MasterCard Tees Off at Arnold Palmer Invitational with New Payment Technology

With the arrival of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, MasterCard is taking the opportunity to drive some new interest of its own, specifically to the growing array of new payment solutions it’s bringing out.

Most recently, MasterCard got together with Wearality to construct a means to pay for items through virtual reality glasses.

The combined effort really isn’t coming out any time soon, but rather, is set to serve as more of an exhibition. Though it’s not so much a look at what is coming so much as it is one of what could be coming, the technology does seem to be up and running to the fullest.

Interested users will be able to, for example, watch Graeme McDowell play a round, and then be able to identify how much his shirt or shoes cost from the display.

Those interested will then be able to make a purchase from the same interface, and get hands on said item. That’s not all that’s in line, reports note, as users will be able to use augmented reality on a certain level, using a special golf glove to make payments.

Essentially, we’re starting to see how technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality are starting to branch off from gaming, a measure that people like Mark Zuckerberg have seen coming for quite some time.

It was the idea of virtual reality beyond gaming that led Zuckerberg to buy Oculus, by some reports, and we’re starting to see some of that in action here.

Imagine a television series that no longer needed commercial breaks as users could just see a product in action in the show itself and make purchases direct from the show.

You’re sitting back watching an episode of “Legends of Tomorrow” and you suddenly realize that your life has been woefully incomplete without your very own Rip Hunter overcoat.

Before, you would have had to break away from the show to hit a website and go looking for such a magnificent longcoat as that; with a system like MasterCard’s, you could just order that coat, while watching the show.

That’s far from the only example, but just one among many. MasterCard’s technology could shake a lot of how we shop and see advertising, and it all may well get its start at one PGA golf outing.