Developed by Worldpay, the PED Cam comes with an upward-facing camera that is embedded into a standard card terminal.
The camera will click a picture of the card user after entering the PIN and the image will then generate a unique biometric template that is stored in the company managed central database.
The card terminals connected to the database will capture the image of the user every time when the PIN is entered in order to cross check the authenticity of the card user.
The system will automatically cross-refer the image against the biometric template already captured and recorded in the system, the company said.
Worldpay technology innovation director Nick Telford-Reed said: "Biometrics has attracted a lot of attention, but achieving sufficient scale has always been difficult in a face-to-face environment. It’s partly because of cost, but also because people don’t want the admin hassle of registering their details.
"With this prototype we would remove that hassle. Card users could be automatically enrolled in the system when they use their card. The design also means retailers would not have to find space for another device on their already busy sales counters."
The use of facial recognition to verify the identity of card users is believed to offer distinct advantages when compared to other forms of biometric security currently being tested in the payments space.
