The companies will make special phones for the Olympics that users will be able to hold in front of a reader to make a payment.

The program could help build momentum behind near field communication, which uses short-range wireless technology to transmit data over short distances.

Other companies trying to further the use of NFC have faced challenges, however, and Samsung and Visa may also face some hurdles.

For instance, to use the companies' payment technology, people will have to buy a special phone with a Visa-enabled SIM card. They'll then have to find a store with a reader device that accepts payments from the phones.