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Historical Overview of The Card Industry presented at Introduction Quick Links
What are card techs When we use the term "card technologies", what do we mean? The easy answer is - any technology that can be placed on a card. What is a card? Typically we think of our credit or bank card but there are other sizes and materials used for different applications. The card can be made of plastic (polyester, pvc, or some other material) or paper, card, or even some amalgamation of materials. The common point is that the card is used to provide "access" to something and it includes some form of AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) technology.
There are currently three main technologies we think of when we mention card technologies. These are magnetic stripe, smart cards, and optical cards. Other technologies can be put on cards as well (such as bar codes, touch memory, etc.). Often the card will have printing on it which may involve technologies such as Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer (D2T2) direct to card printing. The History Cards have been with us for a long time, especially if you use the broader definition of what a card is. When you start to talk about "our industry", there are a few dates that may be of interest. Key Events
As we approach 60 years of card technology, you see that we have encompassed a great many achievements. Many of them, we use everyday and don’t even think about. How many "cards" do you have in your wallet right now, probably between 3 and 10 if you are a typical business person. The Technologies
So what are the technologies that we use with cards?
Here is a list of the common ones, along with a brief
description of each: Barcode A printed technology using "black and white" bars to encode the data. From early beginnings of simple barcodes that could only encode a few digits, today there have been over 250 barcodes invented. Luckily many of them have fallen by the wayside and we only concentrate on a few of these. Linear barcodes including U.P.C./EAN that we see every day on all our retail purchases are perhaps the most pervasive, however, the new two-dimensional barcodes that include error correction and detection are becoming more used. Large amounts of data can be stored on a small symbol, making them very useful for marking small objects. The cost of printing a barcode is very low, but they cannot be changed without replacing the label. Common linear barcodes include: U.P.C./EAN, Code 128, Interleaved 2 of 5, and Code 39. Common 2D codes include PDF417, MaxiCode, and Data Matrix. Barium Ferrite Small high power magnets that are buried in a plastic card to form a pattern. This type of card was very popular in access control cards in the 1980s. Problems with the cards included the extra thickness card needed to embed the magnets and the erasure of conventional magnetic stripes Contact Smart Card Smart cards are credit card-sized plastic cards that contain relatively large amounts of information in an imbedded micro-chip. Smart cards differ from magnetic stripe cards in two ways: the amount of information that can be stored is much greater, and some smart cards can be reprogrammed to add, delete or rearrange data. There are several terms used to identify cards with integrated circuits embedded in them. The terms "chip card," "integrated circuit card", and "smart card" really all refer to the same thing. There are two types of smart card. The first is really a "dumb" card in that it only contains memory. These cards are used to store information. Examples of this might include stored value cards where the memory stores a dollar value which the user can spend in a variety of transactions. Examples might be pay phone, retail, or vending machines. Another example of a "dumb" card is the memory that is plugged into a Personal Computer (PC Card - used to be called PCMCIA). The second type of card is a true "smart" card where a microprocessor is embedded in the card along with memory. Now the card actually has the ability to make decisions about the data stored on the card. The card is not dependent on the unit in which it is plugged to make the application work. A smart purse or multi-use card is possible with this technology. Smart cards are the technology of choice when fairly large databases must travel with an individual or an object. For instance, a version of smart card technology is used to record service histories for automobiles. The data travels on a small tag on the owner’s key ring. It can be reprogrammed, updated and accessed whenever the vehicle is serviced with any of that company’s dealers. As there is a microprocessor on the card, various methods can be used to prevent access to the information on the card to provide a secure environment. This security has been touted as the main reason that smart cards will replace other card technologies. The microprocessor type smart card comes in two flavors - the contact version and the contactless version. Both types of card have the microprocessor embedded in the card, the contact version having gold contacts on the surface of the card to provide the electrical connection. Smart cards are not new, the first patent was filed in France in 1974 and the first cards were used in France in 1982. The technology was rapidly accepted in Europe because the high cost of telecommunications made on-line verification of transactions very expensive. The smart card provided the mechanism to move that verification off line, reducing the cost without sacrificing any of the security. In the United States, telecommunication costs have always been low compared to other countries. This meant that the impetus to implement smart cards has taken longer to reach the momentum needed. The possible benefits of the acceptance of smart card technology depend on the application in use. However, the ability to move large amounts of data with little or no increase in the security of the data will lead to many new applications being created that we haven’t even begun to think about. Contactless Smart Card (See contact smart card). Has many of the same