Tech that lets us keep our hands to ourselves

Last year was an inflection point for mobile payments. For safety reasons, even cash-only die-hards, like farmers’ market merchants and food trucks, started accepting mobile payments.

Overall, 67 percent of American retailers accept touchless payments, up from 40 percent in 2019, according to a survey by Forrester. Among those surveyed, 19 percent said they made a digital payment in a store for the first time last May.

Hands-off technology doesn’t end with mobile wallets. So-called Ultra-Wide Band, a relatively new radio technology, may also find its moment this year. The technology, which uses radio waves to detect objects with extreme precision, has not been used much since its debut on smartphones about two years ago. But the need for contact-free experiences could change that, said Ms. Milanesi of Creative Strategies.

So how might Ultra-Wide Band be used? Let’s say you have a smartphone and a coffee shop has a tablet, and both are equipped with radio technology. If you’re standing in front of the tablet, it can sense your phone and accept payment from you (and not the person behind you in line). The technology could also be used to allow employees into buildings and start-up cars without physical keys.