JPH0822412A - Optical memory management system for optical card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately access the optical memory at a high speed by instantaneously recognizing the recording systems, recording positions, etc., of the optical memories of plural kinds of card when the cards are accessed individually. CONSTITUTION:In the EEPROM in the IC chip (12, 22, or 32) of an optical IC card (10, 20, or 30), optical memory management information showing the recording method, position, and size of an optical memory (14 and 24, or 34 and 36) is recorded. An optical IC card reader writer, when accessing the optical memory of this card, reads the optical memory management information out of the IC chip first, recognizes the recording method, position, and size of the optical memory on the basis of the information, and sets the state of the device according to the optical memory to be accessed, thereby accessing the optical memory.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to an optical card, and more particularly to an optical recording medium (hereinafter referred to as an optical memory).
The present invention relates to improvement of a technique for managing a recording method and a recording position of the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An optical card is a resin card having a sheet-shaped optical memory attached to the surface thereof, and is generally provided in the form of a hybrid card having an IC chip, a magnetic stripe and the like.

Of these, in particular, the optical IC card is a hybrid card having both the high security of the IC card and the large storage capacity which is a characteristic of the optical memory, and it is an electronic medical record in a medical system or an electronic medical record in a financial system. It can be used as a passbook. With regard to this optical IC card, taking advantage of its security and large capacity, for example, JP-A-4-49098 and JP-A-3-57091 are used.
And many Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-205397.

By the way, the recording method of the optical memory in such an optical card is, as shown in FIG. 1, a card reciprocating type (A in the same figure), a card rotating type (B in the same figure) and a head rotating type (C in the same figure). And a beam scan type (D in the same figure) are known. As for the layout of the card surface, it is most common to arrange the optical memory in a region extending from the lower side of one side of the card to about ⅔, but there are various variations in the specific position and size of the optical memory. . And
The specifications of the optical card reader / writer (R / W) will change depending on which recording method and layout are adopted. Therefore, in the present situation, the optical card and the R / W are provided as a pair, and the recording method and the reference recording position are determined in advance.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the future,
There is a strong possibility that an R / W that is compatible with a plurality of recording methods will appear as the R / W becomes smaller and less expensive.
In the R / W corresponding to the plural methods, it is necessary to automatically recognize the recording method and the recordable position of the inserted card, and to check whether the card is compatible or not. It is necessary to try recording methods one by one and search the recording position over the entire surface of the card. As a result, especially when including error processing such as ejecting a card that cannot be handled, the entire processing time becomes very long, and there is a problem that the user interface is not good.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to enable a fast and accurate access to an optical memory by immediately recognizing the recording method, recording position, etc. of the optical memory in each card when accessing a plurality of types of optical cards. To do.

[0007]

An optical memory management system for an optical card according to a first aspect of the present invention is a card having an optical memory and a non-volatile memory other than the optical memory, and an access for accessing the card. Equipped with a device,
The non-volatile memory of the card stores optical memory management information regarding at least one of the recording method, arrangement, and size of the optical memory, and the access device needs to access the optical memory by referring to the optical memory management information. It is characterized by performing various state settings.

An optical card according to the second aspect of the present invention comprises an optical memory and a non-volatile memory different from the optical memory, and the non-volatile memory is related to at least one of the recording system, arrangement and size of the optical memory. The management information is recorded, and the optical memory management information can be read by an access device for accessing the optical card.

An optical card access device according to a third aspect of the present invention is for accessing a card having an optical memory and a non-volatile memory other than the optical memory, and is recorded in the non-volatile memory in advance. Means for reading the optical memory management information, and a state setting necessary for accessing the optical memory based on the information about at least one of the recording method, arrangement and size of the optical memory included in the read optical memory management information. And means for performing.

[0010]

In the present invention, as the optical card, a card having a non-volatile memory in addition to the optical memory is adopted. For example, in the preferred embodiment, an optical IC hybrid card is adopted, and the common information file in the EEPROM in the IC chip is used as the nonvolatile memory.

