With the change in administration in 2009 it’s likely there won’t be much activity with smart cards in the federal government. Existing projects will continue forward but new ones will most likely be stalled for at least a year.
But that doesn’t mean the industry will be standing still waiting for the Obama administration. Integration of smart chip technology into other form factors is an area where Oberthur Technologies sees a lot of activity.
Near Field Communication will take off for payments but will also start being adopted for physical access control applications. This will enable smart chips to have greater ubiquity and additional form factors and applications emerge.
Oberthur Technologies is also working on a new smart card edge that could enable easier interoperability of smart card credentials. GICS is a data scheme that takes different smart card program standards, such as registered traveler, corporate programs and FIPS 201, and create improved performance and interoperability with less middleware.
The B10 INCITS Task Group is working on the standard along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and industry players such as Microsoft Corp.
This interoperability will provide a significant step forward in allowing the industry to have one single edge that ensures customers to reduce the time needed to create smart card profiles, increase speed of certification for manufacturers and achieve interoperability between different government programs and industry. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/secureidnews-4.gif)
