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Smart Cards are already here in spades....

offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
edited August 2002 in General Discussion
By the way, just so you guys know, I spent some years in the 90s doing business proposals to state governments for statewide ID cards and driver licenses, and I know a little about card technology.

They're making a big deal out of "smart cards" right now and some seem to think they're big brother all over again. The truth is, they are a card, any polypro/synthetic plastic card with a computer chip embedded in it -- just like they're already using for the American Express blue, and those DirecTV cards you guys were talking about.

Smart cards are here. State governments, notably the governor of Utah, can't wait to be the first to use a "smart card" for a driver license. The only problems being worked out are 1) physical sturdiness so they can be carried in your wallet without breaking when you sit down, and 2) the little operating system (yes, like Windows) that will power what any card can be programmed to do.

They WILL come to your local license bureau, welfare office, drug store, gas station, and Best Buy. They'll be everywhere, and soon. They will have some of your ID information, and they will hold money balances which can be paid out and refreshed by depositing more cash to cover the purchases. They will "interact" with whatever you plug them into, just like your computer interacts when you go online. They will be hackable. They will be made by some institutions, like banks, to be very secure, but in other cases they will be easy to update with marketing data like the "cookies" in your computer.

The size of the memory on the chip will go up and up. They CAN hold fingerprints already, and your photo in JPEG, and they can hold iris scans or * features data or whatever is the popular security system of the day to help make a positive ID.

These are the facts. The technology is being developed. We've already test all these products, from * recognition software to fingerprint matching with a 99%+ hit rate. Except they like to call it "finger imaging" to take the curse off, that the word "fingerprint" has.

These cards are relatively easy to assemble -- simply bond a computer chip into a credit card sandwich and fuse the two halves. That's just one method. You solve the breakage problem by putting a harder shell on the chip and playing with the qualities of the compound in the plastics of the card itself.

You make the chip's capabilities more robust by writing new versions of the operating system (like Bluetooth, for example), and by writing new versions of the tiny programs that carry out the instructions for banking, ID, data and image storage, and so on.

I just wanted you to know this is far from being science fiction. It's already in high-gear development, and the states are racing for the first contracts for cards for driver's licenses, ID cards, welfare cards, banking cards, etc.

Have a nice day.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • ccasey612ccasey612 Member Posts: 901 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I remember Smart Cards from boot camp.

    If you will blame gun makers for every shooting then blame car maker for every car accident.
  • NighthawkNighthawk Member Posts: 12,022 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Never thought of it but it makes since.Thanks for shareing the info.


    Best!!

    Rugster


    Toujours Pret
  • CAndres35CAndres35 Member Posts: 453 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    they are already using them in illinos for food stamps. they use them where i work to open doors and locked data base cabinets. it records your name what time you opened the cabinet,when it was closed. it also works in conjunction with finger imaging. put your card in and put thumb on a scanner and if they match the door will unlock.

    i have also seen one implanted chip in a person that can or is used just like a credit card. run the scanner over the wrist is just like running your credit cards through the scanner.

    carl
  • njretcopnjretcop Member Posts: 7,975
    edited November -1
    All this time we were laughing at Judge Dread, sheeesh!!

    Charlie

    "It's the stuff dreams are made of Angel"NRA Certified Firearms InstructorMember: GOA, RKBA, NJSPBA, NJ area rep for the 2ndAMPD. njretcop@copmail.com
  • DancesWithSheepDancesWithSheep Member Posts: 12,938 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had one surgically implanted by my proctologist. I just love swiping it at Black Angus.

    Why does man kill? He kills for food. But not only for food; frequently, he must have a beverage.
  • 4wheeler4wheeler Member Posts: 3,441
    edited November -1
    We use a card at work to open the gate and close gate when entering or leaving site.We use it to open doors to store room,you can program card to do many different things both good and bad.Yes it is carried in my billfold and scanners read thru billfold.I believe it will eventually be used for doing time for payroll checks,can be sent to corporate headquarters which means less people on site.

    "It was like that when I got here".
  • thesoundguy1thesoundguy1 Member Posts: 680
    edited November -1
    I'd like to hear from Judge Dread on this one !

    www.waveformwear.com
    The new wave in free expression.
  • leeblackmanleeblackman Member Posts: 5,303 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thats what really big magnets are good for. Especially them degaussing magnets.

    If I'm wrong please correct me, I won't be offended.

    The sound of a 12 gauge pump clears a house fatser than Rosie O eats a Big Mac !
  • Shootist3006Shootist3006 Member Posts: 4,171
    edited November -1
    quote: I remember Smart Cards from boot camp???????

    Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.Semper Fidelis
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Shootist -- Didn't you know? All the recruits are being issued them now. I can't give you the list of what all they're used for, but somebody here probably can.

    - Life NRA Member
    "If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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