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New Uses For LCD Technology
HaggiZ writes "A design student from the University of New South Wales has developed a postcard with a built-in camera and LCD display. As the article states, you simply snap the photos and send it to your loved ones and 'they tear open the perforations, fold out a little kick stand on the back and sit it on a bench top. Then it's as simple as pressing a button and it will go through a slide show of images.' I also found these credit cards with build in LCD displays. It sounds like the perfect solution for credit card fraud, with the card generating a One Time Password for each transaction."
The industrial designs student has only came up with the idea of a disposable camera that can be used as a post-card.
I want one! But how much will they cost? (no I didnt RTFA)
"A witty saying proves nothing." -- Voltaire
If they're not already using it, they should try this stuff.
Good photographers don't need expensive cameras, they use expensive lenses.
But since the idea includes a slideshow, I think it would be worth producing. Especially since CCDs, LCDs and RAM are dirt cheap when ordered in production quantites.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
So a stolen card will display a one-time password to the thief each time he uses it?
this is old technology combined in one package.
/. /. shouldn't be promoting business but technology.
How much you want to pay for that ?
If it's enough, I'll supply (and I can)
Just to be clear I don't think this is really anything for
Or clerks could stick to credit card processing policies. I walked into an Apple store today and asked an employee if it was OK to use a client's card, with a letter of authorization (in hand, signed by him, matching the sig on the back of the card.) The employee managed to finally get the attention of the manager, and the manager, who could barely be bothered, grunted "no". "Even with a signed authorization letter naming me, listing contact info that matches his account, and a signature that matches the card?" "NO." Oooookay.
So I collected my $500 in items for the client, went to the cash register, swiped the guy's card, and when asked for a photo ID, handed the dude the letter- the manager was distracted and working elsewhere. "This okay?" "Mmm...yeah." "Want to keep it for proof the charge is authorized?" "Nope, you're good."
Credit card companies establish merchant rates based on risk of fraud on the transaction. Some simply require "card presence", ie, a physical card MUST be swiped. Apple seems to require a photo ID, which probably knocks a couple tenths of a percent off their merchant fee or somesuch. Apple may transmit the signature or store it, and if the charge is contested, they can ask my client "is this your signature, or the signature of someone authorized to use it?" That's all the CC company cares about- that it was SOMEONE authorized to use it.
Then there are the retailers where they NEVER actually see the card- I swipe it, and they never need to look for a valid signature or see whose name is on the card; it could be an old CC with fraudulent info encoded, for example. Or the places that take the card, but the cashier never flips it over to look for a signature. Nobody's compared my signature the card in years, and it used to be everyone did (then again, I'm also older.)
Please help metamoderate.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/index.html
Just goes to show that almost nobody bothers checking cards.
A postcard that uses an LCD? Why not have a camera that can hook up to your mobile phone and email the pictures instead? It makes a hell of a lot more sense than chucking something like an LCD in the post.
"Oh, everything's stolen nowadays. Why the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached."
"Is this the bus to the Civic Center?"
"Credit Card" sized cards w/ a display on them for one time passwords have been in use for 10 years.
i d=
They are used primarily for authorizing logins to secure systems.
See "securID card" from RSA Security
http://www.rsasecurity.com/node.asp?id=1338&node_
Those credit cards look a lot like RSA/Security Dynamics SecurID cards. even down to the number pad on the bottom right. I checked the partner page and RSA was not listed. Either was this technology has been around for a long time. I'm curious how they are going to prevent smashed LCD displays from sat on wallets, or tossed pocketbooks. I have seen a lot of broken cell phones, with smashed screens. Credit cards get a lot more abuse.
Can it run linux? Seriously though, coupled with a psuedo random number generator, (like those RSA keychains), could just about completely secure credit card transaction.
I have always thought it would be great to have a LCD that show what your balance is. Have a small calc. that allows you to add and subtract checks. That way you would never overdraw etc.
"No post cards allowed".
Heck, at this point, people at all sensitive places will be stripping visitors and workers down naked and only letting them in with special jump suits.
