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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Credit cards have been in use in the most different forms and have largely
proven their value and found acceptance in cashless purchasing, but also
for other purposes, in the form of the usual credit cards, check cards,
customer cards. They are about to be introduced in practically all
countries worldwide and to become available also to private consumers in
ever increasing numbers and diversity.
Such cards, which normally have standardized dimensions, may be offered for
different purposes, for example as single-purpose cards for customers and
consumers, in which case they would normally fulfill a single function,
for example in connection with the operation of rented cars, the handling
of banking business, the payment of traveling expenses, as telephone
cards, gasoline station service cards, restaurant and department-store
cards, or the like. Quite apart from the fact that there are a great
number of different credit cards which, as is generally known, are issued
by different parties (American Express, Visa, Diners Club, etc.), there
also exist a plurality of special or single-purpose cards so that it is by
no means rare for a user or user group, for example in countries where
such cards have been in use already for an extended period of time, such
as the United States of America or England, to possess a quite
considerable number of such cards. In the United States, for example, the
average citizen owns more than 16 cards, while in Great Britain the
average citizen has available 8 cards. And there remains a considerable
growth potential for the future, not only in these countries, but
worldwide.
This presents certain problems--not only for reasons of convenience, as in
many cases the user indeed needs, and has to carry about, a larger number
of such cards--but may in fact also create certain safety problems for, if
someone carries about a larger number of such cards, which in addition
carry the holder's signature in clearly readable form, there obviously
exists a risk of loss or forgery. In fact, the cards in use today can be
forged relatively easily so that the losses already resulting from the use
of forged cards or the fraudulent use of such cards, are already extremely
high and are even expected to rise considerably in the future.
Consequently, the problematic situation that one either has to carry about
constantly a plurality of such cards or will inevitably find, at the most
inconvenient of all times, that the one card needed at the moment has been
left at home, is even aggravated by the steadily growing risk of loss or
abusive use of such cards.
Now, it is the object of the present invention to remedy this situation and
to ensure that, while maintaining the possibility to own and use a
practically unlimited plurality of cards or identification cards issued by
diverse institutes, companies, authorities, or the like, the user only
needs, and is required to carry about, a single card whose safety features
are as high as to guarantee that there will not exist any risk of abusive
use or forgery in case of loss and that even if very advanced
technological means were employed by a counterfeiter any such abusive use
or forgery would still be excluded.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
The invention achieves this object regardless of the number of cards a
person holds and wishes to use and practically regardless of the form and
the specific application of the different cards, including identity cards,
or the like, there will be required a single card only, which will be
described hereafter as multi-function card, and which is designed in such
a way that it is capable of differentiating between an activated and a
non-activated, i.e. neutral, state.
The multi-function card is an electronic card or computer card which
contains, in electronically stored form, not only the data of one card,
but rather data sets of all cards held and used by a given person, it
being possible without any problem, by simple external manipulations, to
convert the multi-function card into a specific card virtually at the
moment when the latter is needed.
This operation is comparatively simple since it is in fact easily possible,
technologically, to accommodate even very extensive electronic storages in
a card-like very flat housing having at least one or a plurality of
display windows. Besides, this has been practiced before in the form of
so-called check-card calculators which perform simple calculation tasks
and which only have a thickness hardly larger than that of usual checks or
credit cards. In addition, such calculators are equipped with liquid
crystal displays (display means) for indicating the results of the
arithmetic operations.
The possibility to use only a single electronic multi-function card to
which the respective user may, if desired, transfer the data of all his
other cards as well, either immediately or step by step, so that
thereafter he only has to carry with him this one electronic
multi-function card, provides the advantage of considerable simplification
for the individual user and enormous advantages as regards safety against
forgery and, generally, abusive use.
