Imagine if you would, a wallet, perfectly ordinary internally, capable of storing several cards, notes and a smattering of loose change.
However, around the outside of your new wallet, rather than a crude covering of treated cow hide, or duct tape, you can see a fully functional, flexible display.
Hidden cleverly inbetween the layers of the wallet is a tiny Wi-Fi card, on board computer, and RFID antenna.
The RFID antenna receives your account information from your brand new smart bank cards, and passes it onto the on board computer, which will then use the Wi-Fi connection to log onto your online banking facilities and display your balance on the outside of your wallet, along with any other pertinent information, such as recent monetary movements, and so on. For mulitple accounts, the wallet can either switch between accounts every ten seconds or so, or scroll the information across the wallet stock, market info style.

(I welcome any clever idea name suggestions that will undoubtedly be better than my piss poor attempt)
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009

This is only slightly less nerve wracking than posting my first ever idea.
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


Hm. How does the wallet authenticate itself to the bank card? (That is, how do I distinguish my wallet from that of the person who just happens to be standing next to me in a crowded subway train?)
-- jutta, Aug 28 2009


why? what piss po idea was that?
-- po, Aug 28 2009


I just meant I wanted some witty play on words [po] I never quite got the hang of them.

[jutta] as for your concerns, I don't have a solid idea, I know that there are some forms of RFID tags that use a variety of methods to secure data, but couldn't really elaborate further *goes and has a look on wikipedia*
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


Ok, so it would appear that anything that would provide a secure level of communication would probably be rather pricey, although I guess that would just make a Web Wallet something of a status symbol.
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


Also, if you've got their bank information, surely you could just ask if you could sneak a look at the outside of their wallet....

(Stop annotating your own idea now [kaz], it might look like you're talking to yourself).
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


I want a coat wallet more than anything else in the world.
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


I know it'd be hideously insecure, but if it just used card readers, it wouldn't be able to display up to date account information, what with the card not storing that sort of stuff.
<dubiously>Maybe it could have an ethernet port on it</dubiously>
-- kaz, Aug 28 2009


Fair comments all round. Ah well, back to the drawing board.
-- kaz, Aug 29 2009



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