How do you feel about completing payments with just a mere selfie? Could be a cool way of paying for items, right? Well, Amazon seems to think so, which is why the company has patented the idea.
Chances are, Amazon might never bring this to market, but the idea sounds interesting nonetheless. What's interesting here is the fact that users do not require a password because the whole thing is all about facial recognition.
The software might require users to perform certain actions to get it going. Users may need to smile, blink, or even turn their heads at a certain way. This could be a new security mechanism to make sure a thief could not hold up an image of a person to dupe the system.
Amazon says entering passwords on mobile devices and tablets is not friendly to the user, according to ABC News. The company also said typing a password "require the user to turn away from friends or co-workers when entering a password, which can be awkward or embarrassing in many situations."
Seriously, we do not see how typing a password can be awkward or embarrassing if a person decides to turn away from their friends. What we do know is that typing a password takes time, and sometimes, people forget their passwords. On another note, taking a selfie and smiling just to purchase an item would likely be more awkward than anything else.
Another reason why this selfie thing could take off, is because users usually store their passwords on their devices, which means hackers could possibly gain access or other persons should the device be stolen. The whole thing is a mess, so if Amazon can fix it, then we here at Telegiz would be all for it, no problem.
Overall though, we'd prefer other alternatives to taking a selfie when it comes down to replacing passwords. A Software that scans our iris or fingerprint, similar to Touch ID from Apple is probably just as good, so we won't have to be taking pictures of ourselves just to do something important.
We're not sure if most folks are interested in taking a selfie in a public area just to gain access to their Amazon account.