Exec tries to sell
‘smart cards’ to state

Star-Bulletin staff

Carey F. Daly II, president of The Pathways Group Inc., wants to introduce "smart cards" at the Hawaii millennium celebration for visitors who go to the concerts, ball games, luaus and other events in Hawaii throughout next year.

Daly has been talking to local hotels, banks, airlines and businesses to explain the system which uses a small card with a computer chip to store information.

Visitors buy a card, with a certain amount of purchasing power, and then use it at the events that have machines to read and debit the card for costs.

"It's more than just a debit card," Daly said. "It also will be used for tour packages, two-for-one restaurant deals and other discounts."

If Daly gets his way, there could be as many as 2,000 points of sale where readers would process the cards, and these machines would stay in Hawaii after the millennium celebration.

All of this is part of a payment revolution that has been used on the mainland to a limited degree but is more accepted in Europe.

Pathways came to Hawaii two years ago, and so far has been involved in school projects.

Smart cards will be used this year at Radford High School for the students' personalized identification and also to purchase school lunches, concession stand items, school supplies, and special-activity items such as yearbooks and school-sponsored events.

As items are purchased, the cost is debited from the funds deposited into the card's "electronic purses."

Pathways put in a similar smart card program in September at the Lanikila Elementary School in Honolulu. The company is negotiating with Consolidated Amusement Co. to provide an integrated system for unattended electronic ticketing and concession purchases to the 16 theaters at the Pearlridge Shopping Center.

Pathways., based in Woodinville, Wash., is publicly traded on the Nasdaq market. The company came to Hawaii in October 1997 to open an office.

A smart card looks much like a credit card. Instead of a magnetic stripe, however, smart cards have an embedded computer chip.