Registers – Records – Particular code pattern
Patent
1996-11-08
1999-11-16
Lee, Michael G.
Registers
Records
Particular code pattern
235492, 235451, G06K 1906
Patent
active
059841923
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the improvement of disposable inductive debit cards, such as the ones described in patent document BR 9201380-5 and BR 9304503-4 and, specifically, to the insertion of supplementary information on the cards, as well as to its reading using the existing reading devices as described in those patents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inductive debit cards based on concepts originally contained in patents BR 7804885, DE 2650959 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,945 are well known and are widely used as credit elements in public telephone systems. FIG. 1 exemplifies the main features of a known card, akin to the one in FIG. 1 of above mentioned document BR 9304503-4, containing a plurality of credit elements 12, arranged in 6 rows and 9 columns, totaling 50 usable credits since four of the cells at corners 13, 14, 15 and 16 are used as indexing elements. The card also has blank strips 17 and 18, located between the central area and front end edge 19 and back edge 21, which are made use of during insertion and withdrawal of the card from the reading head.
Even though the shown card is suitable for experimental use, or small scale applications, the commercial use on a large scale basis requires the inclusion of additional information, such as, for instance, the following:
The inclusion of this information in central area 11 would necessarily reduce the number of available credits on the card.
On the other hand, including the information on strips 17 and 18 entails, as a drawback, the need to modify the reading head, since the existing heads do not have sensors positioned at the strips. In view of the large number of telephone sets of this kind that are already in operation, such a solution would require the expenditure of large amounts of money, materials and labor, as all the installed reading heads would have to be replaced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
From the foregoing, the main objective of the present invention is the provision of a way of including the supplementary information on cards while keeping the number of credits unchanged, and associating it with a reading process of this information which uses the already existing reading heads, eliminating the need of any structural change to the latter.
This and other objectives are achieved by the present invention by including metalized elements on the handling strips, having shapes and dimensions that allow for the reading of data on a card in motion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the reading is carried out during the time the strip is passing by the row of sensors placed farthest away from the card inserting slot.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the supplementary information is read off independently of card orientation in the reading head.
According to another aspect of the invention, the card is provided with indexing elements which allow for detectkion, during the insertion of the card into the reading head, of the existence of the metalized elements while passing by the row of sensing coils that read off the information there contained.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The previously mentioned characteristics, as well as other aspects and advantages of the present invention, will become more evident from a detailed description of a preferred embodiment and of the attached drawing figures where:
FIG. 1 shows a known inductive debit card, such as described in document BR 9304503-4.
FIG. 2 shows the placement of the information carrying elements in the handling strips of an inductive debit card, according to the principles of the present invention.
FIG. 3 shows an example of information coding, as well as the reading direction of the information, according to the principles of the present invention.
FIGS. 4-a-4-c show the different positions of the card relative to the reading head, during the several stages of its insertion, according to the principles of the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows, by means of a flowchart, the ste
REFERENCES:
patent: 3248710 (1966-04-01), Stapper, Jr.
patent: 3376559 (1968-04-01), Yamato et al.
patent: 3397393 (1968-08-01), Palmateer et al.
patent: 3699311 (1972-10-01), Dunbar
patent: 3700862 (1972-10-01), Snook et al.
patent: 3716701 (1973-02-01), Cohen
patent: 4029945 (1977-06-01), Yamada et al.
patent: 4146781 (1979-03-01), Machate
patent: 4328415 (1982-05-01), Eaton
patent: 4587410 (1986-05-01), Milnes
patent: 4752680 (1988-06-01), Larsson
patent: 4786940 (1988-11-01), Daniele
patent: 4798322 (1989-01-01), Bernstein et al.
patent: 4883949 (1989-11-01), Kokubo et al.
patent: 5416311 (1995-05-01), Kyriazis
patent: 5471040 (1995-11-01), May
patent: 5621200 (1997-04-01), Irwin, Jr. et al.
patent: 5834757 (1998-11-01), Fernandes et al.
Cal.cedilla.avara, Jr Enio
Nishikawa Antonio Massao
Lee Michael G.
Telecommunications Brasileiras S/A
LandOfFree
Supplementary coding on inductive debit cards and reading proces does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Supplementary coding on inductive debit cards and reading proces, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Supplementary coding on inductive debit cards and reading proces will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1313040