France's SNCF is planning a fall pilot for its Weneo ID Smart Card that will link to the Internet via a USB port, enabling holders to add funds from home.
The system, known as Weneo ID Smart, is being provided by contactless technology startup firm Neowave. The pilot is part of SNCF's push into contactless payment options for all of the company's customers, either through NFC cards, such as some customers are already utilizing, or via payment devices, such as the Weneo ID Smart.
The Weneo ID pilot will take place in four as-yet-unnamed regions of France. If the system is well received by transit customers, says Joël Eppe, chief of SNCF's Innovation and Technologies Department, SNFC could expand the solution nationwide in 2010.
Data on the card will include the cardholder's name and personalized information—whether that person is a student or senior citizen, for instance, or the amount of money the cardholder has available for purchases or transit tickets—along with other data, such as transit schedules that can be downloaded from the Internet. A second chip, for the RFID function, operates independently of the USB-stored data, and holds a unique ID number that is transmitted at the transit station when a passenger passes through a turnstile. Thus, the cost of the ticket is automatically deducted from the user's prepaid balance.
The card has a built-in passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag based on the ISO 14443 standard, and encoded with a unique ID number that will be linked to cardholder-related data stored in the back-end system. At the transit station, the user can place the card within a few centimeters of an RFID interrogator located at the entrance turnstile.
The fall deployment will enable commuters to purchase a Weneo ID Smart card either at an SNCF ticket counter, from a participating store or via mail when ordered on the Internet. The user then takes a picture of himself or herself at an SNCF kiosk or other location, and inserts the hard-copy picture in the front of the card, in a dedicated slot that locks to ensure the picture cannot be removed and replaced by an identity thief.
French Transit Smart Cards Link to the Internet
Aug. 27, 2008
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4283/The user then takes a picture of himself or herself at an SNCF kiosk or other location, and inserts the hard-copy picture in the front of the card,
this is surprising.
Not only will the public transit authority have payment by electronic payment linked to an account they will have a photo the day the transit card was purchased.
Nominees seem like the best choice for this type of public transit card yet the photograph thing creates a big issue 'to prevent fraud' of course...
Who owns that photograph of the person purchasing the transit card? It will be digital so law enforcement could end up with it very easily.
wearing a believable disguise is the other option. fake beard, glasses, wig that one could say were all cut off after the photo was taken.
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Topic: Cities with smart card ticketing for public transportation (Read 106093 times)