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China's Alibaba Has a New Payment System That Lets Virtual Reality Shoppers Pay By Nodding (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the pay-by-nodding dept.

If providing your credit card details (or a few clicks) is too much a hassle for you, China's Alibaba may have a solution. The company today demonstrated a payment service called VR Pay, that allows virtual reality shoppers to pay for things just by nodding their heads. Reuters reports: VR Pay, the new payment system, is part of Alibaba's efforts to capitalize on the latest technology in online shopping. In 2015, for example, it introduced a facial recognition technology for Alipay mobile payments service advertised as "pay with a selfie." The VR payment technology means people using virtual reality goggles to browse virtual reality shopping malls will be able pay for purchases without taking off the goggles. They can just nod or look instead. Lin Feng, who is in charge of Ant Financial's incubator F Lab that has been developing the payment service over the past few months, told Reuters: "It is very boring to have to take off your goggles for payment. With this, you will never need to take out your phone."

28 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People with Parkison's deasease, beware.

    1. Re:Warning by danomac · · Score: 1

      Bobbleheads beware!

  2. Probably should stay home if you have a cold by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    Otherwise you'll be sneezing your way to a lot of unwanted purchases / payments.

  3. Never write when you can speak, never speak by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    when you can nod, never nod when you can wink...who knows who said it first. Huey Long?

    1. Re:Never write when you can speak, never speak by bjamesv · · Score: 1

      when you can nod, never nod when you can wink...who knows who said it first. Huey Long?

      Say no more, say no more!

      A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!

    2. Re:Never write when you can speak, never speak by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink.

      It was actually Martin Lomasney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      It was more recently made famous by Eliot Spitzer, one-time New York state attorney general and governor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... He updated it into the modern era as...

      > Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail.

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  4. Now that's really stupid.. by epyT-R · · Score: 2

    Yes, lets make transaction authorization as ambiguous as possible. I wouldn't want any of my financial streams associated with any of this.

    1. Re:Now that's really stupid.. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't want any of my financial streams associated with any of this.

      Don't worry. Slashdot geezers are not the target market.

    2. Re:Now that's really stupid.. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It seems to work well enough at auctions. The issue here is that human auctioneers can tell the difference between a bidding nod and a sneeze.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Now that's really stupid.. by infolation · · Score: 1

      It depends what country you're nodding in. A nod means 'refusal' in Greece, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Sicily. (Source: Wikipedia

  5. Uhmmm... Pay by nodding??? by mark-t · · Score: 2

    How's that supposed to work? Do you tap into the kinetic energy produced by nodding and generate some material amount of work that you can translate into capital, or what?

    Or did they mean to say that you can *authorize* payments just by nodding?

    Because that's not at all what the headline, summary, or even the article says.

    Words matter. I don't know why people don't just say what they mean instead of making ambiguous statements that don't mean anything sensible.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:Uhmmm... Pay by nodding??? by Calydor · · Score: 1

      Do you pay by handing over cash, or do you authorize payment by handing over cash?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:Uhmmm... Pay by nodding??? by mark-t · · Score: 1

      The authorization on payment by cash is already given by the issuer of the currency.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    3. Re:Uhmmm... Pay by nodding??? by Calydor · · Score: 1

      The authorization on payment by nodding was given by you by signing up for the feature. What's the difference?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    4. Re:Uhmmm... Pay by nodding??? by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Barring an eccentric seller with very peculiar sales conditions, nodding doesn't actually pay for anything.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  6. too much work by Moheeheeko · · Score: 1

    let me know when I can make payments by blinking, or don't tell me at all.

  7. Douglas Adams was prophetic! by zugmeister · · Score: 2

    "Whatever you do, don't nod!" If I remember right Ford told Arthur this just before they entered the VR history lesson on Deep Thought and the ultimate answer. It was inviting them to bow their heads in payment or some such...

  8. H2G2 by lgftsa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Do not," called out Slartibartfast floating past again, and fiddling furiously with the thing that he had stuck into the wall of the Room of Informational Illusions and which was in fact still stuck there, "agree to buy anything at this point."

  9. Aaaachoooo! by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    "Thank you for purchasing our pure gold Rolls Royce offering at the bargain price of 3500 000 Euros."

    Who had this stupid idea?

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  10. New way to make money by backslashdot · · Score: 1

    Make your youtube video as boring as possible.

  11. Any yoyo factories for sale? by Nanoda · · Score: 1

    Where can I buy a Chinese yoyo factory? I'm gonna be rich!

  12. Terrific development by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Especially for retailers, who will get a lot of purchases that wouldn't otherwise have been made. Less tongue-in-cheek, this sounds like a terrible idea.

  13. Re:What's stupid, now? by zlives · · Score: 1

    so it doesn't " allows virtual reality shoppers to pay for things just by nodding their heads."
    great article and tech now get off /. lawn

  14. Weekend at .... by drpimp · · Score: 1

    Hello Bernie, do you approve of the charges .... /nods

    --
    -- Brought to you by Carl's JR
  15. Will Amazon file a "one-nod patent"? by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    Someone has to do it.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  16. Hitchkikers got there first: by snakeplissken · · Score: 1

    Documentary voice - Now let us all bow our heads in payment...

    Slartibartfast - Just don't nod...

    https://books.google.co.uk/boo...

    snake

  17. Re:Rascists!!!!!!!!!! by jandersen · · Score: 1

    Some cultures shake their heads to mean yes. Not the Chinks I guess, so maybe Pakis.

    This app is rascist and I hope it gets sued into a blivion..

    You should probably get somebody to explain the inadvertent irony in your choice of words to you.

  18. Douglas Adams got there first by gtall · · Score: 1

    In one of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books, viewers of a Senso-o-Tape reel are instructed to bow their heads in payment. Fortunately, Slartibartfast warns them in time not to do so.