The birth and future of a smart card

2019-06-18 07:34:28

"Intelligence", what is "smart"? Smart cards, smart ID cards, smart homes, and smart cars "smart" seem to be the inevitable result of the development of science and technology. This is not only a trend, but also the general direction of all aspects of development at the end, which will revolutionize our lives. influences. Have you seen a set of art film "Future Report"? In the film, the lead actor, Russ, will take over a case and will hand over a small memory card to him. The location, time, passage, victim and suspicious person of the case have been entered. The information between the department and the department can also track the progress of the investigation through the memory card, and how to proceed to the next step, completely eliminating the process of all document work, and eliminating the trouble of file transfer.

Today, although we have not been able to fully use smart cards for life and work, we can see the changes that smart cards are slowly making in our lives. Smart ID cards are a best example, round book licenses, driving licenses, E-Certs and even the records of human beings are collected in a smart card, which is convenient and practical. In the near future, it may actually realize the phenomenon of â€œone card is in the world and the world is popularâ€.

What is the type of energy card? What is inside? What is the future development? Please see below for decomposition

What is a smart card?

Smart cards, also known as smart cards (SmartCard), can be divided into contact and non-contact. Whether it is contact or non-contact, there are computer chips in the card that can store and manage data. Cards with tapes, which have a larger amount of stored data, and have the ability to change data, such as Octopus, e-Park, User ID (SIM) and current smart ID cards, are all categories of smart cards.

Contact smart card

The contact smart card, as its name implies, can read the data in the chip through the contact between the chip and the reader in the smart card. For example, the SIM card used in the mobile phone, the e-card, the smart ID card, etc. are the best examples. In this type of smart card, most of the chips are mounted on the surface of the card. The wafer is recorded and stored in the wafer by a specific electronic tool, which facilitates the reader to contact, thereby reading, transmitting or modifying the wafer. data.

In addition to application chips, some contact smart cards use barcodes or tapes as media for storing data, but these can only be limited to storing some constant data, such as membership numbers.

Nowadays, the contact smart card is widely used. The smart ID card is applied with this technology. The smart ID card has a separate storage area, which separates the relevant immigration affairs and other functions and reserves space. For the public to use value-added for non-immigration matters. As shown below:

This type of smart card, even if the card body is made of durable materials, because the wafer is mounted on the surface of the card, relatively less need to be preserved, avoid contact with the magnet, avoid storing with keys, coins, etc. The surface of the anti-wafer is scratched. Once the wafer on the surface of the smart card is scratched, the reader cannot read the data stored in the wafer or cause the read data to be incomplete.

Contactless smart card

The contactless smart card, the chip is built in the card, and the antenna is arranged around the chip, which is convenient for transmitting and receiving data information. The technology applied by the contactless smart card is called RFID (Radio Identification Technology).

RFID technology

The contactless smart card uses RFID (Radio Identification Technology). Regarding RFID technology, the magazine visited Mr. Sun Guojiang, the director and consultant of the Supply Chain Management and Technology Department of the Hong Kong Article Numbering Association, to learn about the RFID technology and applications in the application and smart card. Folding RFID in different areas and future developments.

RFID technology can appear in different forms. Generally, RFID tags used in smart cards are mostly sandwiched in the middle of the card body during the card loading process. It differs from a normal wafer in that an antenna is provided around the wafer for receiving and transmitting data, and the shape of the antenna is also small, rectangular, triangular, rotating, or even frog-shaped, and antennas of different shapes are formed to affect reception. And the factor of transmission intensity.

Mr. Sun said that passive RFID readers can emit radio waves. The strength of the radio waves needs to be specially adjusted. The stronger the radio waves and the higher the sensitivity, the more likely the peripheral data will be read. Therefore, the RFID application will press Use to adjust the intensity of the radio wave, and limit the smart card to contact the reader within the specified isolation to receive the relevant information. The antenna inside the card transmits the data to the reader after receiving the radio wave. RFID is operated according to this principle. The most common example of RFID technology used in daily life is Octopus (OCTOPUS), because RFID transmits data through the antenna. Therefore, when we want to change the data in the contactless smart card, it is much more convenient than the contact smart card. In the case of Octopus, when the payment is paid, the reader connected to the terminal computer will immediately input the updated data into the card. Among the chips, it saves a lot of time compared to a smart card that requires a card. In addition to this example, the automatic payment function of the tunnel in the car also uses RFID technology. The owner only needs to put the RFID device in the scope of the vehicle body. When the car passes through the automatic payment system, the RFID reader can obtain the relevant data operation. The principle is the same as Octopus.

Smart card construction

The structure of a typical smart card can be roughly divided into two parts, the card body and the chip/RFID tag/tape/bar code. The card body is mostly made of some hard and durable rubber compound. The current smart ID card is made of a kind of polycarbonate non-fragmented glue. Most of these materials are durable, wear-resistant and resistant to environmental changes such as physics, chemistry and temperature. Of course, depending on the age of the smart card. Fixed, general membership card or smart card with a shorter term. Relatively, some materials with strong resilience and economic principles will be used for the cost problem; on the contrary, some smart cards with long term, such as smart ID cards, etc. Relatively use some more durable materials. As mentioned before, the contact smart card chip is placed on the surface of the card body, and the RFID tag is embedded in the card body. RFID tags use a special machine to transfer the wafer and antenna to a film and then store it in the middle of the card body.

