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I've got an RFID watch. So has a good part of the population of Hong Kong I imagine. HK's "Octopus" system is a stored value card thing that uses RFID chips in credit-card sized, well, cards! Most folks seem to use the cards, the watches are offered for sale for those who prefer it in a watch.

I only visit HK for about 2 weeks once a year, but I find the watch very convenient, in fact I find the whole octopus system very convenient. I wear the watch year-round - for two weeks it's a stored-value card that I use to access public transport, for the rest of the year, it's a watch! :-)

HK has been using a contactless cash card since 1997 called Octopus It's proprietary RFID system (built before the standard appeared), that seems to work quite well for public transport and retail.

Octopus cards in Hong Kong are not only used for Mass Transit ticketing but also used to take attendance at schools.

See their site here and check out the product designed for schools. Google here for more on their site.

Octopus cards each have a unique number so they can be used for security control like any electronic key. I've needed to use it to access high rise office buildings in Hong Kong... followed by another RFID card to enter the actual office.

Octopus is aptly named - it's everywhere in Hong Kong... you get used to it so you miss it when you go somewhere else and have to fumble for change on the train or have to sign in to enter a building.

Octopus cards in Hong Kong are not only used for Mass Transit ticketing but also used to take attendance at schools.

See their site here and check out the product designed for schools. Google here for more on their site.

Octopus cards each have a unique number so they can be used for security control like any electronic key. I've needed to use it to access high rise office buildings in Hong Kong... followed by another RFID card to enter the actual office.

Octopus is aptly named - it's everywhere in Hong Kong... you get used to it so you miss it when you go somewhere else and have to fumble for change on the train or have to sign in to enter a building.

It would also appear that Casio are very big on conveniently ignoring the fact that this isn't anything new. The Hong Kong public transport system has been running on an RFID card called 'Octopus' for several years now. I've used it lots of times, and it works really really well. The Octopus system used a credit-card sized card with an embedded RFID chip by default, but there are also wristwatches and wear-around-your-neck-on-a-lanyard-watches that perform the same function.

You can pay for bus and train (MTR) trips using the Octopus card, make purchases at 7-Eleven, and top up the card at railway stations and 7-Elevens, and make purchases from an increasing array of other stores, vending machines, parking, ferries, cabs, supermarkets, even school tuck shops!!!. The system works really really well - despite the potential privacy issues, I'm a BIG fan of HK's Octopus.

The system is, by default, largely anonymous. There's nothing to stop them putting a camera near a reader I guess, but I've never been asked to prove who I am when purchasing an Octopus card. The company acknowledges customer fears in respect of anonimity in various ways, they offer a 'personalised' octopus card with your photo on it if you want it, but there doesn't seem to be any pressure to adopt the personalised version.

Clearly, it would be trivial to extend the Octopus system to access control. In fact, it wouldn't actually require any 'extension' of the system, just get your own RFID readers that speak the same frequencies and 'language' as Octopus uses (RFID is still very 'unstandardised', there's a lot of 'standards' to choose from), and make them respond appropriately to the unique IDs in the Octopus cards/watches you happen to own.

I'm from Australia. A friend of mine is sending me my first Octopus watch next week. I already have a handfull of Octopus *cards* here to play with. Where can I get the RFID kit I wonder!

It would also appear that Casio are very big on conveniently ignoring the fact that this isn't anything new. The Hong Kong public transport system has been running on an RFID card called 'Octopus' for several years now. I've used it lots of times, and it works really really well. The Octopus system used a credit-card sized card with an embedded RFID chip by default, but there are also wristwatches and wear-around-your-neck-on-a-lanyard-watches that perform the same function.

You can pay for bus and train (MTR) trips using the Octopus card, make purchases at 7-Eleven, and top up the card at railway stations and 7-Elevens, and make purchases from an increasing array of other stores, vending machines, parking, ferries, cabs, supermarkets, even school tuck shops!!!. The system works really really well - despite the potential privacy issues, I'm a BIG fan of HK's Octopus.

The system is, by default, largely anonymous. There's nothing to stop them putting a camera near a reader I guess, but I've never been asked to prove who I am when purchasing an Octopus card. The company acknowledges customer fears in respect of anonimity in various ways, they offer a 'personalised' octopus card with your photo on it if you want it, but there doesn't seem to be any pressure to adopt the personalised version.

Clearly, it would be trivial to extend the Octopus system to access control. In fact, it wouldn't actually require any 'extension' of the system, just get your own RFID readers that speak the same frequencies and 'language' as Octopus uses (RFID is still very 'unstandardised', there's a lot of 'standards' to choose from), and make them respond appropriately to the unique IDs in the Octopus cards/watches you happen to own.

I'm from Australia. A friend of mine is sending me my first Octopus watch next week. I already have a handfull of Octopus *cards* here to play with. Where can I get the RFID kit I wonder!

Some of us in Hong Kong are paying for our groceries, transportation and a lot more with our Octopus cards

In Hong Kong many housing estates, offices and schools are using the Octopus card for identification. There are 9 million cards in Hong Kong with a population of only 7 million. One of the reasons is that some people require two cards - perhaps one for the office and travel, maybe another for the housing estate.