In the non-volatile memory of this optical card, optical memory management information regarding at least one of the recording method, arrangement and size of the optical memory is stored. For example, in the preferred embodiment, the recording method, layout, and size are all included in the optical memory management information.

When the access device accesses this optical card, first, the optical memory management information is read to recognize the recording method, arrangement or size of the optical memory, and based on this, the status setting for accessing the optical memory (for example, ,
Positioning of the optical head, selection of the driving method of the head, setting of software parameters for access control, etc.). Therefore, the access device is troublesome in that the optical memory adopts which recording method, is arranged on the card, or has any size, so that a plurality of recording methods can be tried and the entire card can be searched. The user interface can be improved because it is possible to immediately start the access to the optical memory by performing the state setting suitable for the recording method, the arrangement, and the size of the optical memory without any work.

Further, the issuer of the optical card also has a high degree of freedom in designing the recording method, arrangement, size, etc. of the optical memory, and therefore there is an advantage that each issuer can provide a card with a high identity and a high commercial value. .

However, it is desirable that the method for accessing the optical memory management information from the access device is fixed to a certain method without depending on the free design of the card issuer. For example, in the preferred embodiment, the optical memory has variations in recording method, arrangement, and size, but the IC chip has fixed arrangement, size, and interface, and a fixed address location in this IC chip. The optical memory management information is stored in. In this way, by fixing the access method for the optical memory management information, the access device can immediately access the optical memory management information, so that the overall access speed is increased.

[0015]

FIG. 2 shows the surface layout of an embodiment of three types of optical IC cards to which the present invention is applied.

In the card 10 shown in FIG. 1A, the IC chip 12 is arranged at a prescribed location on one side (front side) of the card (in this example, a slightly higher position on the left side), and the IC chip 12 on the same side (front side). The optical memory 14 is arranged further to the right.

In the card 20 shown in FIG. 1B, the IC chip 22 is arranged in the same manner as in FIG. 1A, but the optical memory 24 is provided in the left half portion below the IC chip 22 on the opposite side (rear surface). It is arranged.

In the card 30 shown in FIG. 6C, the IC chip 32 and the first optical memory 34 are arranged in the same manner as in FIG. A, but further, the IC chip 12 on the same surface (front surface) as these.
The second optical memory 36 is arranged in the entire lower portion.

FIG. 3 shows the three types of cards 1 shown in FIG.
The form of optical memory management information recorded in the common information file (CDF) in the IC chips 12, 22, and 32 of 0, 20, and 30 is shown.

The CDF is a file for recording information common to all applications when the card is used for a plurality of applications. As a file to be compared with this, individual applications are used. There is an application file (ADF) that records unique information. Both the CDF and the ADF are generally provided in the EEPROM incorporated in the IC chip 32.

The optical memory management information is recorded in a predetermined data area (eg AID = FFh) in the CDF. The access control of this data area is set so that, for example, reading is free and rewriting can be done only by the card issuer. Writing of the optical memory management information into this area is performed by the issuer when the card is issued.

3A shows the optical memory management information of the card 10 of FIG. 2A, FIG. 3B shows the optical memory management information of the card 20 of FIG. 2B, and FIG. 3C shows the optical memory management information of the card 30 of FIG. 2C.

The optical memory management information is created as one record every time the recording method and recording position of the optical memory are different. For example, in the example of FIG. 3C, since there are two optical memories, 2
Records (two or more records) are provided.

As shown, the optical memory management information includes record number, recording method and optical memory location information. Here, the record number indicates the number of each record. The recording method indicates which of the plurality of recording methods shown in FIG. 1 is used. The optical memory position is the surface of the card on which the optical memory is provided (for example, the same surface as the IC chip or the opposite surface), and the position and size of the optical memory within the surface (for example, the distance from the top and left edges of the card, and Effective width and length). In addition to these pieces of information, any information may be included as long as the information is useful for efficient, accurate and high-speed access to the optical memory.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of a card reader / writer (R / W) that can handle a plurality of types of optical IC cards 10, 20, 30. The R / W hardware configuration for an optical IC card includes an optical head for accessing an optical memory, electrical contacts for accessing an IC chip, a drive mechanism for mechanically moving these, and a drive mechanism for these. Although it includes a processing device that electrically controls and processes information to be exchanged with the card, a well-known configuration can be adopted, and therefore detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the R / W sucks in the optical IC card (S1), first the E of the IC chip of the card is read.
The optical memory management information is read from the CDF data area in the EPROM (IC memory) (S2). Next, based on the read optical memory management information, it is checked whether or not there is an optical memory which the R / W can access or desires to access (S3).

