Author: Dan Gendro

Global Payments will be supporting Apple Pay through its OpenEdge division

Global Payments, a leading provider of mobile payment solutions, has announced that its Integrated Solutions division, OpenEdge, will be supporting Apple Pay. Apple has made a major splash in the mobile commerce field with the launch of its new service. Apple Pay is quickly becoming one of the most widely supported payment services in the world, with financial organization showing strong support for the platform. Global Payments may help add more momentum to the service’s popularity.

OpenEdge will add Apple Pay support to its software development kit

OpenEdge will be adding Apple Pay to its software development kit. This will allow developers to embed the mobile payments service into their products. The software development kit provides developers with the tools they need to include a variety of services into the applications and platforms that they develop and make available to the public. By offering support for Apple Pay, those using the OpenEdge development kit may gain access to a wider range of consumers that are entering into the mobile commerce field.

Apple Pay is gaining support, but faces a challenge when it comes to inclusion

While Apple Pay is becoming quite popular, the service does have one problem. Apple Pay uses NFC technology, which is not a problem in itself, but the service is only accessible through the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices. These devices are also equipped with NFC technology, but will only be able to use the Apple Pay service and not the myriad other services that also used NFC. This may be good news for iOS fans, but not necessarily so for the others that are participating in mobile payments.

Apple Pay may be able to change the way consumers interact with merchants

OpenEdge expects that Apple Pay will change the way consumers interact with merchants. The company suggests that those visiting a restaurant, for instance, will be able to order and pay for their meals ahead of time using nothing more than a mobile device. This introduces a new aspect of convenience to the mobile space.

A version of the CamFind app from Image Searcher has been developed for the wearable device.

The startup’s image recognition app has been designed to work with Google Glass, enabling a wearer of the optical head-mounted display to look at something and CamFind will identify whatever the user may be looking at within seconds.

CamFind utilizes AI for image recognition.

The visual search app recognizes images by using artificial intelligence (AI). It combines this technology with crowdsourcing, giving humans the ability to correct the identification of images.

In an exclusive interview with VentureBeat, the CEO of Image Searcher, Dominik Mazur, said that in as little as 12 seconds, CamFind is capable of generating an accurate answer for an image query and it can take mere milliseconds if the computer vision recognizes it on the first try.

Brad Folkens, the chief technology officer said that “It really takes the friction out of the process.” Folkens added that “When we started this, we found that mobile search was broken. We make it so you can look at something and then get an answer. When you can do it fast, it turns from a novelty into a utility.”

Folkens did say that while 12 seconds might seem like a long time to wait for an answer when people have become accustomed to wanting immediate results, it is much faster than any other alternative available to users while they are on the go. For instance, the visual search app can identify clothing brands or shoe brands. Therefore, if a Google Glass wearer liked the shoes someone else was wearing, they could find out the brand. In the future, when Glass steps into the e-commerce space, consumers will be able to buy what they see when they are inspired to do so.

The CamFind Google Glass app is likely to succeed where Google Goggles failed.

A while back, Google had previously developed a smartphone app called Google Goggles, which allowed users to take a picture of a wine bottle and obtain useful information about it. However, this app did not work most of the time and the app was taken down by Google.

It is not yet known when the CamFind app will be available for Google Glass, but Image Searcher has submitted its application for approval.