In today's world, smart cards play an increasingly important role in
everyday life. We encounter them as credit cards, loyalty cards,
electronic purses, health cards, and as secure tokens for authentication
or digital signature. Their small size and the compatibility of their
form with the magnetic stripe card make them ideal carriers of personal
information such as secret keys, passwords, customization profiles, and
medical emergency information. This book provides a guide for the rapid
development of smart card applications using Java and the OpenCard
Framework. It gives you the basic information you need about smart cards
and how they work. It shows in detail how to develop applications that
use smart cards by guiding you through examples step by step. A smart
card provided with the book will help you to quickly get some first
hands-on experience.