You could feasibly now graft this camera technology into shirts, gloves, baseball caps, glasses, etc. And even James Bond himself will be bug eyed with amazement when the nanotech factor finally comes into play in this industry.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I don't own a credit card as in Holland we got a different system. You get from your bank where you have a debit account (possibly with a credit option) a card with a magnectic strip. You can withdraw cash from ATM like machines OR pay with it by having your card read and typing in a 4 digit code to verify it belongs to you.
This would seem to stop a lot of the problems. There is no attempt to verify that the card belongs to you EXCEPT if you wish to withdraw money without knowing the pin code (what the password is called). This can only be done for my bank at head branches and with valid ID and they do really check it and make note of it.
If credit cards do not have this check it seems like a bloody big security risk to me.
ATM machines must surely have something like this so why don't shops? Is the tech to old (america had credit cards long before holland got the current system) are americans to lazy/stupid to remember a pincode or is there another reason?
The simplest way to perhaps prevent theft would be something like this. The card asks for your fingerprint, then you swipe it sending the combined details of the card and your fingerprint and then you enter a passcode on the reader. This neatly combines the keys of verification, what you have (card), who/what you are (fingerprint) and what you know (pincode).
Maybe the current system is secure enough. Pincodes are currently stolen by observing them being entered at ATM's via all sorts of methods and either stealing the card OR having a fake front to the reader that actually allows the card to be copied. Ways could be introduced to prevent this like standarizing all the machines to make fake readers stand out and lengthy codes with multiple keys (sorta like not 1234 but CTRL-1 ALT-2 SHIFT-3 ALT-4) to make it harder to read it over someones shoulder. But that would perhaps make it to complex to use.
The credit card shown seems a lot like those special keys that you can buy to generate a unique password to login to your computer. Very nice systems even if they are bloody expensive.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The inventor who is supposedly 22 years old looks to be around 40 in that picture. I dont know whether to be happy or sad for him.
Man, what a fucking waste or resources and energy.
News for merdes. Shit that matters.
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Postcard with builtin LCD and camera?
Imagine postcard with bultin modern CPU, 1GB memory, large hdd, fast video card, 21'' LCD display, dolby stereo sound and laser printer (to print more postcards).
Will it run Linux?
We talk about reducing emissions, about protecting our environment and reducing waste. Then we go and think up something like this.
Current System:
1. Take a pictures with your digital camera.
2. Go to a interenet bar/coffee shop with wifi (there are ALOT)
3. Email pictures to loved ones
End product: Digital photos on your camera/computer
Wasted: nothing
This thing:
1. Take pictures with one time use "thing"
2. put in mail and send
End Product: nothing. You cant print these, they have to be taken to a developer.
Wasted: The entire device. This goes in the garbage afterwards.
The "design" student should take the entire design process into account, specifically, environmental footprint. The amount of resources to make this and its lackluster capabilities and end result make this product a stupid thing for us to invest in.
This is just a "HIGH TECH" version of a throw-away digital cam, except you cant even print up the photos yourself.
Tiny screens that shouldn't use too much power? Sounds like a job for OLEDs.
As previous poster said, I want some of whatever Zonk's smoking.
Credit cards should have had more security 10 years ago.
They should behave like those security dongles for logging onto intranets.
Step 1: Enter Pin
Step 2: Enter Amount (optional)
Step 3: Write down one time use CC # (or swipe)
Even if a system is implemented w/o the pin, widespread adoption makes CC database theft useless.
An LCD is a liquid crystal display.
I wonder how well those LCD credit cards would survive being put through one of those old "chunk-chunk" credit card machines?
Granted, I haven't seen one in years, but I'm sure there are still a few kicking around out in the sticks somewhere.
Seen those already. Bit distracting actually.
They will not work as their durability is near zero. I used to administer the "securID" cards at work and most of them given to men ended up with broken LCD's as they are the size of a credit card and the thickness of 4 credit cards. when put in a wallet and sat on the thin glass LCD's break making the device useless. OLED or the new Epaper might work, a GLASS LCD in a credit card will never EVER work.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How can this be a perfect solution for credit card fraud?
I'd hoped it would have been a perfect solution AGAINST credit card fraud, but obviously, the LCD screen will be so perfect,
that some clever hacking will make it able to feign someone else's credit card!
