When you were first certified as a diver, you were constantly reminded to carry your SCUBA diver certification card with you any time you intended to buy SCUBA gear, go on a dive trip or get your air filled. While the verification of certification can sometimes not live up to the rigorous expectations set forth during your Open Water certification course, it is still a smart idea to bring along your certification card.
To help make this easier, PADI recently announced their intend to integrate a new eCard option into their existing smart phone app later this year. The app, currently available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, will allow divers and dive professionals to carry their card safely in their smart phone. Since people more regularly carry their smart phones everywhere they go, they now will also be carrying their certification card as well.
Along with the basic information such as name, picture and certification level, the new eCard will include an additional unique feature. A Quick Response (QR) code will be included as well. This code is a two dimensional bar code that has been growing in popularity in recent years, especially among smart phone users. The dive professional or resort will be able to scan the code on the new PADI eCard and will be presented with the divers name, certification level and picture direct from PADI to help verify that the diver is certified.
When we asked about a preference between a physical card and the new eCard on our Facebook Page, most responses were looking for both. PADI will be making this option available, but like many innovations, we expect to see eCards increase in popularity as more people utilize smart phones and become comfortable with the option. Some people were concerned about keeping their phone dry, but there are plenty of options to help keep your phone safe around the water.
With the new eCard complimenting the existing Electronic Recreational Dive Planner (eRDP) and Electronic Recreational Dive Planner Multilevel (eRDP-ML), we may someday see even more aspects of our SCUBA training move onto a device we carry in our pocket.
Photos via LeisurePro and Yuxuan.fishy.Wang
Well done. Kudos on making the investment to realize this. Definitely the future is here.
Given that NFC technology is "almost" here and will probably be the future, PADI has done a great service to it's members to make ecards a reality. Currently I use a 3rd party iPhone app that allows me to do this with all my c-cards since I am a mutt—–cards from both PADI and NAUI.