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A credit card with a built-in microprocessor and memory used for identification or financial transactions. When inserted into a reader, it transfers data to and from a central computer. It is more secure than a magnetic stripe card and can be programmed to self-destruct if the wrong password is entered too many times. As a financial transaction card, it can be loaded with digital money and used like a travelers check, except that variable amounts of money can be spent until the balance is zero. See digital coins, SIM, Java Card, UltraCard and contactless smart card.




The Smart Card
Widely used in Europe, the smart card is rapidly gaining acceptance in North America.






Reading Smart Cards on Laptops
SwapSmart from SCM is a PCMCIA card that contains a smart card drive. SwapSmart plugs into the laptop, and the smart card plugs into SwapSmart. (Image courtesy of SCM Microsystems Inc., www.scmmicro.com)





Smarty Turned a Floppy Drive into a Reader
Fischer International's Smarty allowed a PC's floppy drive to read smart cards. The card was inserted into Smarty, whose circuits emulated the magnetic field of a rotating floppy disk and transferred the data to the floppy's read/write head. (Image courtesy of Fischer International Systems Corporation.)