Configurable Smart Card with E-SIM for Multi-Card Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional credit cards lack the flexibility and functionality of digital wallets, limiting users who prefer traditional payment methods from experiencing the advantages of digital payment systems.
Innovation Solution
A dynamically configurable smart card with an embedded subscriber identification module (E-SIM) and touch screen, capable of wireless communication, which can represent multiple user smart cards and switch between them for transactions via a digital wallet application on a mobile device, allowing real-time updates and selections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a traditional credit card is used, then simplicity and ease of use are maintained, but flexibility and functionality are limited to a single payment method
Solution Approach 1:
The smart card is designed to perform multiple functions by storing and switching between multiple card profiles (credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, loyalty cards) within a single card, eliminating the need for multiple separate cards while maintaining traditional card simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The card dynamically changes its stored card data in real-time based on user selection through the digital wallet application, allowing the same physical card to represent different payment methods at different transactions through electronic reconfiguration
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple physical cards are carried for different payment methods, then payment flexibility is achieved, but portability and convenience are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple card functions and data are merged into a single smart card with an embedded SIM, consolidating what would otherwise require multiple separate physical cards into one unified device that can be carried in a single wallet slot
3Adaptability or versatility
If a digital wallet application is used on a mobile device, then functionality and flexibility are enhanced, but technological complexity and user knowledge requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The smart card acts as an intermediary device that bridges traditional card simplicity with digital wallet functionality, providing a tangible card that users can physically hold and insert into readers, while the digital wallet application handles the complex backend operations transparently
4Reliability
If card data is stored on a traditional smart card, then security is maintained, but real-time configurability and updates are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The embedded SIM card enables dynamic reconfiguration of card data through over-the-air updates and real-time electronic programming, allowing the card to be remotely updated, reprogrammed, or have its data modified without physical intervention while maintaining secure stored data
Data Source
AI summary
A method for enabling, via a digital wallet application, a smart card to operate as a primary smart card for a plurality of a user's smart cards. The primary smart card may include a microprocessor, a touch screen, a wireless interface and an embedded subscriber identification module (“E-SIM”) card. The method may include retrieving on the primary smart card, from the digital wallet application, a list of a plurality of smart cards, displaying on the touch screen of the primary smart card, a selectable list of the plurality of smart cards, receiving, via the touch screen, a selected smart card and storing the card data on the E-SIM of the primary smart card. When the primary smart card is within a pre-determined proximity to a point-of-sale (“POS”) device, the primary smart card may be configured to transmit the card payment data stored on the E-SIM to the POS device.