iButton

What is an iButton?

The iButton is an electronic device enclosed in a 16mm stainless steel can. This particular package allows the iButton to be attached to a person or an object and to travel anywhere they go. It can be attached to wearable items, like a key fob, a metal card or a badge, or can be mounted to any object with a plastic plate and a couple of screws.

They look all the same!

Each iButton has an unique, laser-factoried and unalterable address that can be used as a key or identifier for each iButton. This address, when combined with the appropriate database technology, can be used to associate meta-informations to iButton and to the attached object.

How can it be interfaced?

Information can be transferred between an iButton and a reader device at up to 142K bits per second. A Palm handheld and our iReader interface can be used when you need to operate an iButton on the field.

How durable is the iButton?

The silicon chip inside the iButton is protected by one of the most durable materials: stainless steel. You can drop it on the floor, scratch it, wear it even when you go to swim or simply keep it in your key chain: it has been wear-tested for ten-year durability. No other identification device can do the same.

What can i do with the iButton?

Whenever information needs to travel with a person or an object, the iButton is the ideal solution. Affixed to a badge, a keyfob or a watch, the iButton can grant its owner access to a building, an equipment or a vehicle. You store ecash on a memory-equipped iButton or use the Thermochron to read and store temperature data. When attached to an object, you can keep track of it in a manufacturing or delivery process.

Why not another ID technology?

There are a lot of technologies available, like smart-cards, barcodes, RFID tags, magnetic stripe and others. The iButton is more robust than any of those technologies, can perform different tasks, like keeping track of temperature or time, store ecash or other data, is small but still user friendly and much more secure.

Who's using the iButton?

More than 65 million of iButtons have been deployed worldwide and the list of its uses is very long. It has been used to store ecash for vending machines and parking meters, to track equipment and vehicles, as an access control device and to improve the efficency of manufacturing processes.