just complementing the last awnser, PC/SC abstracts all functionalities that an application have to use to comunicate with a smart card, with scard's functions like:
- SCardConnect
- SCardEstabilishContext
- SCardStatus
- SCardTransmit
and you can also obtain smart card insersion events :-)
To develop a java application with simple funcs, you can use the JPCSC API at www.musclecard.com or using Java 6, you can use classes of the package javax.smartcardio ( look the javadoc at http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/jre/api/security/smartcardio/spec/javax/smartcardio/package-summary.html )
Best regards