UTXURY LEADER
Brand New 1997
DeVille
Hagars Vision
A high-tech company's invention helps revolutionize
Leather,
Chrome
Wheels,
Loaded:
plastic cards.
Full Power, Heated Seats
JONATHAN FEDLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
A
STK# D7246
Free ONSTAR phone with any lease or purchase while supplies last
Hurry, Deal Won't Last! ! No Joke. Just Add Tax!
Many to choose from at similar savings
AUDETTE
7100 Orchard Lake Rd. • WEST BLOOMFIELD
851-7200
*See salesperson for details. *Customer must qualify for GM Program #97-37. All rebates assigned to dealer. Customer responsible for
tax, lux tax, plates. Sale ends April 15, 1997. All prior sales and agreements Llsingt qualify .
EARN HIGHER
YIELDS!
4.75
MONEY
MARKET*
Cr)
LLJ
U)
LU
VISIT ONE OF OUR LOCATIONS NEAR YOU!
Sterling
BERKLEY • (810) 546-2590
BIRMINGHAM • (810) 646-8787
CLAWSON • (810) 435-2840
F-
ROCHESTER • (810) 656-5760
CC
bank
& trust
UJ
LU
SOUTHFIELD • (810) 948-8799
W. BLOOMFIELD • (810) 855-6644
"We create solutions."®
78
FDIC
• ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD EFFECTIVE AS OF 11/15/96. RATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT
NOTICE. 'MONEY MARKET: S2.500 MINIMUM BALANCE REQUIRED. STATEMENT FEES MAY REDUCE
EARNINGS IF MINIMUM BALANCE IS NOT MAINTAINED.
Your Home
or Office
By
Appointment
custom •
shirts by
rnari hvn
Custom Shirts & Accessories
At Discounted Prices
Men's Fashion
Coordinator &
Shirt Designer
For 20 Years
9f0-1235
Larry Paul makes
FURNITURE
NEW.
Custom, Restoration,
Lacquering,
Refinishing of new
or old furniture,
antiques, office
furniture, pianos.
For Free
Estimates
(810) 681-8280
n influx of visitors from
Japan, China and Bel-
gium has been descending
on Kibbutz Beit Hashita.
But the visitors do not come to see
the cowsheds or witness the com-
munal lifestyle of one of Israel's
oldest and best known kibbutz-
im.
Instead, these visitors come to
observe one of the world's hottest
test sites for contactless smart-
cards.
Five years ago, kibbutznik and
electronics engineer Hagai Ben-
Gurion approached On Track In-
novations, then a 2-year-old Rosh
Pina-based high-tech start-up, in
the belief that the smartcard they
were developing could help the
kibbutzim to become post-social-
ist, money-based communities.
By using such microchip-em-
bedded cards, which contain elec-
tronically stored bank accounts
as well as user information, Ben-
Gurion believed OTI's develop-
ments could transform kibbutz
societies into capitalistic ones.
Conversely, the relatively small,
organized societies provided an
ideal testing ground for the new
device.
By the end of 1993, OTI had in-
stalled smartcard test sites in six
kibbutzim. Today, 30 kibbutzim
are using the company's products;
which are easy enough for 7-year-
olds to manipulate. Indeed, ex-
plains Ben-Gurion, they have to
be. Since communal dining halls
were privatized, anyone wanting
a meal, including a child down-
ing a before-school breakfast,
must now pay for it via the smart-
cards. For adults, the smartcard,
which looks like a credit card and
only needs to be waved in front of
a reader to operate, is also need-
ed for other once-free services,
like laundry, electricity, shopping,
securing car keys and keeping
track of car mileage.
OTI, a company of 35 employ-
ees that sub-contracts production
to three Israeli firms, says that
its flagship product, Eyecon, is
the "ultimate electronic purse."
The Eyecon smartcard can con-
tain an electronic bank as well as
an array of information, such as
medical data. In addition to data
encryption, Eyecon boasts a se-
curity system that ensures
against card forgery.
Such features are crucial for
end-users who will only trade in
their cash and credit cards for se-
cure substitutes. But, while se-
curity may be a concern for some,
insiders say the transition to
smartcards is inevitable.
"Smartcards are a developing
market with the highest current
growth rate," says CEO Oded
Bashan. Their market is project-
ed to treble by 1998 and double
again between 1998 and 2000,
reaching $15-$20 billion, Mr.
Bashan says.
With a number of companies
scrambling for this gold, OTI de-
cided to branch out into a niche
area, the contactless smartcard.
Battery free, the contactless card
transmits information via the
electromagnetic field of the read-
ing device. This enables data and
energy to be transferred without
physical contact, in a work space
of up to 15 centimeters between
card and reader. The device can
use preexisting systems with only
minor interface and reader unit
changes. A 1993 U.S. patent pro-
tects the system.
Twirl your wallet containing a
smartcard in front of a vending
machine, and, presto, cash, can-
dy or cigarettes will come out,
while the cost of the purchase will
be deducted from the "purse"
electronically stored on the -user's
card. A similar motion will allow
a child to pay for a dining-hall
meal, a customer to pay at the su-
permarket checkout line or a dri-
ver to enter a parking lot.
"Within five to eight years all
smartcards will be contactless,"
predicts VP Marketing for OTI,
Ofer Tziperman, adding that in
the next few weeks OTI and CSK,
a Japanese systems integrating
concern whose subsidiaries in-
clude multimedia giant Sega, will
jointly invest $2 million in setting
up On Track Japan, the exclusive
local distributor for OTI's con-
tactless smartcard.
According to Mr. Tziperman,
the contactless card can be used
by large numbers of people at the
same time with no need to wait
in line, can be read without be-
ing removed from a purse or
pocket, can save money by lim-
iting the wear and tear for both
the card and the electronic read-
er and can be manufactured in
many guises, from standard
credit card designs to key rings
and watches.
OTI is currently offering Eye-
con as a hybrid card with both
contact and contactless interface
plus a magnetic strip. The mul-
tisystem card bridges the gap be-
tween banking systems, which
want some transactions to re-
main on a contact-card basis, and
operators of mass transport sys-
tems, which need contactless
cards (smart tickets for automatic
fare collection) to increase com-
muter handling capacity.