Especially as regards the safety against forgery dual security is provided
because, on the one hand, the personal signature of the card holder will
be reproduced in visible form from the electronic storage in which it has
been stored on the respective display of the card only when the card
holder, having entered a secret code, has activated the card and prepared
it for the intended use by having selected, i.e. called up the data set of
a given institute (credit-card company, or the like). Besides, the
personal signature appears advantageously only after the electronic card
has been inserted into a special checking terminal at the respective point
of use, i.e. in the department store, restaurant, or the like--and has
been called up for display after the card holder has entered his secret
code. It is then further possible to make a document printer operative
simultaneously when the checking terminal is activated, for printing out
the invoice, for example, which then has to be signed by the card holder,
as already practiced today. This exactly is the moment when the signatures
are compared.
In addition to this signature-related safety feature, the secret code also
prevents safely any abusive use of the electronic multi-function card.
This can be achieved without any problem by the use of known interlocking
means which act in such a way that following a predetermined number of
attempts to use the card, the card will be blocked for a predetermined
time for further trials to find the correct secret code, and if a
predetermined number of trials should be exceeded, then the card may then
even be rendered unserviceable altogether, for example by the deletion of
all data. Moreover, a person who finds a card has no means of knowing, or
of ascertaining without knowing the secret code, if the card still
contains any data.
So, the invention provides a particularly simple possibility to meet all
imaginable wishes and requirements of different users and different
applications with only a single electronic multi-function card and under
optimum safety conditions.
The features specified in the subclaims allow advantageous further
developments and improvements of the invention.
Particular advantages are provided by the simple form of the electronic
multi-function card which has the outer dimensions of usual credit or
check cards and one or more display windows for displaying predetermined
data sets when corresponding keys provided on the multi-function card have
been actuated, whereby the multi-function card is converted into a
single-purpose card, and which after having been used in this manner, is
switched off or will be switched off automatically after a predetermined
period of time, whereupon it can be converted without any problem to
different single-purpose cards by calling up other data sets, the card
reproducing in each case the special information or logo of the issuing
company or bank, the card number and the date of expiry, any stored photos
or, if desired, other machine-readable data and the user's signature.
In order to protect the stored data sets, the multi-function card is
equipped with a small accumulator which may receive a charging surge every
time it is used, for example introduced into a checking terminal.
Alternatively, or as a supplementary feature, the multi-function card may
be operated by solar cells which may then also serve to charge the battery
.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
Certain embodiments of the invention will now be described in more detail
with reference to the drawing in which:
FIG. 1a shows, one possible embodiment of an electronic multi-function card
with display windows and (covered) keys and
FIG. 1b shows the conversion to a single-purpose card as one of the
possibilities resulting from a large number of conveniently stored data
sets;
FIG. 2 shows a possible operational flow for transferring the data from a
larger number of individual cards of different origins to the
multi-function card which is then evaluated using a checking and printing
terminal;
FIG. 3 shows a possible embodiment of a transmission unit (master unit) by
means of which the individual data sets of the original single-purpose
cards can be transferred to the multi-function card; and
FIG. 4 shows a possible embodiment of a checking terminal, preferably
combined with a document printer.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
It is the basic idea of the present invention to provide an electronic
multi-function card equipped with an electronic memory, which comprises a
plurality of data sets transferred from original credit cards, check
cards, identity cards, and the like, and which is designed in such a
manner than when selected data are input, the free display windows of the
multi-function card will always display the data or the data set of a
given credit card or check card, or the like, and will be available for
the desired use and, insofar, usual application. The user then only needs
to carry with him this single multi-function card which, when not
activated, is a neutral electronic card and, when activated in a
particular way, will display the logo of the issuing institute, the
holder's photo, his signature and other relevant data in a visible manner.
Further, such a multi-function card may serve a plurality of additional
functions, for example for general identification purposes, as driver's
licence, identity card, club card, time-recording card, access control
card, filling-station card, and for automated cash handling. All these
functions can be handled with the aid of a single electronic
multi-function card more safely and more efficiently.
