Invention Ten: Smart Card Gauge

First, some reasoning behind this post. I could journal publish -- but I am already journal published (in electronics). I could patent – but patents are costly, and easily subverted. Here is the idea. Credit cards, bus cards, gift cards are ubiquitous -- and surrounded by hundreds of patents. A problem one often encounters is: how much money is on this ... say gift card? If this were done on some scale, this idea would cost cents, not dollars: touch the card contacts, and there is an electronic indication as to how “full” the card is. Assume a blinking light: one blink = one-quarter full, two blinks = two-quarters (half) full, and so on, and what “full” is could be set through the card reader. One might need a rechargeable power source on the card, but that is simple. One could implement this idea in various ways.