2. The act of paying money, or fact of being paid: "She expected the payment to be made at the end of the month."
3. A reward or punishment given in return for some kind of behavior or action.
2. A small sac, typically of rubber or Mylar, inflated with air or a lighter-than-air gas often used in celebrations: The teacher explained that a rubber balloon may cause harm to birds and encouraged the children not to use them for their parties.
3. A rounded outline with a point directed toward a character in a cartoon that encloses the text of the character's speech or thought: Cartoonists often use one balloon after the other to express each character's spoken words or thoughts.
While Dudley was waiting for his ride in the hot air balloon, he watched the colorful sac slowly balloon as it was filled with hot air.
Josie made a down payment for her flight and was horrified after she landed and realized that she was facing a balloon payment that was twice as much as her down payment.
Balloonists are constantly defying gravity and they must continually be aware of the hazards of their hot-air activities with balloons.
Fingerprint payment, based on fingerscanning, is the most common biometric payment method. Often, the system uses two-factor authentication, in which the finger scan takes the place of the card swipe and the user types in a PIN (personal ID number) as usual.
In the United States, biometric payment has gained popularity in grocery stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. In March 2006, "Pay By Touch", the leading biometric payment provider, reported that more than two million customers had enrolled in their biometric services and that "Pay By Touch" had authenticated approximately eight billion dollars in transactions.
The system of biometric payments is controversial. Traditionally, fingerprints have been associated with law enforcement. Critics of biometric payment fear that fingerprints could be made available to government agencies or law enforcement officials.
Biometric payment service providers are quick to point out that they don't keep the customer's actual fingerprint in their databases. They keep an encrypted number derived from the finger's point-to-point measurements. It is that number which is used to verify a customer's identity, not the actual fingerprint.
In the final analysis, a biometric payment system; like any system that accesses sensitive information, is only as secure as the associated databases and transactions.