Are you ready to give up cash, and maybe even give up your credit cards? I'm not, but there are plenty of companies -- from Google to AT&T -- that think we will.

The idea has been around for more than 20 years but has never come to fruition, because the basic technological tools weren't readily available. Now they are. They're called smartphones.

Earlier this month, Google waved around a prototype Android phone with a special chip that lets customers pay simply by waving the phone near a cash register. Known as near-field communication (NFC), the trick is to use short-range radio signals to send your credit card or bank account information directly to a register so that you don't have to swipe or sign for things. Or get your hands dirty with all that filthy lucre.

In one sense, such technology is overkill. Many of us can already wave a credit card at the gas pump or Quickie Mart and have a sale immediately rung up on the register. Credit card companies call it contactless payment. But contactless payments use a one-way system where your credit card info is simply passed from the card to the scanner. You don't receive, say, any information about what you purchased or about what your current balance is on the card itself.

Smartphones could give shoppers that important information, plus a digital receipt. And stores could incorporate electronic coupons on the spot ("You've just saved $1 on kitty litter, sir!"). Others could include their loyalty cards in a digital form that resides on your phone. It would certainly be more convenient; I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten that darn discount card for the hardware store

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