When Blackboard deploys Sony’s FeliCa contactless smart cards, the credentials have two areas, one that is a secure area where payment and physical access control transactions take place and an open area where the school can add its own applications, says Jun Shionozaki, technical consulting manager, FeliCa Business Division at Sony.

At the National Association of Campus Card Users conference Blackboard and Sony were giving out USB dongles that included a FeliCa software developers kit that included some sample applications and a tutorial on how to create them. “In the past they could only use the mag-strip credential but now they can go out and be creative,” Shionozaki says.

Blackboard says that some 60 schools have deployed FeliCa readers and 20 have deployed the cards. Some of the applications schools are creating include computer login, ticketing and event tracking, Shionozaki says.  

AuthenTec has announced that its AES1750 fingerprint sensors are to be included on some new waterproof mobile phones from Fujitsu.

Specifically, the biometric feature provided by AuthenTec will be embedded onto the docomo PRIME series F-09C, docomo STYLE series F-10C and the docomo SMART series F-11C phones. All are waterproof and utilize the fingerprint biometrics both for securing the phone as well as touch-powered personalization options. 

An EMV Training Academy has been established in Pasadena, Calif. to facilitate the adoption of EMV chip and pin technology in the U.S. and Canadian banking industries.

Led by a group of veteran payment industry professionals and technology partners, the EMV Training Academy offers training courses, test tools and consultancy services covering the North American contact, contactless and NFC mobile payments markets. 

Diebold is demonstrating new prototype ATMs with NFC and biometric technology, as well as “the world’s first virtualized ATM” at VMworld 2011 this week in Las Vegas.

According to Diebold, the prototypes are part of a soon-to-be released ATM series that will feature biometric thumbprint authentication and NFC-enabled mobile banking support, as well as other self-service functions such as cash and check deposit acceptance.

Diebold’s other prototype - a ‘virtualized’ ATM made in partnership with VMware - takes ATM management software out of the end unit and puts it in a server responsible for multiple units. 

NXP Semiconductors has announced that its PN544 NFC chip has been chosen by Turkcell for Turkey’s first NFC-enabled smart phone.

Manufactured by Huawei, the Turkcell T20 Android smart phone will enable Turkcell subscribers to perform a variety of contactless transactions, including payments, data sharing, public transport, event ticketing and access control, according to Turkcell. 

Cards, keyfobs, smart phones available with iCLASS SE

A new line of readers and credentials from HID Global makes technology-independent digital keys and portable identity credentials a reality for access control markets. The iCLASS Secure Identity Object-Enabled platform (iCLASS SE) enables credentials to be deployed on smart phones, contactless smart cards, contact chip cards, USB tokens and other devices.

This is an evolution in security technology, says Brad Jarvis, vice president of product marketing at HID Global. Twenty-years ago proximity technology was the de facto standard for physical access and then the last decade saw the rise of contactless smart cards. 

Verizon, AT&T T- Mobile are providing more than $100 million in new funding for their mobile payments joint venture Isis, an insider has revealed to Bloomberg.

According to the source, the exact amount of funding will be determined by how many banks and merchants sign onto the service, which will debut next year in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas.