A smart card contains a microprocessor and a memory chip. An optical card is a plastic, laser recordable card used with an optical card reader.
It has already come to this: just as many people collect stamps or baseball cards, there is now a major worldwide collecting mania for used wallet sized telephone debit cards. These are the cards by which telephone time is sold and consumed in many countries. Generally the cards are collected for their designs, which bear likenesses of anything from Elvis Presley to Felix the Cat to Martin Luther King, Jr. the cards have been in use in Europe for about 15 years, although about 500 U.S phone companies are now selling them.
Most of these telephone cards are examples of “smart cards”. An even more sophisticated technology is the optical card.
A smart card looks like a credit card but contains a microprocessor and memory chip. In France, where the smart card was invented, you can buy telephone debit cards at most cafes and newsstands. You insert the card into a slot in the phone, wait for a tone, and dial the number the card. The time your call from the balance of time paid for. The French also smart cards as bank cards and some people carry their medical histories on them.
The United States has been slow to embrace smart cards because of the prevalence of the conventional magnetic strip credit card. Moreover, the United States has a large installed base of credit card readers and phone networks with which merchant’s can check on these cards. However, in other countries phone lines are scarce, son that merchants cannot easily check over the phone with a centralized credit database. In these places, smart cards make sense because they carry own spending limits.
Already planners have envisioned a host of future uses for smart cards. For instance, the department of Defense is looking at replacing traditional military dog tags with smart cards that include service and family data. Some observers think that business travelers will soon have a personal smart that can be used for many purposes. This includes buying airline tickets, reserving rental cars, checking into hotels even opening the door to their hotel rooms. Once back at the office, they will be able to transfer all their travel expenses electronically onto an expense report. There will be no need to keep paper receipts.
The conventional magnetic-stripe credit card holds the equivalent of a half page of date. The smart card with a microprocessor and memory chip holds the equivalent of 30 pages. The optical card presently holds about 2,000 pages of data. Optical cards use the same type of technology as music compact disks but look like silvery credit cards. Optical cards are plastic, laser-recordable, credit card size cards used with an optical card reader. Because they can cram so much data into so little space, they may become popular in the future. With an optical card, for instance, there’s enough room for a person’s health card to hold not only his or her medical history and health insurance information but also digital images. Examples are electrocardiograms, low resolution chest X-rays, and ultrasound pictures of a fetus. A book containing 1,000 pages of text plus 150 detailed drawings could be optical card in a 1-ounce first-class letter. One manufacture of optical library-card systems suggested that people might wish to store personal information on their cards, such as birth certificates and insurance policies.
Smart Carts
A smart card looks like a credit card but contains a microprocessor and memory chip. In France, where the smart card was invented, you can buy telephone debit cards at most cafes and newsstands. You insert the card into a slot in the phone, wait for a tone, and dial the number the card. The time your call from the balance of time paid for. The French also smart cards as bank cards and some people carry their medical histories on them.
The United States has been slow to embrace smart cards because of the prevalence of the conventional magnetic strip credit card. Moreover, the United States has a large installed base of credit card readers and phone networks with which merchant’s can check on these cards. However, in other countries phone lines are scarce, son that merchants cannot easily check over the phone with a centralized credit database. In these places, smart cards make sense because they carry own spending limits.
Already planners have envisioned a host of future uses for smart cards. For instance, the department of Defense is looking at replacing traditional military dog tags with smart cards that include service and family data. Some observers think that business travelers will soon have a personal smart that can be used for many purposes. This includes buying airline tickets, reserving rental cars, checking into hotels even opening the door to their hotel rooms. Once back at the office, they will be able to transfer all their travel expenses electronically onto an expense report. There will be no need to keep paper receipts. Optical Cards
The conventional magnetic-stripe credit card holds the equivalent of a half page of date. The smart card with a microprocessor and memory chip holds the equivalent of 30 pages. The optical card presently holds about 2,000 pages of data. Optical cards use the same type of technology as music compact disks but look like silvery credit cards. Optical cards are plastic, laser-recordable, credit card size cards used with an optical card reader. Because they can cram so much data into so little space, they may become popular in the future. With an optical card, for instance, there’s enough room for a person’s health card to hold not only his or her medical history and health insurance information but also digital images. Examples are electrocardiograms, low resolution chest X-rays, and ultrasound pictures of a fetus. A book containing 1,000 pages of text plus 150 detailed drawings could be optical card in a 1-ounce first-class letter. One manufacture of optical library-card systems suggested that people might wish to store personal information on their cards, such as birth certificates and insurance policies.
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