“Smart card is a thin, credit card-sized piece of plastic that contains a half-inch-square area that serves as the card’s input\output system. This is its sinter face with the outside world, and handles a variety of applications.”
Following are the uses of smart card:-
- A smart card is used to provide users with the ability to make a purchase. It contains stored value the cardholder can spend at retailers.
- It is used to hold cash, ID information, and a key to house or an office.
- The smart card is used in transaction processing. It could be loaded with cash value in ATM machines and used as a credit card.
- It is used to authenticate an individual’s claim of personal identification using various authentication approaches.
- A smart card is used to provide encryption and decryption of messages to ensure security, integrity, and confidentiality.
Application of smart card:-
Following are the applications of a smart card:-
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Telecommunications:-
Smart cards are widely used in the telecommunications industry. A SIM card is an example of a card. It contains the information necessary to access the network.
This card can be inserted into any GSM phone, and the user is billed automatically. The user’s location is detected, and any incoming calls are directed to that phone,
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Identification:-
The identification market benefits greatly from the security associated with smart cards. For example, smart cards are being used in universities for their official student identification card. Students use this card to gain access to certain facilities and events.
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Government:-
Smart cards are gaining importance with government agencies around the world. They often are used to control areas of access for a government employee.
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Financial:-
Financial institutions were one of the first to adopt smart cards for various application. There are several common uses of smart cards within the industry, including electronic purses, credit and debit cards, and payment associations,
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Health care:-
Countries with national health care systems have employed smart cards to reduce service costs associated with the health care industry.
In France, a smart card focuses on an insurance payment system, including features such as electronic signature abilities and built-in encryption.
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Loyalty:-
The retail industry widely uses the application of the smart card in order to identify and reward customers.
Retailers use a loyalty card to capture customer information and better cater promotions processes to them.
Most often, the stores offer extra points with the purchase of certain products, which allows customers to collect points even faster. For example, Levi’s stores.
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Transportation:-
Contactless smart card technology is quickly gaining acceptance in the transportation industry throughout the world.
For example, Hong Kong uses a single smart card-the octopus card in most of its public transportation systems.
Octopus equipment has been installed in all buses in the city. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) also provides smart cards to the customers.
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