That's cool. How long ago did you come up with that. The universal ID has been a bone of contention of years, especially recently. I was reading a mag today that holographic storage--long a dream of mine, having written a paper on it in college--is finally coming to reality. Within two years or so, we'll have holo storage on media small enough to fit inside a credit card, with a capacity of 20 GB! Makes the idea of storing health, DNA, retinal scans, etc., much more likely. The political/social impact though--way more of an issue.
-----Original Message----- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Astromancer Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 16:57 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Wireless wallets come closer to reality Short for Transaction Plate, grandson of the European universal card and more...Anything can be accessed by it from you banks account to your medical records...protected by thumbprint and DNA, assuming there will be computers fast enough in the future to facilitate the technology...another security option, when available would be a retina scan...You can use the card just like money, even to lend a friend a few credits...That is my concept. The technology is here now; it just needs to be incorporated... [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:What's the "T-plate"? -------------- Original message -------------- I had the same concept in mind when I created the T-plate in my storylines... Keith Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Bet you'd been wondering when my next "convergence/future-is-now" post would be coming, right? :) Some thoughts here. One, would the cards be tied directly into a bank account like a debit card? With no need for a PIN or signature, just waving this thing everywhere, a thief could go to town if he stole it from you. Maybe you'll be able to limit the amounts on the cards, possibly even use a bank Web site to manage your own card or phone. Perhaps you could configure how much it could be used for in a day (the way most banks limit ATM withdrawals daily), and you could even activate/deactivate it via a Web site. Whatever, security has to be more than just that waving it near a sensor. What if computer systems fail or--likely in today's world of hackers--someone accesses "secure" servers and steals your private ID to go on a spending spree? Two, this makes us even more dependent on modern technology, for good or ill. That also means we'd be more prone to mistakes in computer records and accounting, and will make it more important for us to manage our money. Imagine a computer glitch that said you used your phone debit chip to buy $150 worth of movie tickets. Might take a while to correct that. Are we getting closer to that future world where everyone uses "credits" instead of paper or coin money? Is that a good thing? I'd imagine there'll always be a need for "hard" money, especially gold and silver, in case of economic collapse. Finally, do technological steps like this, coupled with tech like RFIDs and increased security concerns, push even further to a universal ID card? And is that good or bad. Who among you would use such a system? I have to admit that despite all my concerns I'd jump right on it. I mean, I work in IT and I know how vulnerable even the best secured systems are. But I've been using a debit card here in Atlanta for well over a decade, I do all my banking and bill payment online, and I'm currently typing this on a wireless connection in my place. So yeah, I can see myself getting in to the whole idea of waving that little chip in front of a ticket kiosk, so I can save a whole 30 seconds on getting my "Batman Begins" movie tickets! PluggedIn:Wireless wallets come closer to reality By Sinead CarewFri Jul 29, 2:59 PM ET Imagine being able to pay for a song on the jukebox, buy a bag of groceries or gain admission to a sports arena by simply waving your phone by a machine. With consumers in Asia and Europe already using their mobile phones to pay for soda and parking fees, the long discussed concept of the wireless wallet could be slowly creeping closer to reality in the United States. In countries such as Sweden, Ireland and the United Kingdom drivers can avoid putting coins in a parking meter by simply sending a text message on their mobile phone. About two million customers of Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T) can already use mobile phones with built-in debit cards to pay about 20,000 merchants such as restaurants and supermarkets. DoCoMo, which U.S. telephone carriers often look to for inspiration for new services, also plans for customers to use their phones in place of train tickets. It also invested in a credit card company as part of its bet on mobile commerce. U.S. companies have been quiet about mobile commerce since hype about wireless wallets was deflated when the dot.com bubble burst in 2000. Many are still skeptical, but some are warming to the idea again amid U.S. and overseas developments. "The (mobile commerce) discussion has more validity now. The technology and the business models are evolving," said Chris Bierbaum a business development executive at Sprint (NYSE:FON - news), the No. 3 U.S. operator. The popularity of music ringtones is one sign consumers are ready to use phones for buying more than calls. Music labels now see wireless as a key market after U.S. consumers spent $223 million on ringtones in 2004 according to Yankee Group. And as phones -- being built with everything from video players to cameras -- add even more features, soon the music industry may not be alone in seeing wireless as a lucrative alternative market to sell their products. "You will continue to see more and more industries come to that conclusion," said Peter Ritcher chief financial officer of Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service. Purveyors of everything from fast food to movie tickets may be next to jump on the wireless bandwagon by way of so-called contactless payment cards that can be waved at a sensor rather than swiped through a sales terminal, one executive said. These cards are issued by U.S. bank J.P. Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM - news) and Randy Vandebwong1rhoff, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance said multiple banks plan tests this year.McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD - news) is expect to support the cards and convenience store 7-Eleven Inc. (NYSE:SE - news) plans to accept them in all its 5,300 U.S. stores by early 2006. Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news), the world's second biggest phone maker, is doing tests with MasterCard and it expects its phones to support credit card payments in 2006. Sprint's Bierbaum believes that once contactless payment cards are popular it will make sense to put them in phones. "Once they've changed the habit to waving their credit card past a reader instead of swiping it, you'll see the migration to wireless," he said. Wallet phones could help client loyalty by giving consumers a reason to keep phones longer, he said. Along with Philips (PHG.AS) and other companies Motorola is also working on a technology that would have consumers waving their phones at posters or ads to read a Web address, where the user could then buy the goods advertised on the poster. Some analysts question whether this technology, known as near field communications, will catch on as it requires an extra chip in phones and widespread acceptance by advertisers. In the meantime Sprint customers can buy goods by logging onto the Web on their phones. Sprint plans to offer to keep customer credit card details in a safe place on its network to make these transactions more convenient. Yankee analyst Adam Zawel forecast mobile commerce transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Europe in 2009, up from $243 million in 2004 while transactions in Asia will increase to $1.7 billion in 2009 up from $370 million in 2004. He is not yet convinced mobile commerce will take off in the United States but he said it could appeal to organizations including Major League Baseball, which looks to new technologies for quicker ways to get fans into baseball parks. "If it gets to the point where it's easier to pull out our phone than to pull out cash to pay then consumers will do it," Zawell said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "scifinoir2" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "scifinoir2" on the web. 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