I went to a conference recently and I was required to register with my Octopus Card to get entry to the conference floor. It was useful because I went back later in the week and of course I had the card with me so got without any re-registering.

School kids use them to get into school and a roll call is instantly made up. Entry and exit to the school can then be monitored. This is not so different from the access cards I have used at several offices - the difference is that I've had my Octpus card for years now and theoretically all the transactions, travel, entry and entrance could be recorded. A bit scarey I admit.

However there is no link back to me. There is no name attached to the card, and no connection with a bank account. So there is a limit to the amount of data o be tracked.

There are a lot of uses for the cards.... it is pretty good technology.... except that they in effect have a monopoly and charge 10% commission on the sales going through there system. Imagine having a monopoly on cash and making a profit everytime you used your coins and notes.

I think you will find that there will be more and more of these cards used. Already Nokia has built it into some of their phones in Hong Kong, you can buy watches with it built in - people like it - very easy, no coins, no need to rummage around for the train ticket just wave your wallet at the gate. Ditto for keys to the office, home - soon perhaps your car. They're already used for payment at car parks and soon car meters.

People won't resist this so the best thing is to build in safeguards, walls between systems so no accumulation of data is made unduly.

Face it - it's coming. It's here in Hong Kong now.

In Hong Kong many housing estates, offices and schools are using the Octopus card for identification. There are 9 million cards in Hong Kong with a population of only 7 million. One of the reasons is that some people require two cards - perhaps one for the office and travel, maybe another for the housing estate.

I went to a conference recently and I was required to register with my Octopus Card to get entry to the conference floor. It was useful because I went back later in the week and of course I had the card with me so got without any re-registering.

School kids use them to get into school and a roll call is instantly made up. Entry and exit to the school can then be monitored. This is not so different from the access cards I have used at several offices - the difference is that I've had my Octpus card for years now and theoretically all the transactions, travel, entry and entrance could be recorded. A bit scarey I admit.

However there is no link back to me. There is no name attached to the card, and no connection with a bank account. So there is a limit to the amount of data o be tracked.

There are a lot of uses for the cards.... it is pretty good technology.... except that they in effect have a monopoly and charge 10% commission on the sales going through there system. Imagine having a monopoly on cash and making a profit everytime you used your coins and notes.

I think you will find that there will be more and more of these cards used. Already Nokia has built it into some of their phones in Hong Kong, you can buy watches with it built in - people like it - very easy, no coins, no need to rummage around for the train ticket just wave your wallet at the gate. Ditto for keys to the office, home - soon perhaps your car. They're already used for payment at car parks and soon car meters.

People won't resist this so the best thing is to build in safeguards, walls between systems so no accumulation of data is made unduly.

Face it - it's coming. It's here in Hong Kong now.

We have something similar in Hong Kong for 5 years, it works excellent. Because it's contactless, it allows operation without withdrawing cards from wallets/ purses...And the transaction is done within 2 seconds.

You can take a look at the cool Features over here...

Not to mention the Mondex in Hong Kong died very quick too.

in Hong Kong it's called the Octoupus Smart Card, and it is a non-contact system working on RF. You can leave the card in your wallet or purse, and leave your wallet in your jacket or your purse in your handbag. Just approach the gate and swipe the garment/luggage over the proximity reader and it figures out whether to let you through.

here's the official site in english.

ERG Australia has signed a contract to use them in the land of OZ.

The octopus card is in no way anonymous.

They, I mean the Octopus Company, won't charge you any extra. I think they earn the interests of your deposit. And AFAIK they also got some kind of tax discount from government, with some limitation about what they can do with the deposit, say can't use it to buy share and some invesement...

How about Mondex? It just died quickly...May be because it's a solo game played by HSBC...but Octopus is lanuched with full railways/subway and bus support.

It just takes 1-2 seconds for an transaction to complete (don't forget that it works in batch mode)...If it takes 10 seconds like those in Switzerland, it will get trashed...Take a look at this two photos, 1 and 2. It's a typical subway station, yes it always busy like that...people just can't wait for 10 seconds for going in...

They, I mean the Octopus Company, won't charge you any extra. I think they earn the interests of your deposit. And AFAIK they also got some kind of tax discount from government, with some limitation about what they can do with the deposit, say can't use it to buy share and some invesement...

How about Mondex? It just died quickly...May be because it's a solo game played by HSBC...but Octopus is lanuched with full railways/subway and bus support.

It just takes 1-2 seconds for an transaction to complete (don't forget that it works in batch mode)...If it takes 10 seconds like those in Switzerland, it will get trashed...Take a look at this two photos, 1 and 2. It's a typical subway station, yes it always busy like that...people just can't wait for 10 seconds for going in...

A money-card system named "the Octopus", covering six major public transport modes was launched in Hong Kong (Not by government). You can find a lot of information in their homepage, includin the Technology used. To be reminded that KMB, which of course got participated in this project, is the bus company run by private with the largest fleet.

Anonymousity
They sell two types of card, one with no Personal Information and one with it.

