Registers – Records – Perforated
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-23
2003-03-11
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Perforated
C235S2010FS, C235S456000, C235S441000, C235S384000, C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06530526
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a device used to create acoustic signals whereby the surface of a plastic card has a mechanical profile that contains the information to be sent in coded form and which may be passed over a ridge to create sounds which contain the information.
Credit cards and customer cards have earned wide acceptance in that companies use card reader systems for customer service to an increasing degree. Telephone centers are often established for this purpose at which customer queries and services may be handled telephonically. For this, it is necessary that the customer identify himself before the transaction by means of his account number and a secret number (PIN code), and the transaction is often handled by electronic data processing. Account numbers are generally up to 16 digits long, and PIN codes are generally four digits. During entry of this data, transmission errors often occur because of improper reading by the customer, or because of listening errors at the telephone service center.
A complicating factor is that some customers read their account number and PIN in blocks of digits of varying length. Even if no transmission error occurs, the process is relatively time-intensive, resulting in increased costs in telephone charges either to the customer or the telephone service center. Since these telephone service centers cover an extensive geographical area, most of these calls are long-distance.
Efforts to automate these processes using speech dialog systems have not produced a reduction in the error rate, and repeated queries may be required before the customer correctly enters his account number and correct PIN. Errors at the telephone service center may be avoided by number entry using the telephone keypad in telephone networks employing multi-frequency (touch-tone) dialing. However, this does not eliminate the possibility of errors and the time consumed when the customer enters his data manually.
To solve this problem, the German Patent No. 44 35 170 disclosed a device of this type. However, it has turned out disadvantageously that data transmission quality using such a device depends on, among other things, whether the plastic card is passed completely and uniformly over the ridge. Further, the pressure on the ridge is not constant, which may also lead to errors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention fulfills the task of producing a device described in the basic description that is simple and effective.
This task is solved in that the mechanical profile features at least two adjacent tracks parallel to the edge of the card, that at least one of the first tracks contains the data and at least one of other tracks (synchronization track) contains a repeating pattern for its entire length. Thus, it is possible to form a mechanical profile on the card which is read by varying adjacent or subsequently-positioned reader cams, each of which features its own internal resonant frequency, and which features both a data track and a synchronization track.
In the resulting sound produced, the regular pattern of the synchronization track creates structures that may be recognized and evaluated using tone analysis. Using these structures, the remaining signals of the sound may be assigned to a unique position on the mechanical profile of the plastic card, and thereby to a unique position of the encoded information. The user of this device is no longer required to swipe the plastic card over the ridge at a constant speed or with a constant pressure.
A preliminary embodiment of the invention uses a profile of raised bumps, which offers the advantage that the bumps may be easily produced by pressure molding.
In order to be able to store the maximum amount of information within the length of a typical telephone card, and to obtain uniquely-arranged signals, a further embodiment of the invention may include the fact that the bumps of each track are displaced with respect to the points of a neighboring track along the reading direction. This would allow more bumps on the card per length unit for data storage and synchronization since the bases of the bumps do not intersect with one another. Only the tips of the bumps are used to produce the sound. After the reader cam passes over the tip of a bump or reaches a depression in the mechanical profile, it strikes the card surface and creates an acoustic impulse.
Other configurations of the invention might feature the fact that the profile is pressed into the surface of the card using depressions such as cross-grooves or holes in the card, or in a plastic strip or tape featuring the mechanical profile mounted on the card. Such elements prepared in advance could be glued or welded to the card. In this manner, existing cards could be retrofitted with a mechanical profile in accordance with the invention.
Plastic cards may be impressed so that the mechanical profile contains 56 bits of encoded information, which has proved advantageous in the existing transmission of identification information.
In order to assure constant pressure and thereby pre-defined impulse strength of the resulting sound, a guide [is provided] through which the plastic card may be swiped, and which features at least one reader cam that at least partially surrounds the card and slides over the profile to produce the sound containing the data when the card is swiped. For this, it is advantageous for at least one reader cam to be attached to a flexible prong that presses the reader cam against the profile.
Reader cams may be so arranged that they slide over the bumps or depressions in the profile when the card is swiped. The reader cams strike the surface of the card because of the tension, creating an acoustic impulse, after passing over a bump or depression in the profile because of the pressure against the plastic card. The resulting sound contains the information encoded in the mechanical profile.
In order to better read closely-placed bumps, further embodiments of the invention might contain the feature that at least one reader cam contain laterally-displaced striking elements used to create the acoustic impulse by striking the surface of the card, or that at least one reader cam which reads the raised bumps features a convex reading ridge which reads only the tips of the bumps because of its convexity, and which strikes the card using the lateral parts which are lower to create the acoustic impulse when the reader cam passes over the tips of the bumps.
The flexible prongs may be secured from several sides, which makes them very stiff, contributing to a fairly high internal resonant frequency. A future embodiment of the invention might contain at least one flexible prong that is attached on one side to the insertion guide, while the other side is free to move. This would allow the reader cams to move freely. The flexible prongs can be parallel or perpendicular to the direction of card movement.
It is necessary that for proper quality of the sound produced, the profile features at least two tracks, and that each track has its own reader cam which is so located in the guide that it reads its own track, and creates its own sound, when the plastic card is slid through. Thus, the sound would be clearer and more easily analyzed since each cam is assigned to only one track, and the cams would not affect each other.
An alternative to the above-mentioned displacement of the profile bumps would be for another embodiment of the invention to have the reader cams offset from each other in the direction of the swipe in order to create an advantageous time offset of the sound impulses. The offset of the bumps of each track to the other, as described above, and the offset of the reader cams, could be combined to provide adjustment to the sound produced, depending on the application.
In order to provide the reader cam that fits a profile embodied by the invention with easy adaptability to any guide, a further embodiment offers the feature that at least one reader cam be attached to a separate component which can be inserted into the open
Kudnig Knud
Kuschel Dietmar
Frech Karl D.
Kuschel Dietmar
Sanders Allyson
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