In FIG. 1, an imaginable embodiment of an electronic multi-function card is
designated by reference numeral 10. The card comprises a first, for
example larger, display 11 and an additional display 12, which are
basically suited for displaying any figures, shapes, letters, etc., for
example in the usual form of liquid crystal displays, or the like. It goes
without saying that such cards may also use any other display means,
according to the state of the art given at any time, for example in the
form of color representations, for example of photos or logos of the
issuing companies, or the like. Such color representations of logos may be
very important for a company issuing a card so that color representation
may be used for such areas, whereas black-and-white representation may be
used for all other data.
In addition, such an electronic multi-function card is equipped with a
plurality of input keys 13. Further, separate input keys 14 may be
provided for calling up certain special functions.
In the non-activated state, which is illustrated in FIG. 1a, such a card
may be regarded as a blank page equipped, however, with the usual
electronic circuit means which are regarded as standard today, for example
microprocessor or computer features, i.e. clock generators and drivers,
sequence controls, in particular an electronic storage in a very broad
sense, etc. In addition, there may be provided advantageously external
mechanical contacts, 100 are shown in FIG. 1b but which may prove very
convenient for communication with a checking terminal of the master unit,
although it is of course also possible in this connection to input or
inquire data by contactless means, for example inductively, or serially by
means of photoelectric elements, or the like. It is further understood
that at least one electric energy storage must be provided, for example in
the form of usual button cells serving as rechargeable batteries 105
placed in compartment 110, and, if desired, also a reserve storage serving
the function to protect the data in case a main battery should get
exhausted. The batteries may be recharged using solar cells 115.
It is the basic idea underlying the present invention that one can now
transfer to such an electronic multi-function card successively the data
sets of several separate cards issued by credit institutions, e.g. check
cards, customer cards, identity cards, and the like, in which case each
data set will occupy a given set of storage positions so that it can be
scanned separately by addresses entered externally, for example by
operation of given keys in a given succession.
One possibility for effecting such a data transfer is the use of a master
unit 15 of the type shown in FIG. 3 by which the data are transferred as
illustrated in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, single-purpose cards of a desired, known
type, namely credit cards 20, 21, 22 or check cards 23, or identity cards
24, etc. are designed in such a way--in the conventional manner--that a
computer chip or another electronic storage including a certain amount of
additional electronic circuitry is included in such cards 20, 21, 22 . . .
.
In addition to the outer appearance of these cards, this chip then stores
all important data of the card, as well as the user's signature, his photo
and the logo of the issuing company.
The data so stored may be inquired from the chip so that the user of a
multi-function card may introduce all his single-purpose cards 20, 21, 22
. . . one by one into his master unit 15 which, when activated via a
keyboard which is accessible from the outside, will inquire the data
contained in the computer chip of the individual single-purpose card and
transfer them as a data set to the electronic multi-function card, which
has been introduced into the master unit as well, or rather to the storage
of this card. This first possibility of entering the data into the
electronic multi-function card 10 requires that the issuing companies or
other institutes issuing check cards, such as banks, companies,
authorities, clubs, or the like, have introduced computer chips into their
new single-purpose card generation process, a feature which would of
course considerably improve the application properties of such cards as
well.
There are numerous other possibilities of entering the data into the
electronic multi-function card which are both imaginable and possible. For
example, it would seem imaginable that the issuing party (this term is
used here to describe credit-card companies, banks, authorities,
institutes, or the like) may send the user, after completion of the
application formalities, a data carrier, 310 in FIG. 3, for example in the
form of a floppy disk, a PROM, or the like, depending on the design of the
master unit, so that the latter can scan the data carrier and transfer the
data to the electronic multi-function card.
It is also imaginable in this connection that the user of the electronic
multi-function card must send the latter to the issuing institute or bring
his card to an agency for the purpose of loading the necessary data into
the storage of the multi-function card.
Besides, the data transfer may be effected by the user in steps until all
his cards, which originally may have any desired form, have been
transferred to the multi-function card in the form of data sets,
whereafter the user only has to carry with him the single electronic
multi-function card.
