PayPass, MasterCard’s contactless payment technology that was rolled out nationally last year, and the man who helped push PayPass forward were honored with Breakthrough Awards from Card Technology magazine during the CardTech/SecurTech conference this week. ▸

With several million contactless cards Oberthur Card Systems has already shipped in the first quarter, and with a potential demand for 30 to 40 million cards in 2006 thanks to contactless roll-outs by some of the United States’ biggest banks, Oberthur says it has expanded contactless production and personalization facilities in its Pennsylvania and Virginia plants. ▸

Roast beef fast food restaurant chain Arby’s has become the latest to accept American Express’ contactless payment solution, ExpressPay. Customers will be able to quickly pay for their purchases at both the restaurant’s drive-thrus and in-store by the third quarter this year. Several convenience store chains, CVS Pharmacy, and select McDonald’s locations already accept ExpressPay. ▸

MicroPass, INSIDE Contactless’s next generation 16-bit RISC microprocessor designed specifically for short-range contactless applications, has gained Visa approval for use in the Visa Mini Card, a half-sized credit card that can be carried on a key ring. ▸

Card Tech-Secure Tech may be the largest “identity” event in the Bay Area this week, but the Internet Identity Workshop may have more long term impact.

Using an open-space format the attendees are driving the content of each session and with the attendees reading like a who’s who of digital identity the quality is high. Organized by Phil Windley, Doc Searls, and Kaliya Hamlin, IIW is covering a wide range of theoretical, technical and practical aspects of digital identity.

Will it change the way you issue cards? Probably not, but the protocols and models being developed will have a tremendous impact on how those credentials are used over the next several years. The theoretical discussions about identity address areas largely skipped over in physical identity implementations. With growing concerns around privacy, especially in the credential and RFID arenas, these discussions are critical for vendors and end users, alike.

If you’re really interested in the development of identity infrastructure check out the wiki. Over the course of May 1-3, different attendess will be contributing notes and it will probably continue to be a source for the digital identity discusssions. If you’re really technical, look at the ##identity IRC channel on Freenode for Digital Identity discussions and backchannel.

If you happen to be in the Bay Area and this looks interesting, consider heading down to the Computer Museum in Mountain View, CA for Wednesday.  

Payments technology provided by Peppercoin will be part of the first contactless credit and debit card solution in Utah that allows skiers to use their contactless cards on the buses transporting them to the slopes. The Peppercoin platform uses predictive modeling to automatically assess consumers’ buying behavior and make decisions about the best way to process their credit and debit card payments. ▸

With its 2.2.2 Java Card release, Sun Microsystems has added contactless capabilities and biometrics support for smart card chip manufacturers and smart card vendors. The Cardtech announcement came prior to a talk on the “Future of Java Card” to be delivered by Sun’s chief information officer. Beneficiaries of the new platform specification include telecom service providers, government IT agencies, and payment associations. ▸