Cashless catering is a
prepay point of sale
The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...
(POS) technology that allows transactions with the absence of
cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...
at the time of purchase.
It is used in
canteen
Canteen most often refers to:
* Canteen (bottle), a water container
* Cafeteria, a type of food service location within an institution in which there is little or no waiting staff table service
* A complete set of cutlery comprising knives, forks, ...
s, particularly in schools. The use of the technology has expanded to include
music festival
A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...
s such as
Ottawa Bluesfest
The Ottawa Bluesfest (currently known as RBC Bluesfest under a naming rights sponsorship) is an annual outdoor music festival that takes place each July in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While the festival's lineup historically focused on b ...
and
Wireless Festival
''Wireless'' Festival is an annual rap and hip-hop music festival that takes place in London, England, which is owned and managed by Live Nation Entertainment, Live Nation. Debuting in 2005, the festival's earlier years primarily featured rock an ...
, where the system has been integrated into
RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...
wristbands.
System
Users of the system have a
profile which stores information such as the account balance, personal details and a photograph for verification purposes.
Cashless catering systems can use a variety of user identification methods, such as
PIN entry,
Fingerprint recognition
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...
,
Magnetic stripe card
The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted
as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They shar ...
s,
,
and
Smart card
A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...
s
The cost to a British
high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
of setting up a cashless catering system was approximately £21,000 GBP in 2012; for
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
s it was £7,500.
Systems require annual maintenance at approximately £2,500 for high schools and £1,000 for primary schools.
See also
*
Biometrics in schools
Some schools use biometric data such as fingerprints and facial recognition to identify students. This may be for daily transactions in the library or canteen or for monitoring absenteeism and behavior control. In 2002, Privacy International raise ...
*
Electronic money
Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...
References
{{reflist
Payment systems