Returning now to the illustration of FIG. 1, one easily recognizes the
operating mode of such cards. Once the user has entered his personal
secret code, for example via the keys 13, he may call up different
single-purpose cards, for example by pressing the keys A and/or B once or
several times or by entering a given address. If, for example, key A is
pressed the first card to be implemented by a relevant display in display
box 11 will be the single-purpose card of a given credit institute, in the
present case a "Visa" card, with logo, card data, the user's photo and, if
desired, his signature. Preferably, however, the electronic system of the
multi-function card is such that the signature will become visible in the
display box 12 only in the area of a checking terminal.
It is possible for a user in this way to page through all data sets of the
electronic multi-function card 10, as every time the key A is pressed once
more, the information, data and logo of the next credit-card company,
bank, or the like, will be displayed in the display boxes 11 (and 12). To
say it in other words: The multi-function card may, at the user's request,
assume the form of a single-purpose card and may then be used for the
purpose intended by the holder of the card who is of course a customer of
the respective credit-card company or bank.
A keystroke, therefore, induces the multi-function card to display in the
one or more data display windows the logo, address, and name of the
respective issuing company, maybe also a photo and (later) the signature
of the user.
Due to the chips already available and the latest developments in the
technological field, extremely high storage capacities are already
available so that a practically unlimited number of single-purpose cards
can be accommodated and kept available in the multi-function card in the
form of data sets.
The application and use of an electronic multi-function card, therefore, is
as follows:
First of all, the user procures himself the desired single-purpose cards,
if he has not done so before, by entering his relevant data, for example,
into a form provided by a bank or a credit-card organization, applying his
signature and filing it together with a photo.
After all these data have been verified and accepted by the issuing
company, the user is delivered a data carrier which contains all the
necessary data in the form of the before-mentioned data set. As described
before, this data carrier, 310 in FIG. 3, may either be a normal
single-purpose card with an integrated computer chip, or else a PROM, a
floppy disk, or the like. The data set in question comprises at least the
data of the bank or the issuing party, i.e. the logo, designation or the
like, and the data pertaining to the user, such as card number and expiry
date, the stored photo and the user's signature.
If the user does not yet own an electronic multi-function card and a
corresponding master unit, as shown in FIG. 3, the issuing party may also
deliver to the user such a multi-function card together with the master
unit. The latter is provided, as illustrated in FIG. 3, with a slot 15b
for the computer-chip single-purpose card and a slot 15c for the
electronic multi-function card.
For transferring the data from the data carrier, the user, having received
a chip card from the issuing party, may insert this card into the slot 15b
of his master unit, and the multi-function card into the other slot 15b.
By actuating corresponding external keys it is then possible to display
and verify the data in the display box of the electronic card.
If everything is in order, the user--and he along--determines a secret code
which will be required later to activate the electronic multi-function
card. This secret code is known to nobody else but the user and may be
input in the electronic multi-function card, for example via the master
unit 15. The secret number or, to say it more generally, the secret code,
is then generally valid and required to obtain access to the
multi-function card, it being understood that individual data sets
relating to the different single-purpose cards may either be called up by
addressing them directly by means of a code, or paged through--as has been
mentioned before--by repeated actuation of predetermined keys.
The secret code is known to the user only and cannot be discovered, at
least not by a few trials.
The original data carrier, for example the computer chip card, the PROM or
the floppy disk, may then be returned to the issuing party; or if a chip
card has been issued as a data carrier, it may be retained by the user and
preserved by him in a safe, for example as a replacement card just in case
this should be needed.
If the user then wishes to pay an invoice using his card, he has to
activate the electronic multi-function card--the only one he has with
him--by entering his secret code and to decide thereafter which of the
available individual cards is to be used.
He may then page through by keystroke the organizations stored--such as
Visa, Diners, Avis, Shell, etc. Finally, the card, with the information
including the user's photo now visible, can be presented to the
salesperson or the party evaluating the card.
The latter then disposes of a checking terminal which may have a very
simple design, just as the master unit. Such a checking terminal is
designated by reference numeral 20 in FIG. 4. The electronic
multi-function card, with the data displayed thereon, is introduced into
the slot 21a. It is only now that the user's signature becomes visible in
the display box 12 of FIG. 1. This is a very convenient arrangement.
