Dated 29th July 2007, Kochi E- Convergence Era and The Future of Smart Card
Smart Card is a plastic card with a chip. The major use of chip card has been in the telecommunication network as SIM Card. The Memory in the Card enables he storage of telephone numbers, the sms etc which could enable the portability of the data from one phone to another.
What does the SIM Card in the Mobile Phone Do?
The SIM Card enables portable identification of the subscription and use of portable data like message and address book from one phone to another phone. Today phones come with External memory which acts as data storage devices which are portable. These memory cards come with variable capacities and the hand set does all the storage portable functions except the Identification of the Subscriber. Today hand set has all SIM features in built in it.
Do we need a SIM card in the future or do we need a multi configurable hand set with a memory card? It is time to ponder on where data portability is used and is the benefit of Smart Card (SIM CARD).
Access Control Market has been another market for the Smart Card. Few Access control units have integrated Biometric Devices. The Smart Swipe cards have an ID which is personalized and mapped to the Identification of the Person. This Identification tag is used to track the person into premises. The Smart Card is used as identity and brings user friendliness to trigger the access or attendance.
Does our smart card have memory? Do we use it to store the data on it? Do we reuse the data or is data portability accomplished for reuse of data? Is a smart card required in an E- Convergent Era for Access control? In most solutions where there is convergence possible the data can be stored on the data base. The need for use of the memory in the card is removed. Yes the Access Control card works as a Smart Identification Card to access and Mark Attendance. The proxy is subjective to the user and the company.
Access Control with authenticated verifications using biometric systems are solutions worth to consider. What does it do for you? Some systems offer the data (biometric and Digital ID) stored in the smart card and used for 1:1 Verification. Yes this technologies supports identification and verifications in isolated areas or in mobile computing where the Internet is not available for the identification of he person. Dual considerations with Photo-identification, Hologram and Biometrics together help in giving a reasonable security to the solution. Where Internet is available do we need to use this system?
Who bears the cost of the system? Consumer or User? Where do we use a smart card? What is the data that needs to be portable to add value to the chain of information transfer that recommends the Smart Card usage?
Smart card is used where the data needs to be portable or data security is required.
E- Convergent technology reduces the need for data portability as a requirement and increases data availability of data across the network. The increase of spread of telecom networks in the grass roots and with internet connectivity available; convergence is a near future.
Many Cards are being rolled as defined cards with specific OS for different multi-application. You can find smart card for one for PAN Card, One smart card for Driving License and many more... Is there a need for multi-application cards?
In my opinion we need smart cards where there is data portability or data security verification on 1:1. The Cards of the future are Digital Identification Cards with International Digital Signature. The standard for such a card is yet to be identified on a global platform. That is a card which would define your identity as a person to any application. Each of the application would take care of the individual authentications and verifications mapping to the data base as registered internally. This would bring Uniqueness in the system. This card would be a Smart card / RFID card with Unique ID compatible on multi-user environment and store minimal verification details of Biometrics and/or Digital Signature.
The banking companies, the major transaction companies already have their software geared to accept multiple Company Cards on their infrastructure. I strongly believe in this migration and would recommend the industry to work together on platforms where the usage of card would remove fraud, single identity, reducing consumer confusions by the need to handle less number cards, and use technology wisely. I end with a question to ponder to every user.
Do we need to use technology wisely and smartly in this E-convergent era!!!
Sunil K R ADVAIT SYTEMS Mailto: sunil_kr@advait.in