Briefly, an intelligent label is associated with a good, and includes one or more permanent and irreversible electrochromic indicators that are used to report the condition of that good at selected points in the movement or usage of that good. These electrochromic indicators provide immediate visual information regarding the status of the good without need to interrogate or communicate with the electronics or processor on the intelligent label. In this way, anyone in the shipping or use chain for the good, including the end user consumer, can quickly understand whether the product is meeting shipping and quality standards. If a product fails to meet shipping or quality standards, the particular point where the product failed can be quickly and easily identified, and information can be used to assure the consumer remains safe, while providing essential information for improving the shipping process. It will be understood that the label may take many forms, such as a tag attached to the good, integrated into the packaging for the good, integrated into the good itself, or may even be an information area on a prepaid card for example. The label may also include, for example, print information regarding the good, usage or shipping rules, or address and coded information.

A fingerprint sensor for incorporation into a smart card includes sensor electrodes for detecting fingerprint features of a finger placed on a contact surface, the sensor electrodes being disposed above a substrate layer that comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a ledge where an edge of the first portion extends beyond an edge of the second portion. Contact points disposed on the ledge connect the fingerprint sensor to electrical conductors of an intermediate layer of a multi-layer smartcard. The fingerprint sensor is disposed within a cavity formed in a body of the smartcard, and the contact points disposed on the ledge are set at a depth corresponding to the thickness of an outer layer covering the electrical conductors of the intermediate layer of the smartcard.

An employee card, an employee information management method and system are disclosed. The employee card includes a communication unit and a display screen coupled to the communication unit. The communication unit is configured to receive, according to a distinguishable identifier of the employee card, employee-related information corresponding to the distinguishable identifier. The display screen is configured to obtain the employee-related information from the communication unit and display the employee-related information. The employee-related information includes at least one of following information: an employee name, an employee job title, an employee job code, or a department to which an employee belongs.

A structure for a contact-less card, the contact-less card may include a buzzer coupled to a fixed power source. The contact-less card may include a vibration motor coupled to the fixed power source. The contact-less card may include a controller coupled to the buzzer and the vibration motor. The controller includes a first integrated circuit. The first integrated circuit transmits a trigger signal to the buzzer and the vibration motor based on an enablement signal. The contact-less card may include a contact-less communication controller electrically coupled to the controller. The contact-less communication controller comprises a second integrated circuit containing card information. The second integrated circuit transmits the card information based on an induced voltage. The second integrated circuit transmits the enablement signal to the controller based on an induced voltage. The contact-less card may include an antenna electrically coupled to the contact-less communication controller. The antenna transmits card information.

A device having a transceiver, at least one of a plurality of pixel elements and a radio frequency identification (RFID) transceiver, and a processor. The transceiver is configured to communicate with a wireless protocol network. The at least one of the plurality of pixel elements and the RFID transceiver is configured to receive an input. The processor is configured to: receive the input and identify a product from the input; communicate via the transceiver to associate a price with the product and to identify the availability of discounts; determine which discounts provide a best value; identify at least one payment method; and automatically pay for the product via the transceiver with the at least one payment method in combination with the discounts that provide the best value. The processor can also identify a gesture and control at least one of a plurality of controllable elements from the gesture.

Apparatus and methods for an erasable reusable check are provided. The method may include receiving in a card reader a microchip embedded in a check. The method may also include extracting from the microchip data identifying a payor name, a payor address, a bank account number of a payor bank account a routing number of the payor bank account, and pixelated data. The method may further include transforming the pixelated data into written text and creating an Image Replacement Document (IRD) of the check. The IRD may include the payor name, the payor address, the bank account number, the routing number, and the written text.

Smart processing devices and systems for controlling functionality of smart processing devices are provided. In some examples, a smart processing device may include a central segment and a plurality of removable segments. The removable segments may be connected to the central segment in a plurality of different configurations. In some examples, each configuration may enable or disable functionality associated with the smart processing device. Further, a system may receive data associated with a current physical configuration of a smart processing device. The current physical configuration data may be compared to pre-stored configuration data in order to identify one or more functions to be enabled or disabled for the smart processing device. The system, computing platform, or the like, may generate an instruction, command or signal enabling or disabling functionality and may transmit the signal to the smart processing device for execution and control of functions provided by the smart processing device.

Various methods and apparatus embodiments involving RFID are disclosed. One method embodiment, among others, includes receiving an excitation signal at a rotary switch associated with a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and a radio frequency (RF) masking material, and orienting the RF masking material with respect to all RFID tags such that a RFID tag is rendered detectable by a nearby RFID reader.

Various embodiments of RFID switch devices are disclosed herein. Such RFID switch devices advantageously enable manual activation/deactivation of the RF module. The RFID switch device may include a RF module with an integrated circuit adapted to ohmically connect to a substantially coplanar conductive trace pattern, as well as booster antenna for extending the operational range of the RFID device. The operational range of the RFID switch device may be extended when a region of the booster antenna overlaps a region of the conductive trace pattern on the RF module via inductive or capacitive coupling. The RFID switch device may further include a visual indicator displaying a first color if the RFID switch device is in an active state and/or a second color if the RFID switch device is in an inactive state.

A transaction card includes at least one metal layer having one or more apertures therein. A light guide is disposed beneath the metal layer. The light guide has a light output and a light input. The light output is positioned to transmit light through at least the one or more apertures of the metal layer. At least one LED is positioned to transmit light into the light guide light input