Common Applications
Magnetic stripe
The best-known applications of magnetic stripe are for financial
cards, transit tickets, and ID cards. Financial cards include
the familiar bank credit and debit cards used in Automated Teller
Machines (ATM) and point-of-sale terminals, as well as prepaid
cards used in telephones and vending machines. Transit tickets
range the gamut from subways, railroads, buses, toll roads to
airlines. ID cards include driver licenses, employee ID badges,
membership cards, and door keys.
Smart Card
Smart card technology rapidly gained acceptance in Europe as
a telephone debit card because the high cost of communications
made on-line verification of transactions very expensive. IC/smart
cards are also used in vending machines, in lotteries, for secure
access control to buildings and computers, for multiple application
student ID cards, to scramble pay television signals, in healthcare
applications, in banking, and to store automobile service histories.
Optical Card
These data intensive cards are currently being used to store
prenatal-care records, medical images and personal medical records;
for high-security drivers' licenses and access/entry cards,
auto repair/warranty records, secure bank debit cards, immigrant
ID cards, and automated cargo manifests for Department of Defense
logistics.
Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer
Dye diffusion thermal transfer is used in a wide range of applications,
for example, in post card printers, and video and computer graphics
printers where the precision and quality of the image are prime
considerations. The technology is being used increasingly for
photo ID card applications. Perhaps the most visible examples
in the U.S. are Citibank's photo ID Visa and MasterCard. Dye
diffusion thermal transfer is also being used to create the
photo ID on drivers' licenses for Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Florida,
Ohio, and Massachusetts among a growing number of states. Internationally,
dye diffusion thermal transfer is being used in combination
with data capture technologies such as barcode, smart card,
and magnetic stripe for national ID cards in China and Southeast
Asia.
Reprinted with permission from AIM, Inc.
www.aimglobal.org
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