I've noticed recently the trend to put the word "technology" wherever it is possible, i guess it mostly comes from marketing people, but does it really have be on /. too? Wouldn't be a title "New Uses for LCDs" just enough?
I like the bathroom stall idea. It would seem the LCD portion of is the harder part of the internet on the go. Wireless internet with a small LCD screen and http://www.phooty.com/ on the way to work, in the bathroom or in the lunch room is the way to go.
take snap, pic ejects
wait one minute
pic is automagically developed
can be viewed millions of times now, no more batteries required, no DRM, no exclusive "viewer" needed
stuff in envelope, mail it off
how old is that tech? geez
Inexpensive digital cameras are now 19.99$ on sale all over, this thing will just be too expensive for what it does, and polaroid did it better decades ago with instant view gratification. With thumb drives and sd cards getting so cheap, that is how to share pics now.
IMHO opinion, they'd be of limited use at the ATM machine if you lost your PIN number. YMMV vary.
1) "Snap+Send" /., but what's with the media attention? Marketing for the University? Or is the University looking for funding through its students?
/. !!!
"they could soon be dropping"
Oh, not developed yet, aih?
What's to report then? Not on
The date on that article goes back to Jan. 3rd, and it just made its way to
I'm ashamed to say/write this, but I must; I live in Kuwait and it has the worst mail system I've ever seen. Why? A subscriber to ACM (acm.org) just got her card. It arrived to Kuwait at Nov. 30th and was delivered at Jan. 5th !!!! Well, she was lucky she got it in the first place! Many things get lost in Kuwait's mail (black holes?).
Anyway, the whole idea behind this is, how long will the battery last? Can the postcard withstand Kuwait's heat during the summer (50 C -- in the shade)?! What about UAE's humidity?
So, his vision to mail it, aih? I don't see any remarks on the weight mentioned in the article! So add some money to shipping too...
"his concept could be an alternative to mobile phone cameras."
Really? NEC's N902i mobile phone has a 4 MegaPixle lense... All new mobile phones are developing better and cheaper lenses, plus they employ digital zoom!
"I'd rather use them to show potential employers my ideas."
Good for him. Oh wait, as opposed to selling the idea and getting loads of cash and starting your own business?
2) Smart Cards with LCDs
Seriously?
I read what the website had, saw their flash & the PDF (which made no difference). Nothing states how the CC company will validate your auth. code.. maybe TRACK you with RF?
Regardless of how its being tracked, how's the CC company gonna compensate its loss on these cards? Charge more interest?
My bank calls whenever there's a transaction over my CC! Now that IS service!
I don't like bulky wallets... I carry a lot of plastic cards. If I'm to use on these, it will get broken after 1 hour of being in my pocket!
I guess no one told the CC compnay that LCDs aren't bendable, yet. (Still being developed)
Mod points are a dangerous tool. Abuse them wisely.
Innovation is not an act, it's a process.
25 Australian dollars = 15.5809713 Euro
That's all we need is more toxic junk to put into a landfill...
I used to be a maintenance supervisor for the US Postal Service. The technicians working for me were always digging things out of the sortation equipment that didn't survive the transit though the machinary. One such item was those wooden postcards that tourists would buy at the tourist traps. Not being flexible, they often would get jammed into places where a mailpiece was expected to take a tight turn. I can imagine these cameras would fair no better. Granted my experience is limited to the US postal system, but I would suspect that many countries have similar sortation equipment.
It isn't enough that this guy's invention mimics a postcard's dimensions. It must be just as flexible as a piece of thin cardboard. It must be able to withstand the g-forces of whipping around pulleys and slamming to a sudden stop in a stacker. The sortation equipment was designed around certain expectations of what would be fed through it, and there are no guarentees (and little hope) that things that deviate from those expectations will survive.
I left the Postal Service just a few weeks before 9/11/01. It wouldn't surprise me if there are even more things a mailpiece needs to survive these days, such as x-rays or other bomb detecting equipment. There are also regulations concerning what can and cannot be mailed. I've no idea what those regulations would say about a camera that could still be taking pictures as it goes through the post office's security procedures. Bottom line is this camera may not be mailable, no matter what the kid who invented it thinks.
It's a good little project, but the components still cost too much for it to be a commercial product. A few more years, though, when it can retail for $4.95...