Emue cards -- testing by VISA - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: MrAureliusR
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2016, 08:13:55 am
content: It never ceases to amaze me how thin chips really are. This company has managed to squeeze a SECURE chip/ROM into a standard credit card, as well as a keypad and display.http://www.emue.com/node/15.htmlThe application is for CNP (card not present) transactions. My mother lives in Norway, and almost all the major banks (Sparebanken Vest (and all branches), Voss Veksel- og Landmandsbank) provide a small dongle that you put on your keychain. Whenever you need to log into your bank account online, or make an online purchase, you push a button on the dongle and it generates (I think a six-digit) code, which is based on your account number, the time, and presumably a crypto key. This company is simply taking this technology and putting it directly into the card to convince more people to use it.VISA has already started testing this card. What are your thoughts? I definitely would want one if they were made available by my bank (CIBC, which seem to be at the forefront of new tech a lot of the time). I do a LOT of online shopping, and while I feel secure using PayPal, whenever I buy from a site and have to use the CVV on the back of my card, I always get a bit nervous as that number is only updated when you get a new card. Almost all online transactions depend on this number, which is printed on the back of the card and is only three digits.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2016, 10:24:20 am
content: Honestly it seems a bit fragile. For online purchases, I do wish more banks would support generating new visa numbers on request, so you didn't have to use your main card for it - just make a disposable one, purchase the thing, and have it expire in a week or so.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2016, 02:32:56 pm
content: Calculators of that size have been around for a long time, and the actual secure IC in those cards is tiny (smaller than a micro-SIM, which AFAIK has the same contact arrangement). Their claims of a battery are a little more interesting, although I wonder if it's also solar-powered/charged.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2016, 04:59:00 pm
content: Uses a pouch cell, so it can be very thin, as it only has to have the 2 metallised foils for the contacts, a fusible seal and then a screen printed layer of active material, separator film and assembly and final heat sealing. Not going to have great capacity, will have very high internal resistance but perfect as it is as thick as a sheet of card stock. Use it to fill the volume not occupied by the display, and use a standard thinned die crypto chip, which is the same one used in phone SIM cards, and use a standard calculator thin glass display, and you can do it.Battery likely above the keyboard, and the 2 dies are under the display. 2 dies, as you need more pins than the standard crypto processor has, the second is to drive display and keyboard, while the crypto IC does the heavy lifting and also has the NFC comms built into it.Hopefully they build in some protection, it would not be difficult otherwise to decode the data in there otherwise if you can get to the chip through the thin film cover.