Data confidentiality

I still remember that when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region launched the smart ID card at the beginning, everyone was most concerned about the confidentiality of personal data. They worried that all the information would be stored in the chip on the card. If the smart card is lost, will it be illegal? Stealing personal information? In this regard, you don't have to worry about it. For example, the smart ID card is stored on the chip. Only the cardholder's data is stored. The remaining sensitive or private personal data is recorded in the computer's central system. You need to enter a password or attach a specific one. The instructions can be read. For example, only the authorized department can check the relevant information or the certificate holder must verify the information on the certificate.

The non-contact smart card using RFID technology, according to Mr. Sun, in order to prevent the reader from being too strong to read the data outside the target, any machine that needs to use RFID readers needs to read and read. The intensity of the wave emitted by the device to determine the distance to read the smart card, plus the need to read the data in the card and some internal specific conditions can be read.

Smart card use

Smart cards are widely used. In addition to being able to store a lot of cumbersome data, they can be used for payment, shopping, and some for security and identification of customers and users. In the future, smart cards are more likely to be used for more purposes. One step affects our lives.

Smart cards have daily importance in our daily lives, such as the Octopus card used every day and the user identification card in the mobile phone. The most representative smart card can be used in addition to the money. In recognition of the identity of the user, in terms of security, some large enterprises and houses have adopted smart cards as identification to identify and enter the identity. All staff and households will be issued a smart card, which will be printed with the user's personal information, photos, etc. When entering, only the smart card and the reader need to read the card holder's data and records. Even the university student ID card has adopted a smart card, and the student data and library card are combined into one. For example, the city university launched in January and February. The "smart card" is designed in a dual-chip format, combined with payment and identification, and can be used as a student ID card and Octopus on campus to pay a small fee.

Postscript, explore RFID

As mentioned earlier, RFID is widely used. In recent years, RFID (radio frequency identification technology) has received much attention from all walks of life, but I don't know, RFID was already available before the Second World War. More than half a century ago, RFID Technology is a technology that can read data data remotely, including an integrated circuit tag with an antenna and a receiving point with a microprocessor. At that time, the Allies used RFID technology to remotely identify enemy and enemy aircraft. However, with the advancement of technology and the establishment of a unified EPC standard, RFID has now entered the stage of practical application.

RFID application and function

Unlike traditional bar codes, RFID can simultaneously read data in multiple tags at high speed, greatly improving the efficiency of work. Therefore, it has received a lot of attention from all walks of life. Currently, RFID has been used in commercial sales in foreign countries.

According to Mr. Sun Guojiang, the head of supply key management and technical department of the Product Code Association, Mr. Sun Guojiang said that the popularity of RFID will make our business activities and even personal living and life constitute a significant impact. Now, some of the larger and well-known foreign companies have applied RFID to their daily management processes, such as Walmart (WalmartlÂ·TargetÂ·Tesco, Metro, the US Department of Defense (US Depart-meat of Defense has adopted or plans to apply in the short term). RFID radio frequency identification technology.

As far as the retail industry is concerned, the RFID tag is attached to the goods, and the reader is installed on the shelf to know the exit record of the goods. Is the goods placed on unsuitable shelves? How much inventory is there on the shelf? These materials are clearly visible on the terminal computer through the reader. The logistics play a greater role, in addition to the high efficiency of the entry and exit of the goods, the ability to track the flow of goods, transportation and so on.

According to the relevant test examples in the Journal of the Hong Kong Association of Articles and Codes, the results of applying RFID to commercial applications are quite satisfactory. The trial was launched by MetroGroup, a major German retail store, to launch the â€œTomorrow Shopâ€ program for transportation and payment. And the tracking of goods in the store, the results show that EPC and RFID applications enable companies to automate at the pallet and outer box level, shorten the speed of receiving and shipping, while out of stock, warehouse management, inventory recovery Significant improvements have been made, and Mertro Group expects that the full adoption of EPC and RFID will save the group's distribution center an annual savings of 189,000 pounds, store revenue is expected to increase by 0.5% per year, and producers are expected to increase revenue by 0.7%.

RFID development resistance

Uniform standards

Since RFID technology was introduced before half a century ago, why has it become popular in recent years? The problem is that there is a lack of a unified standard. Just like barcodes, when the barcodes used by each company are â€œunique,â€ â€‹â€‹it is difficult for other companies to identify how to read the data in the barcode, so the birth of EAVÂ·UCC As a unified standard for bar codes, RFID is no exception. With the integration of the global economy, the level of supply chain operations is becoming more and more extensive. RFID needs to have a unified standard to solve the problem, so MIT has developed an approved RFID code. Standard - EPC. EPC is a set of internationally unified RFID standards that include RFID frequency definitions, taking into account the label format, data interchange and other layers.

High cost

In addition, the high cost is one of the resistances that RfID has not been fully popularized. At present, the cost of making an RFID label is about 1-5 millimeters, and the price of the reader used to read the data is 10,000 to 3. 10,000 yuan Hong Kong dollars, regardless of the cost of labels or readers depends on the number of functions, the size of the big and small Mr. Sun said that due to the price of the problem, the majority of the current application of RFID is some large enterprises, or expensive On the goods, but the price is lower or a large number of goods, due to the high cost and temporarily failed to adopt this technology, but Mr. Sun estimates that as the business opportunities of RFID are gradually discovered, and manufacturers are more and more believe that the price will definitely go further. Downgrade, the application of RFID will be further popularized.