JPH10116329A - Non-contact card and its holding information storing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable application to a service necessitating a storing area exceeding the size of one general purpose storing area in the case of holding information in a non-contact card. SOLUTION: A data transmission and reception part 2 extracts information loaded over this received radio wave, information extracted by the part 2 is transferred to a control means 31, and an instruction analyzing means 32 analyzes which service received information is and what instruction the information is. Receiving this analyzing result, the means 31 retrieves the service name of a storing area managing area 41 by a storing area selecting means 33 to obtain a storing area number corresponding to the pertinent service. When this storing area number is plurally obtained, the means 31 connects plural sorting areas so as to be handled as one storing area. The means 31 executes an instruction obtained from the means 32 to this connected storing area 42 by a storing area read/write means 35.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contactless card and a method for storing information held in the contactless card.
In particular, the present invention relates to a non-contact card that can use a plurality of held information storage areas used for a plurality of utilization areas, and a method of storing held information in the non-contact card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, non-contact cards have been used experimentally, in which a pass through a railway ticket gate or the like is passed without inserting a card, thereby paying for a train ride. This contactless card has a transmission / reception function by radio or light rays, etc., when passing through a railway ticket gate, etc., exchanges data with a transmission / reception unit such as a ticket gate, etc., and reduces the necessary boarding cost of the contactless card. The cost item of the boarding cost is extracted from the storage area. This contactless card has not only a send / receive function,
A contact type card such as an IC card, a telephone card, or a magneto-optical card that has a CPU and a memory inside, and uses a transmission / reception function to exchange data stored in the memory with a management section having a main antenna. Instead of sending and receiving data, data in the contactless card can be sent and received without contact. For example, it is going to be used for entry / exit management at factories, replacement of commuter passes at railway ticket gates, and toll collection on toll expressways.

[0003]

The non-contact card has many technical problems to be solved in terms of system and use form, and is currently under active research and development.
In particular, as a method of storing held information in this type of non-contact card, it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 08-156709, for example. The purpose of this application is to use a plurality of services with one contactless card. conventionally,
In the storage method of the held information in the non-contact card, there is only one storage area for the held information that can be used by one service, and the maximum size of the storage area is predetermined. Services that needed to be stored were not available.

[0004] The contents of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an embodiment of a method of storing held information in a contactless card. Referring to FIG. 4, an antenna 101 for transmitting / receiving a radio wave, a transmitting / receiving unit 102 for extracting information from a radio wave received through the antenna 101 or transmitting information to the antenna 101 by placing information on the radio wave, and a control unit operating under program control 103, and a storage unit 104 for storing information.

[0005] The storage unit 104 is composed of a general-purpose storage area 142 for storing information of an unspecified service, and a general-purpose storage area management area 141 for managing the correspondence between the general-purpose storage area 142 and the unspecified service.

The control unit 103 includes a command analysis unit 132 for analyzing the type of a command (command) from the outside based on information extracted by the transmission / reception unit 102 for transmitting / receiving data to / from the outside. A general-purpose storage area selecting unit 133 for searching the service name recorded in the general-purpose storage area 142 by the area 141 to obtain a general-purpose storage area number corresponding to the corresponding unspecified service, and a general-purpose storage area 142 corresponding to the general-purpose storage area number A general-purpose storage area read / write unit 134 for executing an instruction analyzed by the instruction analysis unit 132 with respect to the instruction, a control unit 131 for controlling the instruction analysis unit 132, the general-purpose storage area selection unit 133, and the general-purpose storage area read / write unit 134. ing.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of the general-purpose storage area management area 141 in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of the general-purpose storage area 142 in FIG.

When approaching a main antenna (not shown) having small external radiation power, a radio wave received by the antenna 101 is transmitted to the transmission / reception unit 102. The transmission / reception unit 102 extracts information contained in the received radio wave. The information extracted by the transmission / reception unit 102 is transmitted to the control unit 13.
The instruction analyzing means 132 analyzes what kind of instruction is given to which service the received information passed to 1 is received.

In response to the result of the analysis by the instruction analyzing means 132, the control means 131 searches the service name of the general-purpose storage area management area 141 by the general-purpose storage area selecting means 133, and obtains a general-purpose storage area number corresponding to the service. .

