MyGlobalCity

Are Smartcards Becoming Too Niche-Focused? May 16, 2006

CardTechnology reported recently that Switzerland is trying out a new contactless payment card aimed at moviegoers. While this seems incredibly unusual, it seems to be one of the big problems with RFID and touchless payment systems. There are numerous RFID projects afoot all over the world, and no standards.

I’m not a big fan of digital money to begin with, but to aim cards at such a small niche seems a waste of effort. What’s worse, these cards will only work at Europlex cinemas. You have to open an account, deposit funds, then use your card to buy tickets and items from a concession stand. This begs the question: why? Sure, the waiting lines will move much faster, but this probably means that unpackaged food items will be self-serve - surely a health hazard? (If you’ve ever been to a supermarket - surely you have - and watched shoppers carefully, you might think twice about eating that apple or pear without washing it. Now, some lucky people will get to experience popcorn that might have been touched by nose-picking idiots.)

With the impending arrival of true Internet TV, as well as the increasingly larger, affordable flat-panel TV screens aimed at home use, I’m predicting that many more movie theatres will go out of business. Why have a smartcard that only works at one cinema? Why not put in a bit of effort and team up with several cinemas? And not just in Switzerland, but all over the European Union?

Right now, there are a lot of technical issues to be worked out with RFID and contactless/ touchless payment technologies - most of all, a worldwide standards document. There’s just too many different frequencies in use and too much fragmentation of the technology. Any project built between now and when any such standard is devised will have to be replaced. Surely a waste of money that could have been prevented.

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