CA1293786C - Retainer for documents - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A document retainer having receptacles is provided and is equipped with clip switch contact sensors positioned in the retainer receptacles. Documents held in the receptacles maintain opposed faces of the clip switch contact sensors in a spaced relationship by being interposed therebetween. When a document is withdrawn, the contact faces spring into engagement, to form a closed circuit thereby energizing an alarm circuit that has audible and inaudible alarms to facilitate indication of the document withdrawal. A resetable timing device is provided to suppress the audible alarm for a period considered sufficient for a card transaction to take place. Preferably, the retainer is in the form of a compact module that can be inserted into a receptacle in a wallet and used while held in the wallet.

Description

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The present invention relates to a system for retaining documents such that withdrawal and replacement of the documents from the retainer is sensed through the use of an electrical circuit and contacts incorporated into the retainer. In a more specific example, the present S invention relates to the protection from loss of credit cards using a so-equipped wallet or purse.

At present, the most common retainers for documents are file cabinets, brief cases, folders, purses and wallets. These retainers are intended to be used for organized storage and physical protection of documents and provide varying degrees of capacity, portability and security. With these retainers it is however, quite common for the user to forget to place the documents back into the retainer after use. As a result and most commonly with respect to credit, bank transaction and personal identification cards, the documents are left behind at point of use where they are particularly prone to loss, theft and misuse.

There have been several previous attempts at solving this problem. In particular, U.S. Patent No. 3,959,789 discloses a credit card carrying case which incorporates contacts attached to the inside surfaces of separators adapted to hold the credit card and to detect the absence of a card. However, problems exist in this design in that the case is very bulky and uses a single external spring clip to bias the multitude of pairs of separator contacts together. The use of the single spring clip results in the contact pressure of the spring clip being spread over too wide an '~

1~93786 area thereby reducing the sensitivity of the device making the sensitivity too low for reliable detection.

U.S. Patent No. 4,480,250 discloses a credit card carrier in which a series of clip switches bridge from the hinge or spine of a pair of folding flaps to common conductor strips, one strip being located on each side flap. An alarm is triggered if the edge of any card is not held between the assigned dip switch contacts when the flaps are folded to overlie one another, due to the closing of a magnetic proximity switch featured on the outboard edges of each flap. However problems exist in this design in that the edge to edge card holding layout is inconvenient in terms of space and area required per card. Furthermore, no facility is considered to guide the cards into position between the clip switch contacts or to prevent them from falling out of position. In addition, the magnetic proximity switch is fragile, imprecise and difficult to align if the carrier is flexible. Also, the magnetic proximity switch rnight endanger the magnetic code strip common to most modern credit and bank cards.

U.S. Patent No. 4,652,865 discloses a credit card holder composed of partly transparent pockets with conductive strips and/or disk-sbaped magnetic contacts attached to the inside surfaces of the pockets in opposed alignment. The strips or contacts detect the withdrawal of credit cards and electricaUy activate an alarm system consisting of a battery, buzzer and timer. In one embodiment, leaf springs are provided inside double layered pocket walls to urge the walls and attached contacts together. In another disdosed embodiment, the pockets are configured in .

1~3~i'86 book leaf form or edge to edge fold-up accordion fashion. However, problems exist in this holder in that the use of the magnetic contacts may damage magnetic card coding provided on credit or bank cards.
Furthermore, the leaf springs positioned between pocket lining layers may S cause bulging of the pockets and, without solid anchoring or support, may not provide sufficient force for reliable sensor contact pressure and function.

U.S. Patent No. 4,721,948 discloses a wallet with a credit card holder that utilizes a flat flexible magnetic strip upon which two flat parallel conductors are insulatedly attached. Co-attractive conductive ferrous chips are opposingly attached to the inside of the far pocket walls such that the near pocket walls, which over-lie the conductors, have openings to allow the chips clearance to attract magnetically into contact with the conductors upon withdrawal of a credit card. The chip bridges the conductors and doses the alarm circuit. The sensor function is completely dependant upon the magnetic attraction of the ferrous chips to the magnetic strips. Again proUems exist in that damage to the magnetic code provided on cards may occur due to the magnetism. Moreover, the ferrous chip materials are sub3ect to oxidation and subsequent poor conductivity.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel document retainer.

