Touch Memory is an electronic identification device packaged in a coin-shaped stainless steel

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 container. Touch memory is accessed when a touch probe comes into contact with a memory button.

Read and/or write operations between the probe and memory chip are performed with just a momentary contact. Thousands of reads and writes can be performed with a single chip and data integrity can last over 100 years.

Touch memory complements such technologies as bar codes, RFID tags, magnetic stripe, proximity cards and smart cards.

Uses

Touch memory is used in such areas as

• Access control
  Access control
  Access control refers to exerting control over who can interact with a resource. Often but not always, this involves an authority, who does the controlling. The resource can be a given building, group of buildings, or computer-based information system...
  
  
• Asset management
• eCash
  Ecash
  Using cryptography, ecash was introduced by David Chaum as an anonymous electronic cash system. He used blind signatures to achieve unlinkability between withdrawal and spend transactions. Depending on the properties of the payment transactions, one distinguishes between on-line and off-line...
  
  
• Gaming systems
• Thermochron applications
• Time and Attendance
  Attendance management
  Attendance management is the act of managing attendance or presence in a work setting to minimize loss due to employee downtime.Attendance control has traditionally been approached using time clocks, timesheets, and time tracking software, but attendance management goes beyond this to provide a...
  
  

Examples

For example, the US Postal Service uses touch memory for tracking collection times on its large collection boxes. Healthcare, transportation, and trade show organizations also use the technology.

Advantages

Unlike bar codes and magnetic stripe card

Magnetic stripe card

A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card...

s, many touch memory solutions can be written to as well as being read. Communication rate, and product breadth, of touch memory goes well beyond the simple memory products typically available with RFID. The durability of the stainless-steel-clad touch memory is much greater than the thin plastic of a smart card

Smart card

A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...

.

External links

• One of Touch Memory producers