When the control means 131 obtains the general-purpose storage area number, the general-purpose storage area read / write means 134 executes the instruction obtained from the instruction analysis means 132 on the general-purpose storage area 142 corresponding to the general-purpose storage area number. I do. For example, when passing through a tollgate on a highway, the service name or command for toll collection is transmitted in a limited range from the tollgate on a radio wave and radiated by weak radio waves. When the analysis is performed, the general-purpose storage area selection unit 133 searches the expressway toll of the service name for the general-purpose storage area number being # 5, and searches the # of the general-purpose storage area 142 corresponding to the general-purpose storage area number # 5. 5, the instruction for detecting the highway toll obtained from the instruction analyzing means 132 is executed. After that, the contactless card sends information about where the toll gate entered the expressway, the toll collector calculates the toll on the highway, sends the toll to the contactless card,
Deduct the fee from the contact card storage area. In the settlement of the fee, the contactless card is brought to a bank or the like regularly or irregularly, and the settlement is performed based on the data in the storage area in the contactless card.

However, in the technology of the above-mentioned application, the size of the storage area is fixed, and the number of storage areas allocated to one service is fixed to one. This cannot be applied to a service that requires a larger storage area than the size of the file.

Further, in order to be applicable to various services, it is necessary to set the maximum size of the storage area to be large in accordance with the service for storing a large amount of retained information. And the service that uses only a small storage area is inefficient in memory utilization.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to make it possible to use even a service requiring a storage area larger than a storage area preset in a contactless card.

It is another object of the present invention to increase the efficiency of use of a memory, which is a storage medium having a storage area, so that more types of services can be used.

[0015]

According to the present invention, there is provided a contactless card storage method for storing contact information in one contact information storage area by allowing one service to use a plurality of contact information storage areas. A general-purpose storage area is used so that services for which the area is insufficient can be used. Also, since the size of one held information storage area can be reduced, the use efficiency of the storage area is increased, and there is an advantage that the number of services that can be supported by one contactless card is increased.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a contactless card for receiving data without contact corresponding to a plurality of types of services, a control unit for controlling the reception of the data, A storage area management area for allocating a plurality of storage areas to another type of service under control, and the plurality of storages managed according to storage area management data of the storage area management area and read / written under control of the control unit The storage area management area holds management information for connecting and using two or more storage areas corresponding to the service.

Further, according to the present invention, in the method for storing held information in the non-contact card, the storage area corresponding to the service which requires a storage area exceeding the size of one storage area, wherein the service and the second storage area correspond to each other. It is characterized in that a storage table with storage area numbers connecting two or more storage areas is stored in the storage area management area.

Further, the present invention provides a transmitting / receiving unit for extracting information carried on a received radio wave, a control means for controlling the information extracted by the transmitting / receiving unit, and a control for which service the received information corresponds to. An instruction analyzing means for analyzing whether the instruction is an instruction, a storage area selecting means for selecting a storage area in response to the analysis result, a storage area management area for searching for a service name by the storage area selecting means,
A non-contact card comprising: a storage area read / write unit for reading / writing data from a storage area number searched by the storage area selection unit; wherein a plurality of storage area numbers are obtained from the storage area management area under the control of the control unit. Storage area linking means for linking a plurality of storage areas so as to be treated as one storage area when the storage area is written, and the instruction analysis for the linked storage areas by the storage area writing means under the control of control means. Executing a control instruction obtained from the means.

More specifically, in the storage method of the present invention,
Referring to FIG. 1, one service has a plurality of storage areas, which are used in combination, and one storage area can store all of the holding information required by the service because one storage area is insufficient. Even if the storage information is not used, it is possible to store the held information beyond the capacity of one storage area by using it in connection with another storage area. In addition, since a small-capacity storage area can be used efficiently as needed, it is possible to increase the number of services that can be supported compared with the conventional method. More specifically, a plurality of storage areas (4 in FIG. 1)
2) storage area linking means (34 in FIG. 1). Since this storage area allows a large number of users having a non-contact card to set each as their desired data, this may be referred to as a general-purpose storage area.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[Description of Configuration] An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, a contactless card includes an antenna 1 for transmitting and receiving radio waves,
A transmission / reception unit 2 for extracting information from a radio wave received through the transmission unit or transmitting information to the antenna 1 by putting information on the radio wave; and a control unit 3 for performing program control for exchanging data information from / to the transmission / reception unit 2 And a storage unit 4 for storing and reading information data according to the program control of the control unit 3.

