JPS5917684A - Information card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To strengthen the whole firmness of an information card using fluorescent substances as information signals, by forming recessed holes or through holes only on the parts having the fluorescent substances while keeping sufficient thickness of the base body to increase transmission of the fluorescent rays. CONSTITUTION:Through holes 1a are drilled on a metallic base plate 1 at proper intervals to form three arrays consisting of codes 1b-1d. The holes 1c, 1d are used as clock array and data array respectively and substance 2a containing the fluorescent substance is charged into the through holes in accordance with data or clock information. At the charging, a substance obtained by mixing the fluorescent powder with transparent epoxy resin is made flow into the through holes and cured. The information card is made of a metal and has sufficient thickness against bending or wear.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an information card used in an information processing device that optically (1) reads information using a phosphor as an information signal.

When a certain kind of fluorescent substance is irradiated with infrared rays having a wavelength λa and excited, it emits infrared light having a wavelength λb longer than λa, which is well known as the Stokes shift. A method has been proposed in which the phosphors are printed on paper at a predetermined pitch and width, irradiated with infrared rays of the wavelength λa, and only the excited wavelength λb is extracted and processed as a signal.

The present invention proposes an information card necessary for realizing the above information processing method.

In this information processing method, the present inventor has particularly proposed that the excitation light source and the detection element be arranged opposite to each other on both sides of the information card, in other words, by using a transmission method, the light energy can be used effectively and the device can be made compact. We are developing ways to achieve this goal.

Generally, an information card is considered to be a thin substrate with low light attenuation characteristics coated with a paint containing a phosphor, but there is a risk of the problem of weak "stiffness".

(2) The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has a structure in which the transmission of fluorescent light is increased by using recessed holes or through holes only in the area where the fluorescent material is arranged while ensuring a sufficient thickness of the base. The purpose of this is to strengthen the overall stiffness while making it possible to read sufficient information.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 is a plan view showing the information card of the present invention, and Figure 2 is its A.
- It is an enlarged sectional view along the A line.

In these drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a plate-shaped base made of metal, and an appropriate number of through holes 1a are formed at appropriate intervals on the front or back side thereof. In this embodiment, the through-holes are arranged in three rows, indicated by symbols 1b, IC, and 1d, with the outer rows 1b and 1d serving as encoded data rows, and the inner row IC serving as a clock row. The data stream or the clock stream is encoded using a suitable encoding method (in this case, a material 2a containing a phosphor in the corresponding specific through-hole) is used.
are arranged filling. In this case, the filling method is
For example, a method is adopted in which a transparent epoxy resin mixed with phosphor powder of (3) 50% or more by weight is poured into a through hole and hardened. Also, watercolor paints may be used instead of epoxy resin.

When the information card configured as described above is inserted into an information reading device (not shown), excitation infrared rays having a wavelength λa are sequentially irradiated from one side of the information card along the card reading direction. At this time, in the through-hole where the phosphor-containing substance 1a exists, a transmitted light beam having both components with the excitation wavelength λb of the phosphor appears, and in other through-holes, only a transmitted light ray with the wavelength λa appears. . The detection element (not shown) has a wavelength λ
Due to the action of the filter that cuts the infrared rays of a, the wavelength λb
It responds only to the light beam, performs photo-to-electrical conversion of the light beam, and reads the clock and code information formed by the phosphor information.

The information card is made of metal and can be made thick enough to withstand bending, abrasion, etc.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the invention. In this example, the substrate 1 is made of a material that transmits infrared rays, (4) for example, a suitable synthetic resin or paper. The thickness of the substrate is made small.In this case as well, encoded information corresponding to the arrangement of the fluorescent material can be read by the same information reading device as described above.

FIG. 4 shows yet another embodiment of the invention, in which:
The phosphor-containing material 2a is impregnated with a suitable coloring agent, and all of the remaining recessed holes or through-holes that are left blank due to encoding are filled with a suitable coloring agent.
It is filled with a suitably colored object 2b (made of resin or watercolor without containing phosphor or infrared absorbing carbon black). As a result, the phosphor-containing substance and the colored object are colored together in a regular or irregular manner, so that the location of the phosphor substance cannot be detected by Yoshimasa. In this case, it is free to provide a blank area where even a colored object does not exist. In this example, the phosphor information tracks are in five columns as shown.

FIG. 5 shows still another embodiment of the present invention (5). In this example, by using a phosphor-containing substance 2a and a colored object 2b of the same color, the phosphor-containing substance can be I tried not to let anyone know where I was. Further, in this example, a square hole rather than a round hole is provided as the through hole or recessed hole 1a.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show still other embodiments of the invention. In this example, 3 is a transparent polyester film that transmits the red line; the substrate 1 is a phosphor-containing material 2;
A % and colored object 2b are processed into a bag-like pouch and reinforced.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to maintain sufficient strength as a base while ensuring reading accuracy of phosphor information, which is an excellent effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the information card of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line A-A, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of main parts showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS.
The figures are plan views showing still other embodiments of the present invention, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are plan views and (6) enlarged sectional views taken along the line B-B. It is. (7)

Claims (1)

[Scope of claims] An information card in which the phosphor is supported in recessed holes or through holes opened at intervals. (2) The phosphor is supported in a predetermined one of the recessed holes or through holes, and the remaining recessed holes or through holes are provided with the phosphor. The information card according to claim 1, in which a part or all of the through hole supports an appropriately colored object. (3) A patent claim in which each of the phosphors is appropriately colored. (4) The information card according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is packaged with a material that transmits infrared rays.