Week 3- Input and Output

Okay, I am going to recap on what I have done with my electronic credit cards. First I touched on the biggest problem this project will have – privacy. How will people not get your credit card information off of your phone? How do I know the connection on my phone is protected? Well, each account is linked directly to your bank account that you have online, the only additional feature will be the barcode, very similar to the starbuck’s app that you hand to the cashier and they scan.

            In week two, I touched on how credit card companies and banks will create Excel spread sheets that will run automatic program checks to notify workers of what ever category they call for. This will insure that they have maximum organization and that each person is not overlooked.

Overall, I feel like the basics are laid down for a very successful application.

This week I am going to look at the input and output of the program. I know many questions are rising of the true safety and reliability of a credit card on your phone. Google just released their new application called Google Wallet( http://www.google.com/wallet/). This application allows users to ditch the big bulky wallets and electronically scan everything (where it’s accepted) and go worry free about ever forgetting something important again.

            The new and most innovative technology out there is called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This software allows users to simply scan and go without having to wait for a conformation that it was scanned. It has been most commonly used for EZ-Pass. The RFID chip would be imprinted into the backs of each new cell phone coming out into the market. The user would then use the online banking system of their choice to link there credit cards to their phones.

            How is this going to be protected? 

First each RFID chip will be pass word protected, before a person can scan the item from any distance they will need to input a personalized password allowing the software to send out frequency waves that will be received by a reader which will then instantly send the information to a computer system at the user’s respective bank or credit card company.

            The cheapest and most effective way to embed these tags into cell phones is going to use passive tags. This will require the user to be close enough to the readers that other systems or person’s attempting to hack your information will not have access to it.

            The tag will not be any more noticeable than the back of a regular cell phone case will a small symbol to identify that it is RFID enabled.

            What about the metal interactions?

            Each case will be protected by anti-static guard material. This means that the case will be coated in a hard, smooth plastic that will protect the chip from metal to metal connection, therefore insuring that the chip will not shock out.

            If you have any questions thus far, please feel free to comment on this article.

Stay tuned next week for Storage Capacities! 

Week 2- Microsoft Excel and Electronic Credit Cards

This week’s blog is all about the essentials of working and balancing any business. Last week I introduced the electronic credit card that would allow people to feel more at ease when they use their card. Shopping will become faster and more convenient when customer’s can just scan their phones and go. I’m sure the next question on everyone’s mind, is how is this great idea going to work. Well, before I reveal all the glorious details of my plan we have to start with how to organize all of the data for each company so that each bit of data is organized then complied into a format that will be universal for each company.

             How is that going to happen? Microsoft Excel spreadsheets is the simplest way to organize data and allow for the user to call all people that match a certain characteristic’s such as people who have over due budget’s or people who have just made a payments. This is made possible by the formula function. You can write an if statement stating that if the balance is higher than 0 hide it, and if the balance is below 0 then it will be highlighted in red. This way the banks can easily identify who is an asset and who is not. I am sure that banks have an automated system that would do this for them, however with the use of Microsoft Excel companies can easily attach the new card system with the old system. Thusly not causing mergence problems from the automated system with plastic cards to the electronic ones.

            I know the use of Excel for such a detailed idea is not the most common method for major companies to use, however, in order for technology to become more efficiently used using simple systems is the way to go! Stay tuned for next week’s input on how to make electronic credit cards! 

Week 1- Privacy

            Credit Cards have been one of the easiest ways for hackers to steal a person’s identity. If the Credit card is not signed or the picture is not on the front of the card, then the card is almost free game for another person to use it. Clerks and Cashiers are not trained to monitor personal credit cards, especially during the ‘busy season,’ which just so happens to be the time when identities are stolen.

My mom’s identity was stolen in December of 2009. I can remember the day specifically. We were in Marshall’s Arts and Crafts store looking for Christmas flowers and glitter so I could make door deco’s for our house; her purse was in the cart, closed only by a small snap on the inside; her wallet was, of course, the first thing on top. It was a matter of maybe 30 seconds when she turned her back to the cart to look at me hold up different flowers at the end of the aisle. She did not realize that her wallet was completely gone until we reached the register, which by that time was maybe an hour later. To make a long story short, it was not a very pleasant Christmas that year.

             My Entrepreneurship Project idea is to transform the Credit Card Industry; from a plastic, man made, mass produced industry, into an electronic one with our online bank accounts linked to electronic cards on our phones that are password protected in order for credit cards to not only exist in a physical form, but online. This invention is completely possible because of the invention of the electronic store cards already being distributed in replacement to wasteful plastic ones. Stay tuned for all of the surprising twists and turns of this once in a lifetime project