Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1996-07-26
2001-06-12
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S382000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244506
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Personal data carrier cards, which have an electronically readable data carrier in the form of a magnetic memory, a chip memory or an optical memory area, are used diversely as access-authorization cards, credit cards, debit cards (for example phone cards) or cards for health insurance finds. Furthermore, it has recently been repeatedly proposed to utilize the high storage capacity of optical memory cards (Optical Memory Card=OMC) or hybrid cards (Optical Memory Chip Card=OMCC) to store personal data in encoded form, in particular medical information, in a format you can take with you all the time—so-called smart cards.
The usability of such card systems depends on the existence and maintenance of a not inconsiderable infrastructure of reading/writing devices, which have to be maintained by the card users.
The cards are therefore in each case issued by the companies making the cards and the necessary infrastructure available in return for a user fee for a limited amount of use, the cards containing information on the authorized amount of use and losing their validity once the amount of use has been used up. In this case, the amount of use may be defined by a period of use, defined by an expiry date, or by an intensity of use, for example frequency of use, or a value of the card, which is stored in the card and is updated each time it is used (residual value).
The amount of use of the card is respectively extended by making available a new card, the old card becoming invalid.
This revalidation process is no longer economical, for reasons of cost alone, if the body of the card itself is of a technically complex design, for example in the form of an optical memory card, a chip card comprising a plurality of chips or in the form of hybrid optical memory chip cards. In addition, liquidation of the old card is ruled out if it serves for storing personal data, for example medical data, since the stored data are lost in the liquidation. Sending in the card for revalidation by the company making it available is likewise ruled out, since the card would not be available during the revalidation period and there are objections from the point of view of data protection rights.
There is therefore a need for a method of revalidating cards in an off-line process in which the card on the one hand remains with the user and on the other hand improper, unauthorized revalidation can be reliably ruled out.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is proposed according to the invention to carry out the revalidation of the card by the card user himself with the aid of a revalidation password sent by the card-issuing agency and individualized for the respective card. For this purpose, it is necessary to design both the card and the reading/writing devices in a specific way.
The subject of the present invention is a unit comprising data memory card
1
and at least one reading/writing device
2
, it being possible for the card
1
to be read from and/or written to by the reading/writing device
2
only during a defined, extendable interval of use (the validity) and it being possible for the period of validity of the card
1
to be extended by means of an extension password (VEC) related to the card, which unit is characterized by the following features:
a) the card has
a1) a memory area on which a code IC individualizing the card is stored,
a2) a memory area on which a further code VC, which characterizes a limited validity, is stored, and
a3) a memory area DF as the actual data carrier area;
b) at least one reading/writing device, which
b1) has recognition programs R/IC, RIVC for the individualizing code IC and the validity code VC,
b2) has access to a database Date, CV, which characterizes the already used validity of the card,
b3) has a program which, on the basis of a comparison of the database Date, CV with the validity code VC, either rejects the card as invalid or activates a reading/writing program for the actual memory area DF; and
c) at least one reading/writing device, which in addition to feature b
1
) has:
c1) a recognition program for an extension password VEC and
c2) a program for processing the extension password VEC with the individualizing code IC and/or the validity code VC for generating the new validity code nVC and also
c3) means for writing the new validity code nVC to the memory area for the validity code VC,
it being possible for the reading/writing devices according to b) and c) to be integrated in a single device.
The method for making the card available and revalidating it using the unit according to the invention, comprising card and reading/writing device, can be carried out as follows:
The card is made available for the first time with an authorized amount of initial use stored in the memory area of the card for the validity code VC. With each use of the card, the remaining residual amount of use or the validity of the card is checked. Within a predefined, remaining residual amount of use, the card holder is notified of a revalidation password VEC by the card-issuing agency in return for payment of the revalidation fee by the said card holder. During subsequent use, i.e. input of the card into a reading/writing device, the revalidation password is entered into the reading/writing device and the revalidation of the card is performed by the reading/writing device.
In this arrangement, it may be provided that the revalidation password is sent in the form of a sequence of figures and/or letters which can be read in plain text, which is then read into the reading/writing device via a keyboard, or else in the form of a cheap electronically readable revalidation card, only designed for one-time use, which is either pushed into an additional reading slot of the reading/writing device or is pushed into the single reading slot in alternation with the card to be revalidated.
Whenever the respectively authorized amount of use is defined by a time period of use, the database Date is preferably made available by a calendar clock which cannot be manipulated and is integrated into the reading/writing device. It may preferably be a radio-controlled standard-time clock.
Whenever the respectively authorized amount of use is defined by an intensity of use, for example a number of acts of use or a prepaid amount of monetary value, the database for determining the still authorized residual amount of use CV is integrated into the card and is updated with every use, i.e. every time the card is pushed into the reading/writing device, on the basis of the use which has taken place.
The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the attached figures:
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Hartmann Georg
Horster Patrick
Weikert Gunnar
Bayer Aktiengesellschaft
Le Thien M.
Norris McLaughlin & Marcus P.A.
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