Plastic Fantastic Cards To Light Up YourWallet

NEW YORK - (01/18/06) -- French smart-card manufacturerGemplus has launched a new range of innovative cards that can betransparent, three-dimensional, scented or even glow in the dark.The series, called Plastic Fantastic, will allow card issuers todifferentiate themselves from the competition and target specificmarket segments. The new series features transparent and perfumedcards along with heat sensitive cards. Tactile cards are alsoavailable in three textures - denim, sand and snake, as well asglow-in-the-dark, 3D and holographic effect cards. The range alsoincludes cards in unconventional shapes, such as mini cards andcurved cards. Scented cards have already proved successful in Japanwhere leading Japanese card issuer JCB launched a citrus-scentedcard aimed at women last month in mandarin, grapefruit andlemon.