Under the terms of the agreement, Blackboard will support the Sony FeliCa contactless chip technology. Blackboard’s Commerce Suite is a family of applications that supports one-card transactions on-campus, off-campus and online. According to Blackboard, the combination of Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol into the FeliCa technology offers improved application options and system performance. The IC card technology also offers security complying with ISO/IEC 18092 communication standard as well as a layer of user information. This information can be integrated with NFC-enabled devices, including door access readers, point of sale terminals and mobile phones.
The contactless communication between the card and the card reader/writer is activated by electromagnetic waves radiated from the reader/writer antenna. Sony also said that the solution allows for read/write transactions to be completed within 0.1 second. Transmission data is encrypted using a ‘transaction key’, which is dynamically generated at every mutual authentication reduces the risk of forgery and card fraud.
According to Sony, the FeliCa technology is widely used with more than 250 million cards and FeliCa chips embedded in mobile phones in circulation. Rail ticketing and payment systems in Asia have incorporated the contactless technology to increase speed of service and passenger throughput. NFC is already used in city transportation centers, where commuters are swipe ‘contactless’ programmed plastic cards over scanners embedded in turnstiles.
Sony’s commitment to the US market and to NFC standards allows for a solution to higher education institutions that improves student service in a cost effective manner, and enables a wide-array of new services in the future, said Russ Carlson, president at Blackboard Commerce Group.
Our collaboration will help improve the daily life of students, staff and faculty with the benefits of FeliCa contactless technology as it allows educational institutions to combine multiple applications, including student identification, access control and payment onto a single card, said Hiromasa Otsuka, corporate executive senior vice president at Sony Corporation responsible for the FeliCa Division.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
