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A. Campbell McCracken

Freelance Journalist and Consultant

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Smartcard Applications
 


The growth of smartcards between now and the millennium is predicted at between 300% and 800% to around 3,500 - 4,000 million, with the best growth expected to be in the personal ID, health and transport markets. Memory cards, being the simplest and least expensive member of the smartcard family, currently account for around 90% of the market and are being used in disposable counter card applications, telephone cards, parking meter cards and petrol point collection cards.

Processor cards, being more expensive and having the capability of storing data files, are ideal for interactive or data storage applications and can implement more than one application in a single card. Currently they are used for satellite TV encryption, electronic purse, GSM personalisation, and for holding medical or other personal details. One electronic purse application has been undergoing trials in Swindon for a year now, with around 15,000 people using the Mondex smartcard. The card can be credited with an amount of 'electronic cash'. Participating retailers use terminals to transfer money from the card to back accounts. Users can read their balance using special electronic wallets or simple key-ring devices.

The use of smartcards as replacements for magnetic cards is now widespread in France, which has the highest per capita use of smartcards. The French card uses a low-cost card with 3K ROM, 1K EEPROM and 128 bytes of RAM. The changeover to smartcards in France has led to a reduction in fraudulent transactions by a factor of 10.

In the future, in addition to the widespread use of smartcards, we will see a greater variety of card types and uses, including contactless smartcards and cards containing biometric information, such as fingerprint identification, skin resistance information or hand geometry.

 

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