attributes as the contact smart card however, the contactless version of a smart card does not have the gold plated contacts visible on the card. The contactless card uses a technology to pass data between the card and the reader without any physical contact being made. The advantage to this contactless system is there are no contacts to wear out, no chance of an electric shock coming through the contacts and destroying the integrated circuit, and the knowledge that the components are completely embedded in the plastic with no external connections. The disadvantage to this is that there are some limitations to the use of the smart card. Data Glyphs A proprietary form of 2D barcode that allows for large amounts of data to be stored in a small space. Embossed Plastic Cards After the original metal plate, this became the choice of technology for many applications. Even today there are still applications that rely on this technology. All that is involved is the plastic card which has been embossed using a method of pushing the characters into the plastic. This requires the use of an embossable plastic (PVC etc.) The data is read by passing a heavy roller across a carbon impregnated paper to get an impression of the embossing. Hologram An image recorded using laser light which changes as you move the image. Used on many cards as a form of security as reproduction of the hologram is not easy. Sizes range from a small image to a full card image. Hybrids A combination of two or more of the technologies listed here. Magnetic Stripe Magnetic stripe technology is everywhere. We use cards with magnetic stripes on them everyday without even thinking about it. The technology has been with us for many years, but there are still many new things going on in the industry. The first use of magnetic stripes on cards was in the early 1960’s. London Transit Authority installed a magnetic stripe system in the London Underground (UK). By the late 1960’s BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) (USA) had installed a paper based ticket the same size as the credit cards we use today. This system used a stored value on the magnetic stripe which was read and rewritten every time the card was used. Credit cards were first issued in 1951, but it wasn’t until the establishment of standards in 1970 that the magnetic stripe became a factor in the use of the cards. Today financial cards all follow the ISO standards to ensure read reliability world wide and along with transit cards constitute the largest users of magnetic stripe cards. With the advent of new technologies many people have predicted the demise of the magnetic stripe. However, with the investment in the current infrastructure this is not likely to be any time soon. Magnetic stripe technology provides the ideal solution to many aspects of our life. It is very inexpensive and readily adaptable to many functions. The standardization of high coercivity for the financial markets has provided the industry with a new lease on life. This coupled with the advent of the security techniques now available means that many applications can expect to be using magnetic stripe technology for the next ten to twenty years. Optical Memory Card Optical memory cards use a technology similar to the one used for music CDs or CD ROMs. A panel of the "gold colored" laser sensitive material is laminated in the card and is used to store the information. The material is comprised of several layers that react when a laser light is directed at them. The laser burns a tiny hole (2.25 microns in diameter) in the material which can then be sensed by a low power laser during the read cycle. The presence or absence of the burn spot indicates a "one" or a "zero". Because the material is actually burned during the write cycle, the media is a write once read many (WORM) media and the data is non volatile (not lost when power is removed). The optical card can currently store between 4 and 6.6 MB of data which gives the ability to store graphical images such as photographs, logos, fingerprints, x-rays, etc.. The data is encoded in a linear x-y format and ISO/IEC 11693 and 11694 standards cover the details. The biggest users of optical technology today are: Medical/Healthcare; Prepaid Debit Cards; Cargo Manifests; Admission Pass Season Tickets; Auto Maintenance records; and Retail Purchase Cards. PCMCIA Now called PC Card. A credit card form factor card that has an edge connector and is plugged into computers and computing devices. Various standards exist, for different applications, but primary uses are memory, modems, LAN cards and hard disks. Secure Magnetics A form of magnetic stripe that provides a method of securing the data on the magnetic stripe. Several different proprietary methods are available, each using a different method of tying the data on the stripe to a particular physical stripe or card. The Magnetic Stripe session later in the week will include presentations from some of the vendors. Wiegand A method of embedding wires into a card. The wires are sensed by a magnetic pulse to provide a binary encodation of data. The Applications The applications that use card technologies are many and extremely varied. Here is a short list of applications, though there are probably many more:
The Statistics Growth in card use (Machine readable) (units in millions)
94 smart card production = $500million 90% are memory only There are many smart cards in use today throughout the world. In 1993 approximately 330 million cards were produced by the major manufacturers. Of this number only about 12% were true "smart cards", the rest were simple memory cards. This was projected to grow to approximately 580 million cards in 1995 (about 10% being "smart") and 990 million in 1996 (approx. 10% "smart"). Of the cards issued in 1993 approx. 260 million were used in phone systems; 25 million in health applications; and 23 million in banking. The rest were used in various small projects and trials. What is the average cost of using smart cards?
MARKET PROSPECTS IN THE UNITED STATES
The Standards
Standards of JTC 1 / SC 17
Learn more about standards
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