Some company has developed system for Elementary/High school to use Octupus to take the rollcall and such, although they are still very new, you have to use the personalized one for these systems. Moreover, for the Personalized one, you can bind it to your credit card so it can Add Value automatically when you got negative value on the card.
For non-personalized one (the "Standard" one), of course they still have an ID Number on it.

Publicity
Nowadays, many stores and outlets do accept Octopus, for example, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola Vending Machine, Public Telephone... The Octopus is very popular among Hong Kong'ers, almost everyone, from children to elderly, got an Octopus card.

Technology
The card works in touchless way. In Hong Kong every minute is money, you/I mean we can't wait to pull the card out of the wallet, and find the hole to insert it! For Octopus you can put it inside the wallet/bag and put the wallet near the receiver, within several inch, and it works fine.

Someone has mentioned to add value to it...without paying for it ...As far as I know they have deployed asymmetric encrpytion, (the basic card system is developed by Sony, as mentioned in the Webpage, you can find some technology spec over there). Cracking the card will be just as difficult as cracking the SSL Stream I think.
And moreover, they have a backup of your card data, including the money you have, in some centralized servers. So they will detect unauthorized modification to the card in a day or so.

Updates (Transaction) to server, however, do not happen in real time. They sync in a least once a day, for those with permanent connection of course this happens in a lot frequencier. So in event where the Central server is blanked out (will it?), all subsystem will works fine.

Years ago, Some KCRC (a railway company) staff was caughted stealing money...They know it's working in batch job mode, so when people add value through them, they interfere the system before the transaction is commited to central database, and steal the money...However it's detected because the amount in the card and that of the central DB was unmatched...

To replace the "real" money?
Probably not...
1. Just like Credit cards, it only works if you have the card reader...
2. There is no mechanism for user to transfer money betwee cards
Although almost everyone in Hong Kong has an Octopus, but not every shops in Hong Kong got the reader installed...
Besides, you will always need a reader to get the money from the card, but with paper money...you just need a hand (and optionally an eye to verify it quickly).

A money-card system named "the Octopus", covering six major public transport modes was launched in Hong Kong (Not by government). You can find a lot of information in their homepage, includin the Technology used. To be reminded that KMB, which of course got participated in this project, is the bus company run by private with the largest fleet.

Anonymousity
They sell two types of card, one with no Personal Information and one with it.

Some company has developed system for Elementary/High school to use Octupus to take the rollcall and such, although they are still very new, you have to use the personalized one for these systems. Moreover, for the Personalized one, you can bind it to your credit card so it can Add Value automatically when you got negative value on the card.
For non-personalized one (the "Standard" one), of course they still have an ID Number on it.

Publicity
Nowadays, many stores and outlets do accept Octopus, for example, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola Vending Machine, Public Telephone... The Octopus is very popular among Hong Kong'ers, almost everyone, from children to elderly, got an Octopus card.

Technology
The card works in touchless way. In Hong Kong every minute is money, you/I mean we can't wait to pull the card out of the wallet, and find the hole to insert it! For Octopus you can put it inside the wallet/bag and put the wallet near the receiver, within several inch, and it works fine.

Someone has mentioned to add value to it...without paying for it ...As far as I know they have deployed asymmetric encrpytion, (the basic card system is developed by Sony, as mentioned in the Webpage, you can find some technology spec over there). Cracking the card will be just as difficult as cracking the SSL Stream I think.
And moreover, they have a backup of your card data, including the money you have, in some centralized servers. So they will detect unauthorized modification to the card in a day or so.

Updates (Transaction) to server, however, do not happen in real time. They sync in a least once a day, for those with permanent connection of course this happens in a lot frequencier. So in event where the Central server is blanked out (will it?), all subsystem will works fine.

Years ago, Some KCRC (a railway company) staff was caughted stealing money...They know it's working in batch job mode, so when people add value through them, they interfere the system before the transaction is commited to central database, and steal the money...However it's detected because the amount in the card and that of the central DB was unmatched...

To replace the "real" money?
Probably not...
1. Just like Credit cards, it only works if you have the card reader...
2. There is no mechanism for user to transfer money betwee cards
Although almost everyone in Hong Kong has an Octopus, but not every shops in Hong Kong got the reader installed...
Besides, you will always need a reader to get the money from the card, but with paper money...you just need a hand (and optionally an eye to verify it quickly).

The correct links are here and here.

They also have a geeky watch which you can use if you really don't want to remove you wallet and want to wave your hand very close to the reader.

This is currently handling close to 6 million transactions a day in the public transport system in Hong Kong, on buses, on the metro, in various shops ( starbucks / 7-11 ) etc.

The cards can be recharged at thousands of locations in HK, by transfering money using your ATM card, or by depositing cash.

Take a look at Octopus FAQ. The watch is towards the bottom of the page. Other info on use, personalisation, access for tourists, pictures on cards, etc is all on the site.

Take a look at Octopus FAQ. The watch is towards the bottom of the page. Other info on use, personalisation, access for tourists, pictures on cards, etc is all on the site.