Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record medium – In container
Patent
1995-05-03
1998-01-13
Wolff, John H.
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record medium
In container
G11B 2302
Patent
active
057085455
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a contact means and a product using this contact means and a device for accepting this product.
PRIOR ART
Barcode units consist of a plurality of code elements--so-called bars--whose information content can be read and evaluated with the aid of optical scanning. It is known to design an electrical or electromagnetic or optical contact, or such a contact section in a purely functional fashion in such a way that a suitable interface for a contacting means having this contact or contact section is formed.
INVENTION
The object of the invention is to design a contact or a contact section in such a way that an additional use is made possible.
The invention has the further object of specifying a product with advantageous use of this contact means.
The invention has the further object of specifying a device for accepting this product.
Barcodes are generally known, and their coding specification is internationally standardized. In this code, information is represented by individual code elements--the so-called bars. Stickers or labels which carry the barcode are known as barcode units, these stickers or labels being attached regularly to different products of all sorts for completely different information and storage purposes. The barcode can be optically scanned by means of a barcode reader and fed for further processing to an evaluation unit.
In accordance with the invention, individual bars or interspaces between the bars are designed to be electrically conductive. In addition to the optical scanning of the barcode, this also permits the barcode to be scanned electrically using contacts.
It is particularly advantageous when electrically conductive bars are connected to contacts or terminals of an integrated circuit, in particular when the circuit is a memory. The information normally contained in a separate barcode unit and/or, in addition, other information can be accommodated in an extremely space-saving fashion in the terminals or in the memory of the integrated circuit. A separate barcode unit can be saved by such an arrangement, or the information stock of the barcode unit can be substantially increased. An EEPROM (Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) is particularly suitable as a memory.
Individual adjacent bars can be connected to one another electrically so that they form a group. This can be produced, for example, by an electrically conductive contact layer on the or below the bars. Access to the contacts is thereby facilitated.
The invention can be applied in an outstanding way in recording carriers such as, for example, video cassettes. It is known to apply a barcode unit to a video cassette, the barcode containing information on the recording carrier and on the contents thereof, or containing control information for a video recorder. The coded information of the barcode is scanned by means of a barcode reader in the video cassette recorder and fed to an evaluation unit and evaluated, as well as being represented on the video recorder itself or by means of an on-screen display (OSD) circuit on a television set.
It is now possible by means of the invention to read out not only information on the barcode, but also, or as an alternative to this, the information from the electric circuit or storage circuit connected to the bars, doing so in a simple way without accommodating the memory or the circuit at another point than that of the barcode unit.
Electrical contacts, such as on telephone cards, for example, are normally designed in a purely functional fashion with respect to area or volume, with the result that a contacting means can be satisfactorily connected to the electrical contact. According to the invention, the electrical contact or the electrical contact section has a further function, however, specifically that the external shape of the electrical contacts or contact section itself forms a visible graphic character or representational symbol with a specific information content.
The use of such a contact means may be set forth below on the example of
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Goken Klaus
Platte Hans-Joachim
Schroder Ernst F.
Spille Jens
Deutsche Thomson-Brandt GmbH
Tripoli Joseph S.
Wein Frederick A.
Wolff John H.
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