JP2004046610A - Card system and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To handle a plurality of cards using one card reader and directly use application programs created so far. <P>SOLUTION: This card system 21 has a card reader 24 with a device driver 28 comprising two application I/F programs 29, 30 that match two corresponding application programs 26, 27, and a device I/F program 31 that associates the two application I/F programs 29, 30 with two respective cards 22, 23. This arrangement handles the two cards 22, 23 using one card reader 24 and a number of application programs created so far can be used directly. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a card system and a recording medium including a card reader for reading and writing a card, and a personal computer as an information processing device to which the card reader is connected.
[0002]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
For example, a card system for handling IC cards is generally configured on the assumption that one IC card is handled by one card reader, and an example of this is shown in FIG. In this system, one card reader 1 is connected to a personal computer 2, and an application program 3 for an IC card and a device for making the application program 3 accessible to the card reader 1 are installed in the personal computer 2. Driver 4 is installed. In this configuration, the application program 3 accesses one IC card 5 via one card reader 1.
[0003]
In recent years, for example, two IC cards have to be handled due to business restrictions. In such a case, it is easily conceivable to configure the card system as shown in FIG. In the card system of FIG. 4, two card readers 6a and 6b are connected to the personal computer 2, and two application programs 8a and 8b for the two IC cards 7a and 7b are stored in the personal computer 2. Two device drivers 9a and 9b are installed to enable the two card readers 8a and 8b to access the two card readers 6a and 6b. In this configuration, two application programs 8a and 8b access two IC cards 7a and 7b via two card readers 6a and 6b.
[0004]
However, in the case of the system shown in FIG. 4, since two card readers 6a and 6b are used, there is a problem that the cost increases. On the other hand, in recent years, a device that can handle two IC cards with one card reader has been considered. Therefore, the present inventors have developed a card system as shown in FIG. 5 using this card reader.
[0005]
In the system of FIG. 5, a new device driver 11 corresponding to a card reader 10 capable of supporting two IC cards and two application programs 8a and 8b is created and installed in the personal computer 2. The device driver 11 includes an application I / F program 12 corresponding to the two application programs 8a and 8b, and a device I / F program 13 corresponding to the card reader 10.
[0006]
However, in the case of the card system shown in FIG. 5, the two application programs 8a and 8b must be changed to match the application I / F function of the new application I / F program 12. Therefore, there is a problem that many application programs created so far cannot be used as they are. Also, when creating a new application program, it is necessary to create a new application I / F program 12 after understanding it. These points are issues to be solved.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to allow a single card reader to handle a plurality of cards and to use an application program created so far as it is. A card system and a recording medium are provided.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the device driver is stored in a plurality of application I / F programs respectively corresponding to the plurality of application programs and the plurality of application I / F programs are read and written by a card reader. And a device I / F program corresponding to each. In this configuration, a single card reader can handle a plurality of cards. Further, since the application I / F functions of the plurality of application I / F programs can be configured to be the same as those in the related art, many application programs created so far can be used as they are.
[0009]
In the case of this configuration, the device I / F program distributes commands output from the plurality of application I / F programs to the plurality of cards and outputs the commands from the plurality of cards. It is preferable to have a distribution function of distributing the received response to the plurality of application I / F programs.
[0010]
The device I / F program may include a schedule function for buffering commands output from the application I / F programs in a time-series manner, and the buffered command. It is more preferable that the communication device has a communication function of acquiring the data in time series and transmitting the acquired data to the card reader.
[0011]
Further, the device driver according to any one of claims 1 to 3 may be configured to be recorded on a recording medium.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the overall configuration of the card system 21 of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the card system 21 includes a card reader 24 configured to be compatible with, for example, two IC cards 22 and 23, and a personal computer (information processing device) connected to the card reader 24. ) 25.
[0013]
In the personal computer 25, two application programs 26 and 27 for two IC cards 22 and 23 are installed. Further, a device driver 28 that enables these two application programs 26 and 27 to access the single card reader 24 is installed.
[0014]
The device driver 28 reads two application I / F programs 29 and 30 corresponding to the two application programs 26 and 27, respectively, and reads the two application I / F programs 29 and 30 by the card reader 24. A device I / F program 31 is provided for each of the two cards 22 and 23 to be written.
[0015]
In this configuration, each of the application I / F programs 29 and 30 has an interface with each of the application programs 26 and 27, that is, the application I / F function has the application I / F of the conventional configuration (see FIGS. 3 and 4). It is configured to be the same as the F function. Thus, as the application programs 26 and 27, many application programs used in the conventional configuration can be used as they are.
[0016]
On the other hand, the device I / F program 31 accesses two IC cards 22 and 23 via one card reader 24 by two application programs 26 and 27 (and application I / F programs 29 and 30). It has a function to make it possible. In this case, the two application programs 26 and 27 are configured so that two card readers virtually appear to exist.
[0017]
The device I / F program 31 includes a distribution function 32, a schedule function 33, and a communication function 34, as shown in FIG. The distribution function 32 distributes various commands from the two application I / F programs 29 and 30 to the two cards 23 and 24 of the card reader 24 to be processed and notifies (transmits) the commands. And a response distribution function 32b that distributes and notifies (transmits) various responses from the two cards 23 and 24 of the card reader 24 to each of the two application I / F programs 29 and 30 to be processed. ing.
[0018]
