FORT LEE, N.J. (AP) -- A hungry office worker pays for his burrito in a downtown Manhattan restaurant by waving a plastic card over an electronic reader.

Palestinians do the same to get security clearance as they cross the Israeli border on their way to work.

So do clinic receptionists in Alabama, to pull up the medical history of a patient arriving to see a doctor.

The cards were developed by an Israeli company with U.S. headquarters in Fort Lee -- On Track Innovations Ltd., or OTI. It hopes they will one day become as common as cash.

The ''contactless smart card'' most often resembles a credit card but holds more information because it's embedded with a microchip instead of a magnetic strip. The card doesn't need to be swiped -- merely passed near a wireless electronic sensor that swiftly reads the information.

Like a credit card, however, the card can be hooked up to a database and used for many tasks, such as credit or debit payment systems and ID background checks.

OTI -- one of at least half a dozen developers and manufacturers of smart cards -- believes the speed, flexibility and convenience of the technology offer a timely solution to the growing demand for faster consumer transactions and greater security.

''It's the next wave of payment and security applications in the U.S. and around the world,'' said Ohad Bashan, president and CEO of the company's U.S. arm, OTI America. And those enticed by the idea include the U.S., Israeli and Chinese governments and several major American financial services companies.

The U.S. State Department is mulling eight bids -- among them one by OTI -- to develop a chip that can be embedded in a passport to help stop document fraud. The chip probably would contain the same personal data found in the passport, and the holder's photo, said Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. When a traveler seeks to enter the country, she said, ''the passport is read, the digital image pops up on screen'' and it's biometrically compared to a photo taken of the traveler.

''If they don't match,'' Shannon added, ''then that could be a flag that the person traveling on the passport isn't the person to whom it was issued.''

About three weeks ago, J.P. Morgan Chase launched contactless credit cards called ''blink.'' MasterCard introduced its own version, called ''PayPass,'' last year. And on June 6, American Express announced it would begin issuing a blue contactless card that uses its ExpressPay credit card technology.