ContactlessNews presents: Contactless industry showguide to Cardtech/Securtech ’03
01 April, 2003
category: Contactless, Library
Each year, the Cardtech/Securtech exposition brings together the newest, coolest products from the ID card and security markets. The conference is massive, drawing hundreds of vendors from around the world and often nearly 10,000 attendees.
It can be difficult to navigate through the volume of exhibits to get to the things that most benefit you. To help make the process easier and your time on the show floor more productive, ContactlessNews has pre-evaluated the vendors and their offerings and created a list of those that our staff feels could most benefit the readers of ContactlessNews.
For those of you attending this year’s conference in Orlando, Florida, we suggest that you consider visiting the following vendors first, then enjoy the rest of your time simply exploring the exhibit hall for interesting new products.
Interested in evaluating the range of contactless chips available today? Tour the following booths: ASK; Atmel Corporation; Dallas Semiconductor; Fujitsu Microelectronics; Hitachi Ltd; Hitachi Semiconductor; Infineon; LEGIC; NAGRA ID; Philips Semiconductors; and STMicroelectronics.
If you are more interested in the finished contactless cards, check out the companies that embed chips and antennae to manufacture completed cards. Visit Gemplus; Giesecke & Devrient; HID Corporation; INSIDE Contactless; OTI America; Versatile Card Technology; Schlumberger; Cross Technology; and Vanskee Enterprise.
A range of contactless solutions will be on display in booths throughout the exhibit hall. Examples include the transit applications displayed by CUBIC Transportation Systems, the payment card offerings from MasterCard International, the tagging solutions from Omron Electronics, and HID’s access control solutions.
If you want to learn about the machinery used in the manufacture of contactless cards or the equipment used for testing of cards for quality control, check out the following suppliers: Innovative Equipment; Melzer; Micropross; Muhlbauer; and Smartware.
Many of the companies listed above will also be showing a range of contactless readers and terminals, as will Omnitek; Cansec Systems; OMNIKEY; and Sygade Solutions.
This show is always an adventure. You can learn more about the technology you are using today and see first-hand the technology you will be using in the coming years. Your ContactlessNews team will be on hand in booth #1513 if you need any help navigating the floor or just want to come by and say hello. If you are looking for guidance in your contactless project planning or development, come by and talk to our team about such services. We have worked with government agencies, financial institutions, and corporations with similar projects in the past. Hope to see you in Orlando.
The map on the following page provides the recommended booths to visit. An interactive version of the map is available on the CR80News web site.
Orlando to pay for tolls and fares with ORANGES
When it comes to transportation systems, Orlando, Florida is not your typical big city. Unlike most of the world’s major tourist destinations, public transportation is far less pervasive than personal automobile traffic. Just how pervasive? More than 200 million individual toll transactions were conducted in 2001 amounting to more than US$135 million. Beginning in April 2001, a project called ORANGES began to test a new transportation payment system using smart cards. ORANGES (the Orlando Regional Alliance for Next Generation Electronic Payment Systems) stated goal is the development of “single, regional electronic payment medium (to) enable participating agencies to offer a number of programs that encourage positive traveler behavior to enhance multi-modal transportation system performance.”
The project involved three separate transit organizations:
- LYNX (Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority),
- Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority
- City of Orlando Parking Bureau.
Through ORANGES, the entities are seeking to plan, develop, and implement a “multi-payment instrument, single clearinghouse approach” to electronic payment systems. Each organization would test and, if successful, utilize the ORANGES payment card and transaction processing infrastructure in their various transit-related environments. The card tested was a dual-interface card with both contact and contactless interface.
The ORANGES trial was co-funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). In 1999, the FTA accepted proposals from cities across the country to receive the funds for the purpose of testing a single payment systems that would operate across transit fare collection, tolls, and parking. Orlando was selected to receive US$2.3 million in matching funds. The participants provide an equal match of funding via services, equipment, funds and other in-kind contributions.
“At LYNX, we hope that the project brings ease of transition between all modes of transit,” says Tiffany Homler, Deputy Director of Planning for LYNX. “As new transportation projects come on-line, you don’t want to deal with different types of fare media.” The area is considering plans for light rail and even a statewide high-speed rail network.
During 2001 and 2002, the first phase of the project was conducted. A working test of the system was implemented in a laboratory environment. The project was implemented by the ORANGES team with the help of project manager, PBS&J, and technology providers including Touch Technology, Efkon, and McCann Parking Systems. The second phase–migrating the system from the laboratory to the actual live environment for trial–will begin on July 1, 2003 and run through July 1 or 2004.
According to Ms. Homler, “phase two of the trial will include two bus routes, one expressway toll plaza, and three parking garages in downtown Orlando.” This will enable the project to evaluate each of the three payment environments: on-vehicle fare collection, in-vehicle toll payment, and self-serve parking payment. An estimated 1200 cardholders will participate in the year-long trial, with each of the three agencies selecting between 300 and 400 of their users.
These participants will be issued an ORANGES card–the Gem Combi/MPCOS Pro from Gemplus. The card has both a contact chip and a contactless chip. The contactless chip is the ISO 14443 Type A Mifare chip. It will handle fare collection on the buses and toll collection at one of the plazas. The contact chip will be used for parking payment at the parking lots. Using a special transponder that wirelessly communicates data to and from the chip, the contact chip will also be used for toll collection at one of the plazas.
Touch Technology is providing the backend processing and settlement software for the project. Efkon AG provides the transponders and toll collection system. Ascom provides the bus fare collection components. McGann Software provides the parking payment infrastructure.
When asked how the technology fared in the first phase of the project, Doug Jamison, ORANGES Project Manager for LYNX, reported that things went well but that the real test begins on July 1. Will the project pass the test and go into full operation? Mr. Jamison, is optimistic but said the decision will be based upon “whether the effort required to hold the partnership together outweighs the benefits we all gain from the system.”
Indeed these partnership elements are a key piece of the project. The FTA funds required that the project produce a series of documents and agreements for the establishment and operation of a cross-agency program. How do the parties work together? How are funds distributed from a shared account? How can partners be added or eliminated from a project? These are the types of guidelines that will result from ORANGES to the benefit of future programs.
Mr. Jamison stressed that the primary goal in sharing the system was not to promote multi-modal transportation. Rather, he says, it was to share costs for system development and operation. We will all be watching over the next year to see how the live test of ORANGES fares.