Thursday, 13 February 2014

Smart Cards & Card Readers – An Overview

In order to avoid the risk of carrying cash, credit cards or debit cards, the most popular alternative that is extensively used these days are the mifare smart cards. These cards have a lot of benefits and are securely encrypted, so safety is also not an issue for these cards. There are seven varieties of mifare cards and one of them is mifare desfire. The best benefit of these cards is that they do not have to be inserted in the card reader, just have to be taken in the range of it. There are various companies that manufacture card readers, which are needed for reading contact and contact less cards. Examples of contact / contact less card readers include OMNIKEY 3121 and OMNIKEY 5321. Here is brief description on omnikey 3121, omnikey 5321 and mifare desfire.

OMNIKEY 3121 – It is a smart card reader that gives high performance output. It has multiple standing options for desktop use. The benefits of this reader include suitability for all kinds of contact smart card uses like digital signature applications, online banking, etc. These cards can be used horizontally or vertically, different standing bases are available for the same. Data transmission has high speeds and it supports most of the operating systems.

OMNIKEY 5321- This one is a pc linked card reader which is capable of reading and writing on any contact smart card as well as a 13.56 MHz contact less card. This type of readers are useful for environments where both smart card technologies are used,contact as well as contact less.

Mifare Desfire EV1 – Mifare is one of the most reliable and known brands for contact less cards and Mifare Desfire EV1 is one of its 7 card types. A securely encrypted card, it is used in multiple applications like road tolling, access control, airline tickets, electronic tickets for public transportation and more. These cards include roadmap-standard interface and an evolution plan that is full proof so that easy upgradation in the future is possible.

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