The technology industry is something that is constantly evolving to bring us new devices all the time in an attempt to improve our lives. With constant innovations devices such as televisions, refrigerators, watches, and even eyeglasses have all been revolutionized with smart capabilities. With smartwatches in particular becoming so high in demand, the industry has demonstrated how when something fashionable such as wristwatches receive the smart treatment, products can be met with remarkable adoption rates. Today reports are surfacing of a company in China called Baidu, and its plans to bring a smart wallet to the industry.
If Baidu actually manages to bring this product to completion, it won’t be a virtual wallet like the offerings from Google or Apple. Baidu has filed patents for an actual, physical wallet with smart features. Digging into the leaked patent documents, it would appear that Baidu is attempting to create a very traditional wallet, but with added smart features in an effort to enhance security. With a built in GPS module and the ability to pair with a smartphone, locating this smart wallet when misplaced should be doable with a companion app. In the worst case scenario if the wallet is believed to be stolen, the smart wallet appears to have a self-destruct function of sorts to render credit cards unusable with spray paint and degaussing. Lastly, patents for biometric, voice, and iris recognition have all been included as well to prevent unauthorized access.
While some of these features that Baidu has included in their patent filings seem a bit out there, at least a few such as GPS locating and biometrics seem like quite desirable features for a smart wallet. It is quite plausible that not all of these features would ever make it to a finished product, but rather Baidu attempted to overshoot their goals for licensing purposes. Although one’s response might be to scoff at a product such as this, the adoption rate for so many other smart devices in our lives proves that anything is possible. Furthermore, a wallet is something that most everyone uses everyday and could definitely be considered an object of fashion. If the smartwatch demonstrated one thing, it’s that if fashionable enough people will be much more likely to make the jump.