LinkNotes: card

2008-07-07

Open source public transport smart card project launched

A Dutch University has received a targeted research grant for developing a next generation smart card for public transport on the basis of open-source technology.
Earlier a major smartcard system with similar goals in the Netherlands was easily compromised by the investigators, who were able to repeat their findings with the Oyster card scheme used in the UK.

clipped from www.theinquirer.net

Dutch boffins work on open sauce smart card

DUTCH BOFFINS at Radboud University in Nijmegen are
developing new privacy-protecting smart cards for public transport, using good old open sauce.

clipped from www.theregister.co.uk

Researchers of Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands managed to crack and clone London's Oyster travel card. They were able to take free rides on the Underground and even perpetrated a DDoS attack on a Tube gate.

clipped from www.techradar.com

Oyster card cloned

clipped from www.sos.cs.ru.nl

Dutch public transport cards (the 'ov chip card')

clipped from www.theregister.co.uk

Dutch charity NLnet Foundation this week annouced it will give €150,000 to Radboud University to launch a open-source smart card software project which will run through 2010. The initiative is funded by private charity money to ensure that “there are technical guarantees for maintaining the privacy of passengers”. ®

2008-04-26

NTT Firmo Card -- Contactless Authentication

A new product, called “Firmo,” consists of a card-sized transmitter carried in the user’s pocket. The card converts stored data into a weak electric field that extends across the body. When the user touches an object embedded with a compatible receiver a signal returned to the device allows contactless authentication

clipped from www.pinktentacle.com

NTT Firmo transmits data through skin

NTT has begun selling a device that transmits data across the surface of the human body and lets users communicate with electronic devices simply by touching them, the company announced on April 23.

Firmo is based on NTT’s RedTacton human area network (HAN) technology, which is designed to allow convenient human-machine data exchange through natural physical contact — even through clothing, gloves and shoes.

clipped from www.ntt.co.jp

Figure 1: RedTacton PC card prototype

Figure 2: Principle of RedTacton Communication