OUT THE BOX

NOW THAT’S A GOOD IDEA… TOUCHLESS TECH

TOUCHLESS SOLUTIONS FOR A POST-COVID WORLD

IT’S HIGHLY LIKELY THAT CORONAVIRUS WILL LEAVE A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT LEGACIES BEHINDONCE IT FINALLY GOES, AND ONE WILL BE FAR MORE CONSUMER INTEREST IN HEALTH AND HYGIENE.

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

Touchless tech.

WHY?

Coronavirus has obviously focused people on health and hygiene and in particular avoiding contact with hard surfaces that could potentially transmit the virus.

WON’T THAT PASS WHEN COVID-19 DOES?

Probably not. The ‘new normal’ will probably see shoppers retain much more of an interest in cleanliness, especially in high-traffic public spaces like shops and car parks.

WHAT SORTS OF TECH ALREADY EXIST?

There are new solutions appearing on the market every day to help people avoid touching surfaces that would ordinarily be touched by possibly hundreds of others a day. One of the latest examples is ‘touchless parking’.

WHAT’S TOUCHLESS PARKING?

WPS, one of the UK’s leading parking equipment providers,

has launched a set of touchless upgrades to its Pay-on-Exit system to mitigate issues around possible virus-transfer at barrier terminals and pay stations. It’s not aimed at the convenience market but the potential applications of similar technology are obvious.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The solution facilitates a touchless parking journey from arrival to departure through the use of a touchless infrared ticket printer button for entry terminals where the customer simply waves their hand in front of the new sensor and the ticket is issued without pressing to avoid any possible virus transfer. Pay stations can also be upgraded to touchless with the installation of a surface-mounted, optical ticket scanner. Instead of inserting a ticket and receiving it back (with a possible risk of virus cross contamination between successive customer tickets), users can now simply wave their ticket barcode in front of the optical scanner which reads a ticket without it needing to be inserted. The payment can then be made using existing contactless payment card readers to complete the touchless experience.