If Japan’s Star Micronics Co Ltd can fit its announcement into three lines of 29 characters, it should be able to tell its customers about its forthcoming Visual Smart Card product on the card itself. The company, best known for its mid-range dot matrix printers, has developed a reader-writer that will read customer information, for example loyalty scheme information, and print updated information back to the customer’s card after each use. The card might tell the customer how many points he or she has accumulated and which gift can be obtained with those points. The three-line display uses magnetic particles, which can be erased and re-written 10,000 times. The card, which can be either magnetic swipe or chip, has been developed in partnership with Dai Nippon Printing Co, and the reader-writer is developed and manufactured by Star Micronics. The Visual Smart Card will be officially launched in May.
