Anti-surveillance device for keyboards

Coded data generation or conversion – Bodily actuated code generator – Including keyboard or keypad

Patent

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Details

341 20, 379447, H03K 1794

Patent

active

061443190

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention describes an anti-surveillance device for keyboards, particularly for the keyboards of cash dispensing machines or electronic cash devices, in order to prevent unwanted viewing of the keyboard.
Cash dispensers are generally installed in public locations which are accessible to anybody. There is therefore a justifiable security requirement to protect the keyboard of cash dispensers from being viewed by third parties or to arrange the keyboard spatially in such a way that the entry of secret codes cannot be observed by persons standing in the vicinity. On the other hand, the keyboard must, while taking this factor into consideration, also be user-friendly.
The cash dispensers available on the market take insufficient account of this security aspect. Thus, there are in use cash dispensers which take no security precautions whatsoever against unwanted surveillance of the keyboard. Here it is left to the user himself to decide how he enters his confidential code without third parties being able to view the entry of his confidential code. Other cash dispensers are integrated structurally into a building in such a manner that viewing of the keyboard from the side is substantially prevented by the existence of projecting side walls preventing viewing. This type of anti-surveillance is relatively expensive, since structural alterations to the building are often required. In general, this type of anti-surveillance is not user-friendly.
Other types of cash dispensers employ keyboards which are set deeper into the operating surface. This only partially solves the problem of anti-surveillance. In addition, wheel-chair users and persons of smaller stature have problems with the deep-set keyboards.
The above disadvantages also apply essentially to the keyboards of electronic cash equipment. These keyboards, however, unlike the keyboards of cash dispensers, are not in a fixed place. They are handed over to the customer at the sales counter without adequate security against surveillance. There is normally considerable customer traffic at the sales counter. It is scarcely possible to prevent undesired surveillance by third parties.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,073 discloses a screen which contains a security film to prevent undesired surveillance by third parties which reduces the viewing angle to the user region.
Research disclosure No. 26,712, July 1986, discloses a touch-sensitive screen with a security film to protect the screen from interfering environmental influences.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a security device for keyboards which offers a maximum amount of protection against surveillance, particularly against surveillance from the side, whilst maintaining user-friendliness, which is simple to construct and economical to manufacture and which can be fitted subsequently to almost all types of keyboard without structural modifications.
This is effected by the features set out in the characterising part of the main claim.
Further advantageous embodiments of the security device in accordance with the invention are defined in the sub-claims.
The advantages achieved by the invention lie mainly in that keyboards of a wide variety of types can be fitted retrospectively with the anti-surveillance device in accordance with the invention, without structural modifications. A further advantage of the anti-surveillance device in accordance with the invention resides in the fact that the viewing area of the keyboard can be readily matched to the requirements of the user and the local conditions. A further advantage of the anti-surveillance device in accordance with the invention lies in its constructionally simple structure and the cheapness of its manufacture.
The invention is explained below in more detail by means of several preferred examples and representative drawings, where:
FIG. 1 shows the main structural features of an anti-surveillance filter, as used preferentially in the anti-surveillance device in accordance with the invention,
FIG. 2 shows examples of an anti-surveillance filte

REFERENCES:
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patent: 5748728 (1998-05-01), Ginsberg et al.
Research Disclosure, Jul. 1986, No. 26,712, "Resistive Film Touch Panel".
Research Disclosure, No. 30859, Dec. 1989, p. 947, XP 000096116, "Pin Keyboard with Non-Obsuring Security Feature".

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