Holographic Payment Terminals: the new way to pay! 💸

Mastercard has spearheaded the worldwide shift to contactless payment terminals for years, championing a germ-free and simple customer experience.In 2021, Mastercard teamed with Holo Industries to develop contactless holographic payment terminals. Now, customers will be able to enter their PIN and sign their name for Cardholder Verification, in mid-air — keeping the entire process efficient and completely contactless. Read on for the rest of the story:
Holographic payment terminals provide
a secure, touchless user experience
The Covid pandemic lured a large number of customers from brick-and-mortar retail stores to on-line shopping. In an effort to bring shoppers back in-store, merchants are employing new technologies such as experiential marketing, holographic 2D and 3D displays and hygienic contactless payment terminals. The contactless payment option was given a boost in 2020 by a mandate from the World Health Organization:
Last year alone, contactless transactions grew twice as fast as traditional checkout methods at grocery and drug stores with customers citing “safety and cleanliness as key drivers.”1. In addition, according to Mastercard’s New Payments Index:·

-63 percent of global consumers made a purchase or payment for something in-person in the past six months.·

-58 percent find tapping a contactless debit or credit card very/somewhat secure.· 

-61 percent are very/somewhat comfortable using contactless debit or credit cards to make purchases.
What is Contactless Payment?
Contactless payment (Tap&Go™️), is a transaction facilitated by the EMV chip or a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on a smart card. While a card with an EMV chip needs to make physical contact with a terminal during a transaction, one with RFID transmits information through radio waves and only needs to be in close proximity to the terminal for activation. Either connection is made to the near-field communication (NFC) reader on the merchant terminal, and the customer is billed for their purchase after the wireless connection is made. The entire transaction is concluded without physically touching a PIN terminal — unless the user exceeds the Cardholder Verification Limit.
Mastercard Prototype with Tap&Go capabilities
The Cardholder Verification Limit
For security reasons, contactless purchases are often limited to a maximum amount per transaction, or the Cardholder Verification Limit (CVM limit). Transactions over the CVM limit requires additional verification such as a PIN or signature. The requirements vary depending on the country. In the UK the limit is ÂŁ100per transaction, in Canada the limit is $250., and for very large dollar amounts, a signature is also required. The CVM limit can be also be an aggregate of the daily transactions: in Belgium, for instance, when several contactless payments in a day reach the total amount of €125, a PIN is required. All of these actions, of course, invalidate the concept of a “Contactless” purchase.As a solution to the CVM Limit and extend the user experience beyond Tap&Go, Mastercard and Holo Industries have co-developed a unique groundbreaking technology known as Holographic Touch™️.
Holographic Touch: Contactless Transactions without limits
Holographic Touch™️. Allows consumers to perform all the Tap&Go actions required in a contactless payment terminal, including interacting with a holographic keypad to enter their PIN, or even sign their name in mid-air. With this solution, when a retailer or bank requires a PIN or signature to approve a large or aggregate number of transactions, the consumer can quickly and effortlessly perform all the functions without ever making physical contact with the terminal.
Demonstration video of Mastercard Prototype with Tap&Go capabilities
How does Holographic Touch work?
Holographic Touch is a transformative new technology that provides accurate and responsive mid-air interaction without special lighting, glasses, or headgear. Holo Industries’ systems are designed and manufactured using a unique combination of holographic plates, sensors, proprietary optics, privacy filters and software.The holographic plates are produced by Holo Industries’ technology partner, ASKA3D, a division of Japanese Technology firm Asukanet Co., Ltd. The plates are manufactured in Japan in a patented process of using strategically positioned vertical mirrors hundreds of microns wide to provide unparalleled imaging quality.Mid-air interaction on 200mm to 310mm systems are facilitated by Neonode’s zForce® Touch Sensor Modules. Utilizing infrared sensors, the device tracks movement with 1.5 mm accuracy and a response time as fast as 10 milliseconds. This technology allows users to make quick multi-touch interactions in mid-air, even while wearing gloves.

A distinct advantage of Holo’s products are the addition of special filters and privacy glass, which only allow the user to see the information displayed. This restriction prohibits bystanders from “Shoulder Surfing”, (visually capturing the cardholder’s PIN as it’s punched into the holographic keypad).
Future implementations of Merchant Terminals showing product information with Tap&Go
From Payment Terminal to Interactive Kiosk
Every Holographic Touch Contactless Payment Terminal also doubles as an interactive kiosk. Merchants can brand products, stream promotions or videos, or display full interactive product catalogs. Customers can now select products and pay for them on the same contactless holographic terminal.
The future is here
Holo Industries is developing enhanced systems to offer customers the latest advances in Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI), including haptics (the ability to touch and feel holographic images in mid-air), eye-tracking to accommodate for height or wheelchairs, and security protocols such as biometric technologies, including fingerprints, palm prints and facial and voice recognition.

A fully operational version of the Holographic Touch system, including security, tamper detection, PIN block computation, cryptography, and other privacy and security implementations, will be deployed as pilot programs to selected merchants by the end of 2022.
Contact us today!
1. Forbes: “How The Pandemic Made Contactless Payments The New Normal”, April 15,2021
2. Mastercard New Payments Index, Research conducted by The Harris Poll and Mastercard Global Foresights, Insights and Analytics from March 21 to April 21, 2022
3. Mastercard Perspectives, The new world of payments is all about change (not that kind), June 2, 2022
About the author
Glenn ImObersteg is the CEO and co-founder of Holo Industries LLC. His industry background includes three decades of providing ecosystems and partner programs to Intel, Microsoft, Siemens, Infineon, ARM, Motorola, Freescale, and other industry-leading companies. As CEO of Convergence Promotions, he published a number of Industry publications and owned several conferences and exhibitions including the ARM Developer’s Conference. Convergence also owned and managed Embedded Developer and Power Developer as Hearst and Arrow Electronics Joint Ventures.
Visit us at the following events:
G2E Las Vegas | Global Gaming Expo | October 8-13, 2022
Self-Service Innovation Summit | December 14-16, 2022
CES – The Most Influential Tech Event in the World | January 5-8, 2022