As a result, if there is no accessible optical memory or an optical memory desired to be accessed, the card is ejected (S6) and the process is terminated (S7).

On the other hand, if there is an optical memory that is accessible or desired to be accessed, then, based on the optical memory management information of the optical memory, the internal state of the R / W (for example, the drive mechanism of the optical head, the R / W). The control software parameters, etc.) are set to those suitable for the recording method, position and size of the optical memory to be accessed (S4). The contents of this state set include, for example, switching of the relative movement mechanism between the optical head and the card between linear movement and rotational movement, positioning of the optical head at the access start position according to the position of the optical memory, and waste of the optical head. In order to eliminate such movement, the relative movable range between the optical head and the card is limited to the minimum necessary access range according to the size of the target optical memory.

After setting the state in this way, data is written in or read from the optical memory (S5),
When this is completed, the card is ejected (S6) and the process is completed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the optical IC
The optical memory management information describing the recording method, position and size of the optical memory of the card is stored in the IC memory, and the R / W can immediately recognize the recording method, position and size of the optical memory by referring to this. Therefore, the optical memory can be accessed at high speed and accurately, and the user interface is improved.

Further, in this embodiment, since the optical memory management information is provided for each recording method and position of the optical memory, a plurality of optical memories can be arranged on one card,
Even when a plurality of recording methods are mixed in one optical memory, the target optical memory can be accessed accurately and at high speed.

Further, since the arrangement of the optical memory on the card can be freely set, there is an advantage that the card issuer can have more freedom when designing each card.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be implemented in various other modes. For example, in a hybrid card in which an optical memory and a magnetic stripe are combined, it is possible to record the optical memory management information on the magnetic stripe. Further, as the optical memory, an optical memory in which the issuer can freely design the layout and size and an optical memory whose recording method, layout and size are fixed are provided, and the management information of the optical memory whose design is freely stored is stored in this fixed optical memory. You may do it.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When accessing a plurality of types of optical cards, there is an effect that the recording method, recording position, etc. of the optical memory in each card can be immediately recognized and the optical memory can be accessed at high speed and accurately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a variation of a recording method for an optical memory.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of three types of optical IC cards to which the present invention is applied.

3 is a diagram showing a configuration of optical memory management information in the card of FIG.

4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the card reader / writer for the card of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20, 30 Optical IC card 12, 22, 32 IC chip 14, 24, 34, 36 Optical memory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A card having an optical memory and a non-volatile memory other than the optical memory, and an access device for accessing the card, wherein the non-volatile memory of the card has a recording system of the optical memory. , Optical memory management information regarding at least one of arrangement and size is recorded, and the access device refers to the optical memory management information to perform a state setting necessary for accessing the optical memory. Optical memory management system for optical cards. 2. A card having an optical memory, comprising a non-volatile memory different from the optical memory, wherein the non-volatile memory stores optical memory management information relating to at least one of a recording method, an arrangement and a size of the optical memory. An optical card, wherein the optical memory management information can be read by an access device for accessing the card. 3. The optical card according to claim 2, wherein the optical memory management information can always be accessed from the access device by a fixed method. 4. An access device for accessing an optical memory and a card having a non-volatile memory other than the optical memory, wherein the optical memory management information pre-recorded in the non-volatile memory is read, Means for setting a state necessary for accessing the optical memory based on information about at least one of a recording method, an arrangement and a size of the optical memory included in the optical memory management information. Optical card access device.