Technology Description

The technology, is a smart card that uses photonic data storage technology based on holograms to provide extremely high levels of data storage (in the megabyte to gigabyte range), on a thin card. The card also has a proprietary reader for accessing the data. The card is enclosed is a sophisticated looking glass and metal container.

In general, smart cards are a device that includes an embedded integrated circuit chip (ICC) that can be either a secure microcontroller or equivalent intelligence with internal memory or a memory chip alone. The card connects to a reader with direct physical contact or with a remote contact less radio frequency interface. With an embedded microcontroller, smart cards have the unique ability to store large amounts of data, carry out their own on-card functions (e.g., encryption and mutual authentication) and interact intelligently with a smart card reader. Smart card technology is supported by a number of international standards (ISO/IEC 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443) and is available in a variety of form factors, including plastic cards, fobs, subscriber identity modules (SIMs) used in GSM mobile phones, and USB-based tokens2.

While a variety of smart cards exist using different storage technologies from magnetic strips, like credit cards, to optically etched identity cards, the use of holograms appears to be unique. The level of data storage on other technologies ranges from kilobytes up to a few megabytes although memory chips can be added to cards to get data storage into the gigabyte range.

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