Security and identification device

Details Security and identification device Security and identification device

1996-08-29

1999-03-23

Fridie, Jr., Willmon

Printed matter

Having revealable concealed information, fraud preventer or...

Identifier

285 74, 285 70, B42D 1500

Patent

active

058849424

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a security device for identifying a person making a transaction and to a method of verifying the identity of a person making a transaction.
Many financial transactions are nowadays carried out by means of cheques with guarantee cards, store cards or credit cards of various kinds. Hereinafter, all such cards will be referred to as credit cards. Mostly, the only means of identification that the credit card actually belongs to the person making the transaction is the apparent correspondence between the signatures on the credit card and that made by the person on the transaction slip at the point of sale, for example. Where credit cards have been stolen from the owner, it is relatively easy for a criminal to forge a signature to obtain goods or cash. However, not only are signed credit cards stolen from individuals, but also unsigned credit cards are intercepted by criminals between the source of the credit card and the person to whom they are being issued. Thus crime is even easier as there is no signature to copy.
Huge sums of money are lost each year by this form of fraudulent use of credit cards.
The use of fingerprints taken at the time of a transaction as a unique identifying feature has been proposed. Systems to include a persons finger print on a credit card and electronic finger print readers at the point of transaction or sale to check correspondence of finger prints between card and person have been proposed. Such systems do not appear to actually be in use owing to the tremendous technical complexity and cost involved. There are considerable technical problems involved with the storing and reading of fingerprints such as to make this method impractical, uneconomic and unpopular. Furthermore, there is great public resistance to such schemes.
Other proposals have been made to produce credit cards or identity cards having a likeness of the user thereon. However, such cards can be fraudulently produced and, when used in a transaction, are subsequently taken away by the user, thus, no evidence of the user remains with any of the transaction documents or with the victim of the crime.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a security device which is economic, does not have great technical complexity and does not involve the use of fingerprints and consequently does not have the same widespread public resistance to its use.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a security identification device for verifying the identity of a person, the device comprising a first document bearing at least a likeness of said person, said first document being adapted to be permanently attached to a second document.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a security identification device, the device comprising a first document bearing a likeness of the intended user of the security device, said likeness having been produced by printing of said likeness by printer means activated by computer memory means in which said likeness of the intended user is stored, said document being adapted for attachment to a second document.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of verifying the identity of a person, the method comprising the steps of storing at least a likeness of said person in computer memory means said likeness being printed from said computer memory means on to a first document which is adapted to be attached to a second document, visual correspondence between said likeness on said first document and said person being assessed when said first document is attached to said second document.
The likeness may be produced and stored in the computer memory means by viewing the person or intended user by video camera or by scanning of a photograph of the person or intended user with a scanning device connected to a computer for example.
The likeness may be monochrome or colour.
It is possible with modern technology to produce high quality reproductions of photographs by scanning and st

REFERENCES:
patent: 3258277 (1966-06-01), Schuster
patent: 4469937 (1984-09-01), Stockburger

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