sensors in your smartphone to detect whether you're near a participating store. After you say "I'll pay with Google," the cashier confirms your identity by using your initials and the photo you've loaded onto the Hands Free app.
is that the Google team's goal wasn't a payment system. It was how to get more people to upload profile pics.
Google! Complete my comment.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
>"The app, [...] Hands Free works by tracking your location using Wi-Fi and other sensors in your smartphone to detect whether you're near a participating store. After you say "I'll pay with Google," the cashier confirms your identity by using your initials and the photo you've loaded onto the Hands Free app. "
No thanks. Have a wallet since I have to carry certain ID's, and will carry cash. My wallet contains at least one credit card. One swipe (or insert) and done. No batteries. No unlocking. No codes. No apps. No need for signal. No extra layers of tracking. No free vocal Google advertising. No compatibility issues.
I am all for choices- and if people want phone-pay, great... just don't try to take away my simple card or cash!!
Why do all of their voice-activated prompts require me to repeat the name of the corporation, over and over? I already know I'm using a Google phone, it says so right at the top of every screen, and I have to say their name every time I want to use voice search anyway. It's kind of creepy.
What could go wrong with voice-activated dollars departing my wallet?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
that's what i'm talkin' about!
1) Load goatse image as profile pic
2) Go to participating place and pay using new method
3) ???
4) Profit from the sheer horror that will unfold
You know it will happen.
I know this system can reliably tell me apart from anyone else, by how faithfully voice recognition can transcribe what I say.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
authorization Picard 4-7 Alpha Tango
The headline in the story is misleading. It is not voice activated.
http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2016/03/testing-testing-one-two-hands-free.html
It allows you to pay hands free. When you say you're paying with Google, it's just so the teller can charge you through their system. The teller verifies you through your pictures/initials.
There's nothing more annoying than speaking trite phrases to a machine as if it were a human. Especially if you're an introvert. You just want to type it or a push a button.
I never use voice anything, and I have it on my phone and in my car. I tried the car thing the first few days I had it and it felt so stupid talking to the thing and it was so slow I wanted to punch it.
The worst is voice based tree menus on corporate voice jail systems. Please let me punch numbers.
You just tell the cashier that you want to use this payment method. There is no voice recognition software involved in the process.
What intials and what photo? and WHO am I talking to...my phone or the cashiers computer or something else?
If it my phone I'll have to find it and unlock it 1st...and not sure it can understand me from my pocket.
Otherwise what if there are 100 people in the vicinity with the app?
I keep hearing this commercial in my head for some reason....Representative...Representative...Representative
This comes up on the cashiers system? Quicker than a swipe and 4 digits? Works with everyone's POS or need another terminal?
3 seconds of video really doesn't explain anything, in fact they didnt even try.
"Google Pay, send me all your money."
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Google blows it again. The point of using a finger is that it is unobtrusive and non-disruptive, i don't want to have to talk to the cash register. Google is about as far away from pragmatic and legitimately useful as pick-up truck testicles. Clearly the geniuses behind glass have not moved on or been fired.
Am I the only one that thinks credit cards are already convenient enough? Stuff like this and NFC and such feel like solutions in search of a problem.
That's one occasion when your hands might not be available or suitable for touching the screen.
California millennials do love espousing their brand loyalties and zealous adoption of the latest technological gimmicks.
Now they can shout it loud and proud for a "practical" reason.
I like:
- Sounds of cash drawers opening and closing
- Satisfying clink of nickels, dimes and quarters
I dislike:
- Google knowing where I am
- Google knowing what I buy
- Shitty battery life and unnecessary data usage that comes with being tethered to Google bloatware
I wonder if the base assumption is POS terminals basically being repurposed tablets/iPads, so they have the requisite microphone and speaker, along with a browser based UI? GUI covers visual auth by cashier. Audio equipment handles ultrasonic chirp codes, alread demonstrated via a chrome plugin and chromecast pairing methodologies. If the POS terminal codes the initials and chirps, the encoded chirp can only be successfully decrypted by the correct phone, which sends an transaction auth chirp in reply. Assuming the phone has always on audio (mostly a given with Google Now), then that works out. Otherwise you become dependent on BLE/iBeacon push trickery.
... verify me.
Should I speak out the name every time even I buy a chewing gum ??
For starters, it's often a crowded, noisy environment in places I'm standing in line to pay for something. I can just see the frustration when people announce, "I'll pay with Google!" but nothing happens. (Feeling like a complete tool, as you stand there repeating 3 times in a row, "I'll pay with Google!" -- you'll learn never to try THAT again.)
Additionally though? I don't think people really want to give their devices voice commands for basic tasks that can be accomplished as well with a wave of the device over a reader, or with the push of just one or two buttons. (You'll notice that despite all the iPhones you see out there, relatively few people are heard asking Siri questions in public -- even when that would be the most efficient way to initiate a search request.) There's still a certain awkwardness about talking to a device or machine that you know doesn't REALLY possess intelligence and the ability to articulate thoughts. It works pretty well in the confines of your car or truck, where you need your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel (and where nobody else will hear you talking anyway). But out in public, I don't really want everyone around me to know what I'm looking up or looking for by speaking it out loud.
Someone send me a Hangouts request or add a launch date to my Calendar whenever I can use Android Pay (or Samsung Pay) as a rooted user. I've subscribed to feature updates on my Gmail and am ready to Map my way to stores where I can use this!
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
... with Square Wallet? For it's brief existence I could pay at several places even in my very small town without taking out my phone. The cashier simply matched me to my picture. I thought that was a well designed app that was just ahead of it's time.