Data Collection
ShowKad, SaveKad, VoteKad
Malaysians have been carrying a piece of ancient laminated paper driving license. They have been using pen and pencil, while some of the more "advanced" ones, tapping or typing into a computer, to record personal particulars for various purposes. These include participant registration for school, company and public events, and something that received tons of attention lately - voter registration.
The personal particulars have been available electronically, almost anywhere a Malaysian goes. After being copied by hand, they eventually have to appear in an electronic form again in order to be useful. Since they are in an electronic form at the beginning and at the end, why should we duplicate them by hand in an intermediate step? It does not bring any benefit in many cases. In the past, we had difficulty removing this cumbersome and error-prone step due to high costs and the lack of suitable equipment. Now, since almost everyone carries a smartphone or a tablet, we can skip the step, with some help from the Causal Idea Android applications, which provide the missing electronic link between the beginning and the end.
Establishing the link means ...
What does this mean? This means we no longer have to dig out a piece of laminated paper driving license when facing the traffic police, a car dealer or a car rental company. We take out our chip-based MyKad. When checking the driving license of a person, the traffic police personnel does not have to embarrass the country by admitting inability to read it, or worse, by escorting the person to a police station to find someone with something that can handle it. As good citizens, we can also reduce the embarrassment by taking out our smartphone or tablet that has the right Causal Idea application installed (ShowKad), and offer to help the police. When registering people who express interest in our future class gathering, school activity or club outing, we do not take out a piece of paper to jolt down their names. Instead, we bring a smartphone or a tablet (with SaveKad), insert their MyKad into a reader, and then tapping on some buttons on the screen to save their name and address. When registering voters, we do not need to setup a booth with chairs and tables for people to sit down and fill-up the registration form. Instead, we carry a smartphone or a tablet (with VoteKad), walk down a street, in a shopping mall or even on a train, asking passers-by or passengers for MyKad and getting them to sign the form. Since the election commission insists, we also take a picture of the card. The process probably takes less than 60 seconds. Most importantly, it eliminates virtually all human errors that can be made during form-filling.
What are needed, and how to use them
To use ShowKad, SaveKad or VoteKad, besides installing it on your Android smartphone or tablet, you also need a reader. The reader is ACR38U-PocketMate, which is probably one of the smallest and most portable contact smartcard readers in the market . For some smartphones and tablets, you need a micro- or mini-sized USB OTG cable as well. With so many required devices, why is Causal Idea so confident that the above scenarios are realistic? The answer is, the reader is only about the size of a USB thumb drive and weighs around 10 grams, equivalent to the total weight of 1 old 50 sen coin and 1 old 10 sen coin. The cable, if necessary, is also small, short, and light.
Please click the picture below to see how the smartphone or tablet and the reader are connected to each other, and how a MyKad is inserted:
Step 2 From here
Then you need a reader. To make your life easier, we provide a free USB OTG cable.
The price is nett, inclusive of courier service fee. We are sorry that we only ship within Malaysia.
Your payment is secure, because it is processed by PayPal, which has verified us.
If you need more readers, we will be glad to offer you a volume discount. Please contact us at care@causalidea.com.
Which smartphone or tablet to use
Any Android smartphone or tablet that supports USB-OTG and USB host mode. Some examples are Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Sony Xperia M, SL and Ainol Novo 7.