tegrated circuit (IC) chip on one side of the card and more than one megabyte of read/write optical data storage on the other sideùall within the standard credit card size.
The chip/optical smart card provides the data memory capacity, versatility, and upgradability that transaction-function IC chip cards have lacked. When a consumer transaction card system is planned for many years of operation, it should be designed to adapt to changing consumer needs and marketing objectives. By including the inexpensive read/write optical memory stripe, it is possible to add a number of functions demanded by market needs. The card price can be minimized by use of the optical memory stripe plus a small memory chip instead of an expensive, larger memory chip ("Drexler" 11020043).
In 1995, in Swindon, England, approximately 40,000 banking customers began using Mondex cards, which look like familiar ATM (automatic teller machine) cards but carry sophisticated computer chips inside. The chips will contain real money as a form of data; money that is created by one of these chips and that cannot live beyond one of these chips. Customers with actual money in their bank accounts can get the data money into their cards by phone. British Telecommunications equipped 2,000 households with new smart phones, augmented by 70-to-80 public pay phones. The phones can convey data from the Mondex cards to other such cards and to or from local banks. Bank customers can ring up a cash refill and go shopping in Swindon's stores (Woods 24).
A small wireless device Mondex calls a wallet can transfer money from one card to another, either from a shopper to a merchant or between individuals. Each Mondex customer also gets a small plastic reader that displays balances or a transaction log (Woods 24).
In 1996, British consumers began using Mondex cards to pay for public transport fares. This use of the Mondex card is made possible by a unit called the Modul...