Smart cards will keep UAE pupils safe on buses, experts say

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, views a vehicle at the Al Masaood Automobiles stand at the 2017 International Defence Exhibition Show more

ABU DHABI // Smart card technology will keep schoolchildren safe and better secure residents’ bank details and personal documents.

Abdulla Al Junaibi, chief executive of IOT Labs, said the chip technology would be able to help ensure that children were in their classrooms and on school buses.

“It has a high security standard and it can be used as a bank card, student ID, military card and for attendance,” said Mr Al Junaibi, whose company is part of the Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprises Development.

“You don’t need to punch in or out and it can also locate people within a 200-metre range, or more if extended.”

The company is in talks with the Emirates Transport Authority to introduce the technology for the benefit of about 100,000 pupils who use buses.

“It will detect where they are as well as when they take buses, so that if any of them sleep in the buses, they can detect it,” Mr Al Junaibi said at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.

“There have been issues in the UAE with that and this can be a solution, as it will reflect whether the bus is empty or not directly to the driver.

“It will hopefully start this year, and this really is the right way forward because there is a gap in the market and that technology can fill it.”

The technology will also be applied to credit cards, with three local banks expressing interest in offering it to their customers.

“The idea came after a request from the Federal Government asking to improve and integrate the Emirates ID,” said Elmark Pedrosa, senior electronics engineer at the lab.

Users will have to download an application called AnyBank, which will be tested over the next couple of months, to pair the smart card with their phone through Bluetooth.

“We are currently manufacturing it and we hope it will be distributed by the end of the year,” Mr Pedrosa said. “It took about two years to develop it and each card costs about US$5 [Dh18] to $10. “We’re now also working on integrating the Emirates ID. Hopefully we will be able to by next year.”

Twenty people developed the technology, which is based on low-powered radio frequencies and allows it to “learn” from other cards.

With a battery life of more than five years, the prototype has a built-in flash memory of 512 kilobytes, with plans to expand that to 4 gigabytes. A button on the card allows it to detect the user’s location.

“I am very interested in the future of payments, especially mobile and wireless payments,” said Alexander Nagy, an Egyptian technology enthusiast who lives in Abu Dhabi. “This type of technology will be a huge player in the field of security.”

Mr Nagy ordered a similar smart card from a US company in an effort to store his credit, access and loyalty cards under one card. “It will allow me to switch through them very easily. I should receive it in May,” he said.

“This technology will be very complementary to the Emirates ID card plan in having all your government documents – like e-passport, e-gate, payment cards – all in one smart card.”