Link to the Android app in Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=thack.ac.cardsafe (still waiting for listing as of now)
This project started off with the idea that I can take advantage of the NFC functionality in Android to read data from NUS Matric Card and develop some app to facilitate processes like registration and collection in various events.
Unfortunately, I realized that the matric number sector in the card is key-protected I believe the staff would not let me have the read/write access to the data inside. So that means I can only get my hands on the ID of the card, which is given by the manufacturer, public and most importantly unique(although there may exist techniques to duplicate the cards with the same ID illegally).
I was thinking about the card’s unique ID and necessity for NUS students. Then I suddenly got this idea, why not save some information and use the card as a key to access it. I thought this would be quite useful and relatively easy to implement, so I started working on a prototype. Setting up database and the single activity with a single layout file was quite easy for me, especially just after I have worked on a bigger Android project. The only thing that is troublesome is the different tags in different cards and their different ways to access the card. I have tried ezlink cards and DBS Debit Card, however, I was not able to get something like a unique ID from either of them. In the end, I only managed to get the NUS matric card working.
After a few hours of coding and designing, the version 1.0 with basic functionalities like setting up new “safe”, retrieving content of the safe and modifying existing safe was finished and uploaded to Google Play Store around 3am. Hope it gets good feedback and proves to be a fun and useful app for people(mostly for NUS students now).