SkyeTek M2 RFID reader module enables contactless payment applications
09 October, 2006
category: Contactless, Financial
SkyeTek’s SkyeModule reader now supports contactless payment technology, allowing it to be integrated into existing POS systems or vending machines. The reader supports contactless cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover.
WESTMINSTER, Colo.–SkyeTek, Inc., the leading provider of embedded RFID reader technology, announced that the M2 HF SkyeModule now provides support for contactless payment, consumer loyalty, and patron management applications. Payment infrastructure providers can integrate the M2 directly into or as an add-on to traditional point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Manufacturers of cash-operated equipment, such as vending machines, appliances, and parking meters can also integrate the M2 to enable secure, cashless payment.
“RFID-based contactless payment has emerged as a far more secure and convenient model than cash and credit card transactions,” said Rob Balgley, CEO of SkyeTek. “The M2 offers robust payment support, easy application integration, and software upgradeability to future tag and security protocols. These features, when coupled with the M2’s industry-leading price and footprint, expand the addressable market for contactless payment beyond POS terminals to devices that have traditionally only accepted cash-based payments or those that have never accepted any form of payment.”
Based on SkyeTek’s Advanced Universal Reader Architecture (AURA), the M2 can integrate seamlessly into most payment environments, providing support for the contactless payment specifications of MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. Payment applications interface with the M2 via ReaderWare, which provides an abstraction layer that provides software upgradeability to future tag and security protocols. Roughly half the size of a business card, the M2 is priced at $60 per module in volume, enabling customers to reap the benefits of contactless payment at the industry’s lowest price point. Through a ReaderWare licensing agreement, which includes access to the M2 ReaderDNA reference design, customers can achieve incremental savings of more than 50% in both pricing and footprint.
SkyeTek offers its technology to OEMs, systems integrators, and distributors as reader modules or ReaderWare software licenses. Since its introduction in July, the M2 has won several major production customers in contactless payment and other applications. Customer references will be made available to the media and analysts upon request.
About SkyeTek, Inc.
SkyeTek, Inc. develops reader technology that enables the pervasive adoption of RFID as an embedded feature in existing products. Customers use SkyeTek’s technology to create new applications for their product lines in areas such as anti-counterfeiting, configuration management, consumables authentication, item-level inventory, patient safety, patron management, contactless payment, and mobile data collection.