In order to permit the checking terminal to cooperate with the electronic
card, the latter may be provided with small, outwardly projecting
contacts, element 100 of FIG. 1a, for example in the marginal area, which
may then be contacted mechanically by contacts arranged in the slot of the
checking terminal, whereby the latter is enabled to enter the
signature-activating code and to inquire the general data of the card
organization; or such contact can be established in any other known
manner, for example by optical, inductive, capacitive or other suitable
means.
Conveniently, there may be provided and connected a document printer 21, so
that the checking terminal can generate simultaneously a voucher after the
salesperson has input the invoice data into the terminal.
The voucher is then signed by the user in the same manner as practiced
today, which simultaneously permits comparison of the signatures. A copy
of the voucher is delivered to the user.
The invention permits to implement a plurality of safety aspects which make
such an electronic multi-function card considerably better and safer,
compared with the credit and bank cards presently in use which can be
forged very easily. Another advantage of the electronic multi-function
card according to the invention lies in the fact that there is no need for
the magnetic stripe normally existing on the present single-purpose cards,
which may be damaged easily whereby their data may be deleted fully or in
part.
The present invention provides the following safety aspects:
The secret code, which may also be described as PIN code, is selected and
entered by the user himself--nobody else but the user knows this code,
which may also consist of the usual combinations of figures and letters.
The secret code can be determined only if a master unit according to FIG. 3
is available, as only the master unit is provided with means for entering
figures or alphanumerical information, as shown in FIG. 3. Besides, it may
be convenient for space reasons to assign several functions to the keys
13, 14 of the electronic multi-function card, which functions may be
changed by the actuation of specific keys, for example those indicated by
reference numeral 14.
The master unit 15 may be designed, according to FIG. 3, to be serviceable
only when an original chip card issued by the issuing party (credit-card
organization, bank, or the like) is inserted. Further, the chip contained
in this card, or the PROM, may be designed in such a manner that they will
remain serviceable only for a limited period of time, which means that
these elements may be provided with a so-called date lockout feature which
means that the chip card or PROM will become unserviceable after a
predetermined period of time.
Further, the chip card may be programmed in such a way that it will
operated only once and will be invalidated automatically after the first
verification check.
Another safety aspect lies in the fact that the signature and/or the photo
of the user are input into the chip of the single-purpose card or into the
PROM by the issuing party and become visible only during the first
activation process, i.e. during loading of the multi-function card.
A person who has found, or intentionally misappropriated, such an
electronic multi-function card has no sample of the signature as he does
not know the secret code required for activating the multi-function card.
But even if a person having found or intentionally misappropriated such a
card should succeed in getting to know the secret code, for example if he
should have observed the activation process on some previous occasion, he
still does not know the signature because the multi-function card and the
checking terminal are designed in such a way that the signature becomes
visible only when the card is inserted into the checking terminal. On the
other hand, however, the user is requested to sign his signature whenever
he intends to use the card. The signature on the card becomes visible only
when the card is inserted into the checking terminal 20, as shown in FIG.
4, and can then be compared with the signature applied by the user.
Another safety aspect of the present invention resides in the fact that a
person finding such a card does not even know if the card still contains
any data; nor does he know how many and what logos are stored in the card,
or what purposes the card is to serve.
In addition, the electronic area of the multi-function card is designed in
such a manner that the card will become unserviceable after a given number
of unsuccessful attempts to find the correct secret code. This operation
is performed by the safety circuit 120 of FIG. 1a.
There is further the possibility to render a multi-function card
immediately unserviceable, if this should become necessary, for example by
deletion of the full storage content by any checking terminal which is
connected on-line to a central computer or which has been programmed
appropriately via a "black list".
According to another aspect of the present invention, a user owning a
commercially available computer, for example a PC, may adapt this computer
300 in such a way, for example by means of an adapter and corresponding
software, that no single-purpose chip card, no PROM, and no master unit of
the type shown in FIG. 3 will be needed and that the necessary data sets
can be transferred to th | | |
