smart card

Any plastic card (like a credit card) with an embedded

integrated circuit for storing information.

Smart cards are being incorporated into soldier's dog-tags and

used to store hospital patients' medical records. This way

they are always instantly accessible.

Other uses are as a form of token in banking systems. You

could store electronic money on the card or less valuable

tokens such as those given away by petrol companies which you

collect to exchange for free gifts at a later date. The idea

being that one smart card is easier to carry around than a

multitude of paper tokens.

news:alt.technology.smartcards

(1995-01-06)