The storage unit 4 stores a general-purpose storage area 42 for storing information on an unspecified service specified by the control unit 3, and a general-purpose storage area management area 41 for managing the correspondence between the general-purpose storage area 42 and the unspecified service. It is composed of

Further, the control section 3 analyzes the information extracted by the transmission / reception section 2 into an instruction analysis means 32 for analyzing the type of an instruction from an external service management section, and a general-purpose storage area management area 41 to a general-purpose storage area 42. A general-purpose storage area selecting unit 33 that searches for a recorded service name and obtains a general-purpose storage area number corresponding to the corresponding service, and a plurality of general-purpose storage areas 42 when a plurality of general-purpose storage area numbers are stored. A general-purpose storage area linking means for linking; a general-purpose storage area reading / writing means for executing an instruction analyzed by the instruction analyzing means on the connected general-purpose storage area; an instruction analyzing means; A means 33 and a control means 31 for controlling the general-purpose storage area coupling means 34 and the general-purpose storage area read / write means 35 are provided.

[Explanation of Operation] Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows FIG.
3 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of a general-purpose storage area management area 41, and FIG. 3 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of a general-purpose storage area 42 in FIG. However, although the general-purpose storage area management area 41 and the general-purpose storage area 42 are general-purpose, there is no need to be concerned with this.

The management department of the external service center (not shown) anticipates when the contactless card holder will pass,
Always send and receive weak radio waves within a predetermined range,
The transmitted radio wave emits a radio wave obtained by modulating a control command related to the service from the antenna. When the contactless card holder enters this predetermined range, the antenna 1
The received radio wave is transmitted to the transmission / reception unit 2. The transmitting / receiving unit 2 extracts information contained in the received radio wave. The antenna 1 and the transmitting / receiving unit 2 are provided with an antenna shape capable of receiving radio waves and control commands emitted from the service management unit in advance, and a receiving filter, a modulation detecting unit, and an amplifying unit, and are set so as to provide a high-speed response. It is hoped that it is done. Then, the information of the control command extracted by the transmission / reception unit 2 is passed to the control means 31, and the command analysis means 32 analyzes what kind of control command for which service the received information is.

In response to the result of the analysis by the instruction analyzing means 32, the control means 31 searches the service name of the general-purpose storage area management area 41 by the general-purpose storage area selecting means 33, and stores a storage table map of the service name and the storage area number. , A general-purpose storage area number corresponding to the corresponding service is obtained. If one general-purpose storage area number is obtained, the control means 31 reads data from the general-purpose storage area number directly via the general-purpose storage area read / write means. If a plurality of general-purpose storage area numbers are obtained, the general-purpose storage area linking means 34 connects the plurality of general-purpose storage areas 42 so that they can be handled as one general-purpose storage area. Next, the control means 3
1 executes the control command obtained from the instruction analyzing means 32 on the general-purpose storage area 42 connected by the general-purpose storage area connecting means 34.

Next, a specific example will be described in detail. First, the transmitting / receiving unit 2 extracts information of a control command from a radio wave received by the antenna 1, and the extracted information is passed to the control unit 31. Here, as a result of the control means 31 analyzing the information by the instruction analysis means 32, for example, the service name is "rail commuter pass" and the control instruction is "read" of "valid period". The size of the information that the “rail commuter pass” needs to hold in the general-purpose storage area 42 is not enough for the size of one general-purpose storage area 42.
Two general-purpose storage areas 42 are required, and the “valid period” is held in the second general-purpose storage area.

In accordance with an instruction from the control means 31, the general-purpose storage area selecting means 33 operates the general-purpose storage area management area 41 shown in FIG.
, And by referring to the general-purpose storage area number corresponding to the service name, it is known that the railway commuter pass uses the general-purpose storage areas # 3 and # 1 by connecting the two areas. be able to. The general-purpose storage area linking means 34 connects the general-purpose storage area numbers # 3 and # 1 according to the instruction of the control means 31, as shown in FIG. Then, the general-purpose storage area read / write unit 35, in accordance with the instruction of the control unit 31,
Of the linked general-purpose storage area numbers # 1 and # 3, the "valid period" stored in the search result # 1 is read, and the control unit 31 transmits the read "valid period" data to the transmitting / receiving unit. 2, the transmission / reception unit 2 sends this "valid period"
Is transmitted on the radio wave from the antenna 1.
The radio wave emitted by the antenna 1 is received by the antenna of the service management department, and it is determined whether or not the validity period data of the railway commuter pass recorded on the contactless card is usable, for example, If the card can be used, the contactless card and the data are collected in order to determine whether or not the holder of the contactless card has passed from a station within the regular railway range. If the validity period of the railway commuter pass is out of the specified range, measures to refuse the passage of the contactless card holder, such as sounding an alarm or closing a gate, are taken.

