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Who Are You Wearing? By Kate Fitzgerald, Emerging Payments Editor
Smartwatches, gear and garb with em- bedded payments capabilities drive a wave of innovation and interest from tech enthusiasts.
The TV comedy series Get Smart got laughs in 1965 with its futuristic telephones embedded in objects, including a watch, necktie, comb and—most memorably—in the heel of lead character Maxwell Smart’s shoe. The spy’s glamorous colleague, Agent 99, even had a phone built into her fingernail.
Fifty years later, some of those ideas have moved from fantasy to reality, with “wearables” emerging as a hot new niche, defined as
mobile technology built into watches, jewelry, apparel and clip-on devices, enabling multiple functions, from messaging and communications to conducting payments via NFC.
NFC-enabled wristbands already have proven useful for enabling contactless payments at events and parks, like those operated
by Disney and SeaWorld, but wearables technology is poised to get more sophisticated, adding more immediacy for notifications