Cashless Payment System revolves around the Smart Card. A smart card is a credit card-sized device that contains one or more integrated circuits (ICs) and also may employ one or more of the following machine-readable technologies: magnetic stripe, bar code (linear or two-dimensional), contact less radio frequency transmitters, biometric information, encryption and authentication, or photo identification.

Smart cards are being used for payment throughout the world, with Visa, MasterCard and JCB leading initiatives to extend the use of smart cards for contactless payment. The combination of standards-based technology, enhanced security features, availability of products and services from multiple vendors, potential to use the existing payment infrastructure, and support from major financial industry players offer compelling benefits for contactless payment implementations based on smart cards.

• Depending upon the size of the ICC, smart cards can store and manage data to assist with various applications.

• Smart cards can provide significantly enhanced security features that allow the card to operate as an authentication token for secure access to terminals and networks.

• Smart cards can serve as credit, debit, or stored-value payment and/or payment token instruments and provide the capability to access financial accounts and transfer funds between accounts.

• Smart card technology can enable an organization to become more secure, efficient, and interoperable while delivering strong authentication and security, identity management, data management, customer support, and communications.

OmSuite Cashless Payment Management System (OmSuite) was developed by United Electronics for OmPay, Philadelphia, PA. It is a smart card based payment solution for the transit industry. The product targets transit industry players like parking authorities, garage operators, regional metros and taxicab companies.

Service providers in the transit industry issue OmPay cards. Users buy the card through the service provider's webstore or from retail outlets. Two types of cards are available - stored value and account linked. The cards are recharged at reloading stations. Account linked cards are tied to credit or debit card account of the customer. OmSuite follows the Regional Interoperability Specification (RIS) from New York Port Authority, so that the cards can be used at any RIS compliant network. Thus, the same card can be used for transit purposes including rail commute, taxi and bus rides, as well as parking. In short, the Om card serves as an electronic wallet for transit.

OmSuite is also a clearinghouse and settlement system. Service Providers and customers maintain accounts with OmSuite. The clearinghouse module does the settlement of transactions between the service providers. OmSuite interfaces with the banking system through Internet payment gateways and ACH.

OmSuite follows a three-tier architecture with a clear separation of concerns. Presentation layer: JSP, Spring MVC and Tiles framework. Domain layer: Spring framework. Persistence Layer: iBatis Database: MySQL. The system interfaces with card programming machine DC 7000. It also interfaces with third party applications, which do address scrubbing and sorting based on USPTO requirements.