The schedule function 33 includes a buffering function 33a for buffering the commands distributed by the command distribution function 32a in time series, and various responses from the two cards 23 and 24 of the card reader 24 to the response distribution. And a notification function 33b for notifying the function 32b. The buffering function 33a is configured to buffer processing contents such as card missing and additional detection when the buffer is empty for a certain period of time.
[0019]
Further, the communication function 34 acquires the commands buffered by the buffering function 33a in time series, and transmits the commands to the card reader 24 (two cards 22 and 23), and the card reader 24 (2 And a receiving function 34b for receiving a response from the two cards 22 and 23) and sending the response to the notification function 33b.
[0020]
In the case of the present embodiment, the distribution function 32 and the schedule function 33 of the device I / F program 31 can be realized by using, for example, a well-known algorithm called Petri net. The above functions may be realized by using other algorithms.
[0021]
According to the device I / F program 31 and the application I / F programs 29 and 30 described above, the two application programs 26 and 27 operate as if there are two card readers. That is, commands from the two application programs 26 and 27 are distributed and scheduled for each of the application programs 26 and 27 (two cards 22 and 23), and are duplicated for the two cards 22 and 23. And are configured to be accessed separately. The responses from the two cards 22 and 23 are distributed to each of the two application programs 26 and 27 (application I / F programs 29 and 39) and notified.
[0022]
In this configuration, basically, while one application program sends a command to one card and waits for a response, the other application program sends a command to the other card to access the card. It is a configuration that can be done. When one application program does not access one card, the other application program sequentially accesses the other card.
[0023]
In the present embodiment having such a configuration, in the card system 21 including one card reader 24, two application programs 26 and 27, and a personal computer 25 in which a device driver 28 is installed, the device driver 28 Two application I / F programs 29 and 30 corresponding to the two application programs 26 and 27, respectively, and two cards 22, which are read and written by the card reader 24 for the two application I / F programs 29 and 30. 23 and a device I / F program 31 corresponding to each of them.
[0024]
According to this configuration, the two cards 22 and 23 can be handled (accessed) by the two application programs 26 and 27 even though the card system 21 includes only one card reader 24. Moreover, in this configuration, it is possible to configure the application I / F functions of the two application I / F programs 29 and 30 to be the same as those of the conventional configuration (see FIGS. 3 and 4). A plurality (many) of application programs created so far can be used as they are.
[0025]
In the case of the above configuration, the device I / F program 31 distributes commands output from the two application programs 26 and 27 (two application I / F programs 29 and 30) to the two cards 22 and 23, and A distribution function 32 for distributing the response output from the two cards 22 and 23 to the two application I / F programs 29 and 30 and a command output from each of the application I / F programs 29 and 30 in time series. It is configured to include a schedule function 33 for buffering and a communication function 34 for acquiring the buffered commands in time series and transmitting them to the card reader 24. This makes it possible to easily realize the card system 21 that handles the two cards 22 and 23 by the two application programs 26 and 27, even though the card system 21 includes only one card reader 24.
[0026]
In the present embodiment, the device driver 28 is configured to be recorded on a recording medium (for example, a CD-ROM, an FD, a memory card, or the like). With this configuration, the device driver 28 can be easily installed on the personal computer 25 from the recording medium.
[0027]
In the above embodiment, the two application programs 26 and 27 are installed in the personal computer 25. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a large number of card application programs are installed. Alternatively, a desired two of these many application programs may be selected and applied to the card system 21.
[0028]
In the above embodiment, the number of cards readable and writable by one card reader 24 is two, but three or more cards may be used instead. In this case, the number of application I / F programs may be three or more, and the number of application programs may be three or more.
[0029]
Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the information processing apparatus is applied to, for example, the personal computer 25, but is not limited to this, and may be applied to other computers, information processing terminals, and the like. Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the card system 21 of an IC card. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention may be applied to a card system of a magnetic card or another card.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a card system showing an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the function of a device I / F program; FIG. 3 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional configuration; FIG. FIG. 5 corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional configuration. FIG. 5 corresponds to FIG. 1 showing still another conventional configuration.
21 is a card system, 22 is a first card, 23 is a second card, 24 is a card reader, 25 is a personal computer (information processing device), 26 and 27 are application programs, 28 is a device driver, 29 and 30 are applications An I / F program, 31 is a device I / F program, 32 is a distribution function, 33 is a schedule function, and 34 is a communication function.

Claims (4)

A card reader for reading and writing cards,
A card system connected to the card reader and including an information processing device in which an application program for a card and a device driver that enables the application program to access the card reader are installed.
The card reader is configured to be compatible with a plurality of cards,
A plurality of application I / F programs respectively corresponding to a plurality of application programs and a plurality of application I / F programs corresponding to a plurality of cards read / written by the card reader. A card system comprising a device I / F program to be separately supported. The device I / F program distributes commands output from the plurality of application I / F programs to the plurality of cards, and distributes responses output from the plurality of cards to the plurality of application I / F programs. 2. The card system according to claim 1, further comprising a sorting function. The device I / F program has a schedule function of buffering commands output from the application I / F programs separately in time series, and acquires the buffered commands in time series to the card reader. 3. The card system according to claim 2, further comprising a communication function for transmitting. A recording medium for recording the device driver according to claim 1.

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