In the above embodiment, FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the configuration of the present invention. However, each means of the control unit 3 performs software processing in accordance with a program mainly stored in the CPU, such as arithmetic processing of the CPU. However, each block does not have to be clearly present.

In the above-described embodiment, an example of transmitting / receiving radio waves to / from a non-contact card has been described. However, data may be received / received by infrared rays with a non-contact card to be carried. In addition, the non-contact card may be provided with an infrared ray receiving section and an emitting section. In addition, an ultrasonic wave that easily penetrates clothes may be used instead of a radio wave that is an electromagnetic wave. In addition, the power supply of the contactless card may have a battery inside, but it is also suitable for portable thin and miniaturization by obtaining the power from the rectified power by receiving radio waves from the external service management department. Become. In addition, non-contact transmission media include:
Ultrasound may be used, and in this case, the non-contact card can be reached only within a predetermined range through the clothes covering the human body. Therefore, if an ultrasonic sensor is used for the non-contact card, it is convenient in terms of system.

[0030]

According to the present invention, when used as a contactless card capable of supporting a plurality of services, a plurality of storage areas are connected to each other for a storage area divided into small areas for each service. Since it can be used as a storage area, it can also be applied to services that need to hold more information than the size of one storage area.

When only one storage area can be used, the size of the storage area must be set large in advance in order to be applicable to various services. Although the number of services that can be provided is reduced, if a plurality of storage areas can be connected and used, the size of the storage area can be set small, so that even a service that requires only a small amount of retained information wastes memory. In addition, since the use efficiency of the memory is increased, it can be applied to more services.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a method for storing held information in a contactless card according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of a storage area management area in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of a storage area in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a method for storing held information in a conventional contactless card.

FIG. 5 is a memory configuration diagram showing an example of a general-purpose storage area management area in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a memory configuration diagram illustrating an example of a general-purpose storage area in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Antenna 2 Transmission / reception part 3 Control part 4 Storage part 31 Control means 32 Instruction analysis means 33 General-purpose storage area selection means 34 General-purpose storage area connection means 35 General-purpose storage area read / write means 41 General-purpose storage area management area 42 General-purpose storage area 101 Antenna 102 Transmission and reception Unit 103 control unit 104 storage unit 131 control means 132 instruction analysis means 133 general-purpose storage area selection means 134 general-purpose storage area read / write means 141 general-purpose storage area management area 142 general-purpose storage area

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A contactless card for receiving data without contact corresponding to a plurality of types of services, a control unit for controlling the reception of the data, and a plurality of storages under the control of the control unit. A storage area management area that allocates an area to another type of service; and the plurality of storage areas that are managed according to storage area management data of the storage area management area and that are read and written under control of the control unit. A non-contact card, wherein an area management area holds management information for connecting and using two or more storage areas corresponding to the service. 2. The contactless card according to claim 1, wherein the control unit that controls the reception of the data receives the data by an electric wave carrying the data with an external service management unit. Contactless card. 3. The method for storing held information in a contactless card according to claim 1, wherein the storage area corresponding to the service that requires a storage area larger than the size of one storage area includes the service and the service. A storage method for holding information of a contactless card, wherein a storage table of storage area numbers for connecting two or more storage areas is stored in the storage area management area. 4. A transmission / reception unit for extracting information contained in a received radio wave, a control means for controlling the information extracted by the transmission / reception unit, and a control command for which service the received information is for. Command analyzing means for analyzing a storage area, a storage area selecting means for selecting a storage area in response to the analysis result, a storage area management area in which a service name is searched by the storage area selecting means, and a search by the storage area selecting means. A non-contact card comprising: a storage area read / write unit that reads / writes data from the set storage area number; wherein a plurality of storage areas are obtained when a plurality of storage area numbers are obtained from the storage area management area under the control of the control unit. Storage area linking means for linking an area so as to be treated as one storage area; and the storage area writing means under the control of the control means. Contactless card and executes the control command obtained from the instruction analyzing means with respect to the serial concatenated storage area.