Smart cards don't seem like a bad idea, but despite the hype, they don't seem to have made a ton of progress toward replacing credit cards and debit cards. Most of us have already figured out how we prefer to make purchases over the Internet, whether it's by using it like a catalogue and calling up a company on the phone to make a purchase, services like Paypal, or just taking a deep breath and figuring that that the credit card company won't hold us responsible if someone swipes the account numbers we key in to "secure" servers. AmaTech USA is a company that thinks the cards and underlying systems, which you charge up with cash the way you charge up a phone card with minutes, could replace credit cards for Internet purchases and is busy telling the crowd at Comdex about its WavePass Internet Smart-Card Gateway Kit. The kit uses contactless smart cards that let you buy goods and services over the Internet then bring the card along to swipe it through a reader at the point of purchase to receive the goodies you've paid for.

According to AmaTech, you can use the WavePass Gateway Kit to buy such stuff as movie tickets, fast food, and convenience items on your home PC, load them onto a WavePass smart card using the WavePort smart-card reader connected to your PC, then wave the card near a reader when you want to collect the prepaid theater entry, meal, or purchase. Amatech says that contactless smart cards are already being used by tens of millions of people in Europe and Asia. I don't get out much, but I haven't come across a ton of them here in the U.S. Obviously, unless the cards gain wide acceptance, you could end up with a burger and fries embedded in the card but go hungry finding a restaurant to redeem them in. The WavePass Gateway Kit contains one WavePort contactless smart-card reader, two WavePass contactless smart cards, a setup CD ROM, and User Guide. The suggested retail price is $99.95 and the system requirements are 16 MB of RAM, one free serial port, one PS/2 port, a CD-ROM drive, Windows95/98/ME/2000, an Internet connection, and Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator. As I said, I don't think smart cards are a dumb idea. Viable applications right now include giving your teenager a card to use like a credit card but with a set spending limit. Another is the system they are trying to put in place here in the San Francisco Bay Area where you charge a card up with funds and use it on the myriad means of public transit so that you aren't constantly fumbling with change as you transfer from Muni to BART to CalTrain.