Recyclable Contactless Payment Device for Event Cost Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
The high cost of issuing single-use chip cards for short-duration events or venues makes traditional issuance methods economically unviable, as the cost per transaction is prohibitively expensive due to manufacturing and personalization costs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a recyclable contactless payment system where cards are issued for limited duration use, allowing users to return them for recycling, deactivation, and reissue for subsequent events, with software modules managing user preferences and balances to facilitate reuse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If single-use chip cards are issued for each event, then payment security and user convenience are improved, but issuance cost per transaction increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements card recycling by collecting used contactless payment cards after events, verifying their authenticity, deactivating them, and reissuing them for future events. This recovers the manufacturing investment and reduces per-event issuance costs while maintaining security through proper deactivation and verification protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The payment card system is designed to serve multiple events and multiple users sequentially. A single card can be issued to different patrons across different events, with the system managing user-specific balances and preferences through software modules, making the physical card universal rather than single-use
2Ease of manufacture
If cards are reused across multiple events, then issuance cost per transaction decreases, but system complexity and security verification requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms through return detection modules that verify card authenticity upon return, track card status, and provide information to the deactivation and reissuance processes. This feedback loop ensures secure recycling while managing system complexity through automated verification and status tracking
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces software modules as intermediaries between the physical card and the payment processing system. These modules manage user preferences, balances, and card status, decoupling the physical card reuse mechanism from the payment logic and simplifying the overall system architecture
3Ease of manufacture
If cards are deactivated and stored for recycling, then cost recovery is improved, but loss of time for card processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-verifying card authenticity when returned, pre-deactivating cards in the system, and pre-preparing them for reissuance. This preliminary processing reduces bottlenecks and minimizes the actual card processing time while ensuring cost recovery through proper verification and deactivation protocols
Data Source
AI summary
A recyclable contactless payment device is issued to a first patron of a venue. Use of the contactless payment device at the venue by the first patron is facilitated, as is return of the contactless payment device by the first patron for recycling. The contactless payment device is deactivated and stored. The issuing and facilitation of use are repeated for at least a second patron of the venue, with the same recyclable contactless payment device.