TazTag to Demo TazCard and TazBox NFC Products at 2011 International CES

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- 2011 INTERNATIONAL CES -- TazTag, a producer of secure contactless communications innovations, today announced that production versions of its highly secure TazCard® contactless mobile electronic wallet and TazBox® NFC hotspot products will be on display and demonstrated at the 2011 International CES being held in Las Vegas January 6-9 in the TazTag booth (35737) on the upper level of the South Hall.  Both products are expected to begin volume production and delivery to system integrators and solution providers in the first quarter of 2011, and have already been pre-ordered by several customers to be used in frequent traveler applications in transportation, couponing in retail, and application development in education.

Based on the NFC SecuRead™ System-in-Package solution from INSIDE Secure, TazCard and TazBox simplify the deployment of secure contactless communications for a variety of applications in retail services—including payment, coupon and loyalty—home automation, home care, commercial security and other applications. In addition to NFC, both products also feature ZigBee® medium-range wireless communications for use in retail services and home automation applications.

"Secure contactless devices such as our TazCard and TazBox promise to revolutionize a variety of everyday interactions, from enhancing the customer retail shopping experience to expediting the delivery of home care services to providing highly secure access control for sensitive environments such as airports," said Eric Fouchard, CEO of TazTag.  "TazCard is an ideal, thin-client mobile platform that can securely store and communicate personal information and provide a graphical touch interface, while TazBox offers the easiest way to deploy NFC hotspots to facilitate communication between TazCard or other mobile NFC devices and back-end services, applications and the Internet."

Essentially a special-purpose, Linux-based tablet computer about the size of a credit card, the TazCard is capable of supporting a variety of identity, healthcare, transportation, loyalty, ticketing, payments, advertising, access control, authentication and other secure NFC-based applications.  An autonomous, smart mobile device designed for corporate, campus and consumer environments, the TazCard features a 3.5-inch color touch screen, biometric authentication, audio output, data storage and a tamper-resistant secure element.  It offers USB and ZigBee communications in addition to NFC.

The TazBox is a true, autonomous NFC hotspot that provides all the infrastructure necessary to enable secure contactless communications with mobile NFC devices such as TazCard, NFC mobile phones and new-generation loyalty and payment smart cards.  TazBox also includes a ZigBee gateway.  The TazBox connects to back-end systems through a flexible suite of Wi-Fi, Ethernet and optional 3G interfaces, and can be conveniently placed on any desk or counter top to provide a link between users and service providers.

"TazCard and TazBox are the first products based on our new SecuRead system-in-package NFC solution, which combines a NFC controller, a secure element, a Java Card OS and INSIDE Open NFC™ Stack to ease device integration, opening the door to a variety of mobile commerce and other secure applications," said Loic Hamon, vice president of products and marketing for the NFC business line at INSIDE Secure.  "Our seasoned support staff has worked closely with TazTag to ensure the smooth, successful integration and validation of our NFC solutions into these products, and we applaud TazTag's innovative efforts to broaden the use of NFC beyond the handset."

Technical staff from INSIDE Secure will also be available in the TazTag booth to discuss SecuRead and other NFC solutions.

About TazTag

TazTag uses its RFID expertise to create and provide secured contactless products and solutions based on NFC and ZigBee®.  Its core activity is the creation of new, highly secured, multi-application contactless products such as the TazCard, TazBox and TazKiosk.  The development framework supporting these products allows customers to easily harness the full potential of NFC and Zigbee to create new services without any RFID expertise on their side.  TazTag is a member of the Zigbee Alliance. For more information, please visit www.taztag.com.

About INSIDE Secure

INSIDE's secure semiconductor products power smart cards, mobile devices, acceptance devices and infrastructure systems.  The company's expertise in microcontroller architectures, security, RF/analog design, and vertical market requirements places the company in the forefront of secure contactless, contact, embedded and NFC technologies.  INSIDE's innovation, collaboration with customers and commitment to open standards have earned it a leadership position in markets worldwide.  INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Europe, Asia and Silicon Valley.  For more information, please visit www.insidesecure.com.

SOURCE TazTag