deployed in excess of one million reloadable cards through the end of last year and projects 5 million by the end of 1998.
Military: Medical Identification
The U.S.
Department of Defense is working on the Multi-Technology Automated Reader Card (MARC). This involves a smartcard with several media in addition to the embedded chip, including bar code, magnetic stripe, embossed data, printed information, and an integrated circuit. The goal of using MARC is to improve a military commander's ability to access information such as medical treatment data, readiness status, immunization records, and next of kin.
The primary software developer and system integrator for MARC is U.S.-based 3-G International (3GI). In an encouraging development for American smartcard developers seeking to enter overseas markets, 3GI is to deliver a smartcard-based medical documentation system to the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The system will employ smartcards to replace the existing paper records of patient medical and treatment information during medical encounters. Medics will record treatment information onto a soldier's smartcard electronically, enabling the soldier to carry this information
to the next treatment location so that subsequent medical decisions can be made based on the most current data.
Transportation: Contact Free
You read most smartcards by placing them in contact with a reader. You read a contact free card with RF signals when in proximity of a reader. There are also dual-mode cards, such as the Transcarte, developed by Bull. The cards, which are being used by the urban transport management company of Valenciennes, France, operate in contact-free mode to speed up the process of getting onto the bus. Claimed transaction speed with this card is approximately one-tenth of a second, compared to the transaction speed of using paper tickets or contact cards, which ranges between half a second and one second.
A contact mode is also provided, which allows personalized management of user accounts. For example, you could "charge" the card for access to certain municipal services such as canteens, libraries, and swimming pools.
Government: Biometrics
The B
ritish government is planning to deploy smartcards to allow people to pay taxes, including income tax, national insurance, and local taxes, as well as apply for passports, state benefits, and forms of government welfare. Citing "huge potential savings" as the primary motive for the introduction of the smartcard, the minister responsible has acknowledged that the civil liberties lobby will probably oppose any card whose possession is mandatory. However, while plans call for use of the card to be voluntary, the minister has admitted that people could find it difficult to operate in the future without such a smartcard.
Initially, the U.K. citizen smartcard will rely on traditional PIN protection systems to allow a person to identify himself to the government computer systems. In the longer term, and certainly within the next five years, the plan is to allow an individual to use a fingerprint or similar biometric system for positive identification.
Smartcards in Action
