abstract:Roland Moreno (June 11, 1945 – April 29, 2012) was a French inventor, engineer, humorist and author who worked for a concept of a smart card. In 1968 and 1969 German electrical engineers Helmut Gröttrup and Jürgen Dethloff jointly filed patents for the automated chip card, Created in 1974, his invention has "Touched almost everyone on the planet" in the words of The Guardian and is now used in identity cards, drivers licenses, passports, oyster cards and SIM cards.