Author: Julie Campbell

Vodafone Turkey is making it possible to simply look at a smartphone for authentication.

The Turkish branch of Vodafone has recently revealed that it will be using EyeVerify technology in order to boost the mobile security of its payments app, allowing customers to open their wallets simply by looking into the camera feature of their smartphones.

iPhone users of the Vodafone Cep Cüzdan mobile wallet app can already register their eyes.

In order to do this, they need only take a picture of their eyes. From that point on, in order to be able to get past the mobile security of their wallet app, they need to take a selfie in which they are looking at the camera. This verification feature is provided by way of the EyeVerify Eyeprint ID tech. That technology is actually able to create map of the unique pattern of veins within the user’s eyes. That is automatically converted into a complex 50 character password.

This mobile security technique takes the image of the individual’s eyes and transforms them into a complicated password.

The Eyeprint ID takes the image and encrypts and scrambles it locally. For this reason the actual image and information never has to leave the mobile device. This is meant to make the mobile wallet even more secure because it means that it cannot be intercepted, lost, or stolen, says EyeVerify.

The new partnership with Vodafone is the outcome of a new contract that has been established between Olcsan CAD Technology and EyeVerify in Turkey.

Biometrics are becoming an increasingly important part of the mobile payments and wallet experience as a growing number of tech companies choose to add additional verification over the traditional password experience.

The use of fingerprints is becoming more commonplace than ever in order to boost mobile security for a device or a specific app. In this case it is a matter of using the patterns in the eyes of the user instead of focusing on a fingerprint or thumbprint to identify each individual user and block the wrong parties from gaining access. It is more than likely that biometrics will start to appear in an ever broader range of uses as this tech becomes more broadly used for financial purposes.

An International Data Corporation (IDC) report has identified the top shipper of wearables during the quarter.

The IDC has now released its “Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker” report, which identified the number of wearable technology devices that were shipped in Q1 of this year, saying that there were 11.4 million of these gadgets.

This marks a tremendous raise over the wearables from the same quarter last year, which was 3.8 million.

That represents a tremendous growth of 200 percent when it comes to the shipments of wearable technology. Moreover, the report also indicated that this growth in the industry appears to be relatively steady. Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers senior research analyst, Jitesh Ubrani, explained that “As with any young market, price erosion has been quite drastic. We now see over 40% of the devices priced under $100, and that’s one reason why the top 5 vendors have been able to grow their dominance from two thirds of the market in the first quarter of last year to three quarters this quarter.”

That said, wearable technology’s growth does not appear to be dependent on dropping prices.

The entrance of Apple with its Watch that is priced at a higher level has shown that there is some consumer interest in paying more in order to receive a product from a premium brand or one that is currently in the spotlight. What will be interesting is whether or not that consumer interest actually continues or if this represents a novelty that will wear off after a period of time.

The IDC report also pointed out that it was Fitbit that took the top spot in terms of its share of the wearable tech market. The data in the report indicated that the company was holding onto a hefty 34.2 percent of the total global wearables market.

During the first quarter of this year, Fitbit, alone, shipped 3.9 million of its devices. In second place was Xiaomi, which shipped a strong but notably lower 2.8 million units. Garmin and Samsung took the third and fourth spots on the list, respectively. The fifth place was grabbed onto by Jawbone.