From November 4 to 6, 2008, contactless, wireless and USB technologies release the smartcard and are on exhibit at CARTES & IDentification 2008, the leading world event in digital security and smart technologies.
Watches, bracelets, key rings"¦ contactless technology will be displayed in all its possible forms.
During the American Democratic National Convention, which was held in Denver at the end of August, delegates and journalists received a small "sticker" which they pasted on their mobile phone or on their badge. This "Go–Tag" which included a contactless chip enabled them to pay very easily for beverages, meals and other services. "Tomorrow the chip will be inside the phone" declared the manager of the company which supplied the tags. He could also have said that it will be in watches, bracelets, USB flash drives or key rings.
For example, an Austrian watchmaker has launched a watch, in which a SIM card module can be inserted, that includes a PayPass contactless payment application (MasterCard). Swatch has also created watches containing a contactless chip. MasterCard had already produced a bracelet distributed to about 5,000 US football fans to pay for their entrance fee to the Giants Stadium in New York.
These various examples prove to which extent the contactless technologies developed by the smartcard industry have released traditional applications such as payment, ticketing or access control. Indeed the function remains but the form is changing. Thanks to contactless, a family of communicating and secured objects has appeared which maintains a lineage with the traditional smartcard. This is the case for payment, with the appearance of mini–cards, key rings, bracelets and watches. And it is also the case with the development of biometric passports which include a chip in their cover page or in a special page. These two markets are in full growth.
The future is also in connectics, mobile phones and "machine–to–machine"
Contactless technologies are not the only ones to have promoted the appearance of new form factors affiliated with those of the traditional smartcard. Connectics and the USB protocol have also generated a family of secured tokens for which Eurosmart1 estimates that this could represent a market of 90 million products by 2012. Mobile telephony has also contributed to this revolution since it was the first to impose new form factors (plug–in and 3FF) different from the traditional SIM card format used in credit cards. This major change is far from being completed since the current development of "machine–to–machine" (M2M) applications is generating new work to define form factors different from those of the traditional SIM card. The latter can already be directly incorporated in the communication circuits of a mobile phone in the form of a bare chip. According to ABI Research, this will represent a market of 80 million cellular modules by 2013.
"Smart Devices" on exhibit during Cartes & IDentification
Wireless, contactless and USB enable smartcard technologies to be used in many various objects. "Smart Objects" have a brilliant future. They will definitely be present on the stands of the 2008 CARTES & IDentification exhibitors.
The "must" event of the digital security and smart technologies industry will put the emphasis on a panel of these smart objects in an exhibition called "Smart Devices". The trade show which already fulfils its market driver role, thus positions itself as visionary. Indeed, the number of embarked systems should rocket by 2015 and be used by everyone. Most of these systems will have wireless functionalities. All these systems will not require the level of security and reliability which the smartcard technologies currently deliver. Nevertheless, a great number will require authentication, private data protection and security.
Find out more about this at CARTES & IDentification 2008, from November 4 to 6.
About Cartes & IDentification 2008
The Cartes & IDentification Trade show will open its doors on November 4th at Paris–Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. The world leading event on digital security and smart technologies will bring together all the international players of the sector who will present their innovations to the 20,000 expected visitors. For this 2008 edition, the Unites States will be the guest of honor. The trade show´s launching conference will be held on June 3th at La Maison Blanche restaurant near the Champs–Elysées in Paris.
