Putting your finger on the latest hi-tech credit card development

THE not-so-humble credit card is being reinvented. Again. When the era of the plastic credit card dawned with a few thousand Diners Club cards in 1950, it was purely an alternative to cash at tills.

The magnetic-stripe card, invented by IBM but first used by American Express in the ’70s, was a major step forward.

But it then took almost half a century for the next reinvention, with the arrival of computer chips, pin codes, and the end of the dodgy authentication method called the signature.

Now we are about to see the next reinvention: credit cards that contain their own power supply and can authenticate fingerprints — without any changes to existing infrastructure.

IT expert George Ferreira says: “It will work on any ATM or point-of-sale machine globally, as it’s no different from the current standard-issue bank card in size and thickness.”

Ferreira is the former chief operations officer of Samsung Africa and now CEO of Cylon Global Technology, which has offices in the US, UK and the Bahamas.

“Most biometric solutions need new infrastructure,” he says.

So Cylon’s challenge was to create a card that fitted into existing ATM, credit card and point-of-sale systems, but that would also allow biometric authentication on the card itself.

“We first came up with a card that will go into a point-of-sale device with a fingerprint scanner, using power from the device. It wouldn’t fit into an ATM because it was pretty thick. The banking industry loved it, but wanted a card that could fit inside an ATM and used its own power.”

With some ingenuity and advances in chip technology, Cylon produced a card that is almost a minicomputer.

The user pushes a button on the card, waits for a light to flash red and blue, puts a finger on a sensor, and waits for the light to turns green.

The card is then activated, giving the user 15 seconds to authenticate a transaction via tap-and-go devices, and a minute for standard terminals.

It contains 157 “super capacitors”, which store energy via a static charge — that draw energy from an ATM and recharge the card.

“Banks can choose how to implement it,” says Ferreira. “For example, they can require a pin above a certain amount. They can also link it to an app on a phone.”

Cylon has a strong local connection: both the CEO and the chief technology officer are South Africans.

“South Africa is a good place to test the technology because of how forward-thinking the financial sector is, but it’s aimed at global markets,” Ferreira says.

“If a proof-of-concept with two leading South African banks goes well, we could see the first biometric credit cards in circulation this year.”

The card will be expensive during the early stages of its roll-out, so it will initially be a premium card, until volumes increase.

The card will last for up to five years, meaning its cost will be recovered in bank charges over that time.

“Over time, the cost will come down and the card will go to the mass market, even down to debit cards and student cards,” says Ferreira.

“Once this is in place, your card can be your authentication for anything. This is the real smart card.”

Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee, and subscribe to his YouTube channel at http://bit.ly/GGadgets