Computer & application reseach paper - Essay Example

These octopus cards can be recharged at a later stage in over the counter stores as well as through the facilitation of credit cards and not to forget the bank accounts as well. The historical significance of the octopus cards stems from the year 1979 when the MTR network put forward a system which brought different magnetic plastic cards into circulation. These cards were employed for single journey tickets and at times as stored value ones. The Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation made use of these magnetic cards in much the same way in the year 1984 and later on these were renamed as the Common Stored Value Tickets.

The Octopus system was employed in the year 1997 after three trials had been done on it. Other transport services also made use of it in the coming times and in the year 2003; a major breakthrough was achieved when the Government of Hong Kong began using it. After this, there was the deployment of these octopus cards within the different faculties of the government which has remained like that to date. The usage of octopus cards is that they be purchased just about anywhere and for doing so, no identification process is deemed necessary.

This suggests that the ease of usage is pretty much there so to speak. If the owner misplaces his/her octopus card then the stored value within the octopus card is lost and the anonymous basis of the octopus card makes it so much more easy to use as there is not a bit of personal information or bank account and similar details on the octopus card itself. The use of the octopus card has increased with the passage of time and nearly all forms of purchases with Hong Kong are taking place courtesy the octopus cards.

The application of the octopus cards can be studied from the fact that they do not require any form of physical contact with the octopus card readers and can be easily read within a distance of a few centimeters. There are the