Forget about e-commerce. The latest battleground is m-commerce, with software giants, telecoms groups and banks all competing to make it easy and safe for us to pay for goods using a mobile phone.

Oxford professor Bill Roscoe has spent more than 12 years working on allowing information to be transferred simply and securely so that we can safely pay retailers — and each other.

His research is behind Oxcept, the latest spin-out company from Oxford University which has netted more than £600,000 from the US Navy and £100,000 from the Ministry of Defence to launch a secure app for mobile payments.

The app can also ‘piggy-back’ on other networks, such as those found in Internet cafes, that are not secure. Payments can be made without swiping, card-reading, scanning or entering pass codes or account details.

Government officials, aid workers, the military or anyone needing to quickly and securely communicate using ordinary mobile phones will benefit.

It could revolutionise the mobile payments market for things as simple as buying a hot drink or paying for a train fare.

Professor Roscoe, who is head of computer science and research assistant Dr Bangdao Chen, used complex mathematics to develop the protocols over many years.

Isis Innovation, which helps start spin-outs from the university, teamed the professor with OxCept’s chief executive, Perry Anderson, an investment banker and graduate of the Said Business School.

Professor Roscoe said: “What we have been working on are ways of identifying someone by the context they are in, when you don’t have their mobile number, name or anything.

“It can be geographically-based by using their position and allowing them to see where each other are on a map, without anyone else outside that network being able to see them. I suppose you could say it is rather like the magical Marauder’s Map in Harry Potter books.

“I am a good abstract scientist but not necessarily the person to lead a small computer science company. But I have always been very keen to see my research being used in the real world because I want to make a difference.”

Tom Hockaday, managing director of Isis Innovation, said: “Professor Roscoe’s technology has been rigorously tested and peer reviewed over the last seven years by some of the world’s leading universities.

“Isis has protected this valuable intellectual property on behalf of Oxford University and brought together the commercial management and other experts necessary to take these security protocols to the next stage.”

The technology is purely software-based and disposes of the need for any cords and network connections. There is no swiping, scanning or card reading. No pass codes, account information or credit card details are disclosed. Once both parties have downloaded the app, the payer authenticates the payee and authorises a payment.

In addition to securing payments, the Oxford team have used and tested the security protocols in a map-based application for secure data sharing or “coalition working” in disaster recovery.

This allows separate groups — including police, humanitarian teams, civilians and armed forces — to work securely together on common challenges.

Developed with US military funding, the Oxcept protocols have been field tested and have demonstrated their real-world “security class” capability as part of this programme.

The protocols can also be used for other applications including configuring security for machine-to-machine communications and securing data.

Shawn Modarresi, president and co-founder of OxCept, said: “At the moment it is almost impossible to deter intruders and prying eyes using software. As it becomes second nature for us to transmit delicate information between mobile devices, reliable software-based security protocols will be a key tool for all mobile users.”

Prof Roscoe added: “These protocols resist many of the threats such as so-called ‘man in the middle’ attacks associated with online security solutions. We create security without having to rely on any pre-existing infrastructure such as a public key infrastructure and we do it from the things human users know and trust.”

Mr Anderson said: “The security protocols used by OxCept are protected by granted patents. In practice, it simply does what we all require of a security app and allows us to transfer money or data without fear of it being intercepted.”

Oxcept's initial £250,000 fundraising will pay for early operations and the company will have offices in London and in California's Silicon Valley.