We’re going to assume that most of you have made some sort of credit card purchase via an online vendor. We’re also going to assume that most of you did so by typing in your credit card number. But new technology is on the horizon that will let users pay by simply holding up your credit card to your webcam.

Startup company Jumio has debuted its new technology, called Netswipe, that can not only read the numbers off your card — a process that some smartphone apps already do — but also claims to add a higher level of security to the transaction.

From GigaOm:

Jumio, which is also going mobile soon, goes a step further [than existing card-scanning applications] by not just using optical character recognition to pull out the credit card number; instead it utilizes sophisticated computer vision to authenticate the card. For example, by analyzing the video stream, Jumio can confirm that it’s an actual card and not just a copy of a credit card. It can detect the raised lettering and can determine if it is plastic, or whether it appears to have metal inside.

The process would still require users to manually enter their card’s security code, but it’s done through an on-screen keypad so information should be protected from malicious key-loggers. Additionally, Jumio claims that user credit card info is not stored on their servers.

“There’s a huge gap between convenience and security on one side and online payments on the other side. Our solution will bridge that gap,” the company’s founder tells GigaOm.

Even with all of these assurances, would ever feel secure using a webcam or smartphone to take an image of your credit card?

Jumio says use your webcam to swipe credit cards [GigaOm.com]

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