it's only a matter of time before smartphones become the future of identification cards

it’s only a matter of time before smartphones become the future of identification cards
all images courtesy of kevin ma

‘ID-2’ by RISD student kevin ma looks at the future of identification cards specifically in the united states. with digital wallets becoming more and more popular, it’ll be hard to envision people wanting to carry around a wallet of cards in five to ten years. the concept isn’t aiming to be an app or new platform, but more of an ID card being brought into existing digital wallet platforms. the robust, secure system protects the individual’s identity and allows for possible state and national government support. 

the layers of each digital ID card

the security features are designed to make it incredibly difficult for the average person to forge a fake digital ID—combining things like interactions, optical illusions and moving visuals make it impossible to emulate with video or screenshot. as for criminals with the technical know-how and patience to create an identical application, it won’t be easy to get a working barcode since the encryption key is not made public. an ID can only be authenticated if the information on the ID matches that of the database.

‘ID-2’ prevents incoming messages and calls when opened from the lock screen

current driver’s licenses put all your information onto the barcode and most are unencrypted, meaning that anyone with a regular barcode scanner app can almost instantly have your personal information. kevin ma presents a more secure system where each individual is assigned a unique ID number encrypted with a special key, this is the visible barcode. police scanners will be able to ping the ‘ID-2’ database with the barcode, where the ID number is decrypted and your information is retrieved. this is then sent back to the scanner to be decrypted by the scanner’s key, confirming the IDs authenticity and the individual’s driving/criminal history. businesses such as bars and restaurants won’t have access to the primary database, but will have access to the public API, where the scanned barcode will have the API return some partial information, including full name and age. this project was developed by kevin ma over three to four months as his graphic design senior thesis at RISD.

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions  feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: piotr boruslawski | designboom