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According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a document retainer comprising:
a plurality of receptacles, each of said receptacles for receiving and holding a document therein;
S sensing means associated with each of said receptacles for detecting the presence or absence of a document in said receptacle;
an electronic circuit responsive to said sensing means and being energized by a power supply upon detection of a document absent from said receptacle by said sensing means, said electronic circuit including:
an audible alarm operable to provide an audible signal;
time delay means in communication with said audible alarm and being operable to connect said audible alarm to said power supply after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed after energization of said electronic circuit; and switch means in communication with said time delay means, said switch means being manually actuable to reset said time delay means to inhibit said audible alarm from sounding.

Preferably, the time delay means includes a timer which initiates a count upon energization of the circuit and that the audible alarm sounds once the count reaches a predetermined value. It is also preferred that the switch means resets the timer and that the timer resumes the count once the switch means has been actuated and subsequently released.

lZ93~86 It is also preferred that the document retainer further includes an inaudible alarm operable to provide an inaudible signal upon energization of the electronic circuit.

S In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a document retainer comprising;
a receptacle having front and back walls to receive a document;
sensing means having first and second electrical contacts disposed in said receptacle, said contacts having a pair of juxtaposed faces spring biased towards one another to be engageable with one another and to establish electrical contact therebetween, said faces being maintained in a spaced relationship by insertion of a document in said receptacle, each of said contacts being secured in an electrically insulated manner at one end thereof to a substrate;
said substrate maintaining said faces in alignment and preserving said spring bias;
said receptacle front and back walls constituting guide means for the insertion of a document in said receptacle and between said faces, each of said walls being provided with at least one aperture therein, each of said apertures allowing at least one of said contacts to pass therethrough so that said faces are located in the interior of said receptacle;
said substrate extending laterally beyond said contacts to provide laterally spaced marginal edges for attachment of said substrate to one of said receptacle walls adjacent opposed edges thereof to maintain 12937~6 alignment of said substrate to said receptacle and said faces within said receptacle; and means provided to connect operatively said contacts to an alarm circuit to trigger said circuit upon the withdrawal of a document S from said receptacle.

Preferably, the document retainer includes a plurality of receptacles each operable to receive a document. It is also preferred that the first contacts are formed on one electrically conductive plate and that the second contacts are formed on a second electrically conducive plate with both plates being attached to the substrate in a manner to maintain alignment of the contacts on the plates.

l~e present document retainer provides advantages in that alarms are initiated upon removal of documents from the retainer for a prolonged time. This reduces the probability of loss of documents.
Moreover, the design of the document retainer facilitates placement and removal of documents therein to ensure that the documents are seated correctly ~or detection by the document sensing components in the document retainer.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

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lZ93786 Figure 1 is a perspective view of a wallet;
Figure 2 is a perspective view of a portion of the wallet shown in Figure l;
Figure 3 is a sectional view of Figure 1 taken along line A-A;
Figure 4 is plan view of another portion of the wallet shown in Figure l;
Figure S is a perspective view of the portion shown in Figure 4;
Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view of another embodiment of a portion of the wallet shown in Figure 2;
Figure 7 is a perspective view of the portion shown in Figure 6;
Figure 8 is a sectional view of Figure 7 taken along line B-lS B;
Figure 9 is a perspective view of the portion shown in Figure 6; and Figure 10 is an electrical schematic diagram of a portion of the wallet shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows a wallet 10 holding several credit cards 12 with each credit card being held in a separate receptacle or pocket 14.
The wallet is purchased with blank cards which are substituted for more useful cards as required. Each receptacle is provided with a pair of contacts which close upon the withdrawal of a card to detect the absence of the card. Closing of any pair of contacts energizes an operationally 12937~f~
connected alarm circuit which in turn immediately energizes a warning light 20 thereby indicating that a document is missing from a receptacle and that batteries provided with the wallet are in working order.

A timing device in the form of a timer is provided in the alarm circuit and is operable as is known by those of skill in the art to commence a count to suppress the energization of an audible alarm 18 by the batteries until the count reaches a predetermined value. The predetermined value is selected so that the alarm circuit is suppressed for a time period considered sufficient for a transaction to be completed. If it is found that the transaction is lengthy a timer reset switch 16 can be pressed and released to reset the timing device so that the audible alarm 18 is suppressed for another transaction time period. Resetting of the alarm timer can be repeated as many times as is necessary to complete the transaction. Reinsertion of a withdrawn document into the receptacle reopens the contacts, which in turn results in the alarm circuit being de-energized and the timer being automatically reset. Accordingly, the conhcts within each receptacle function as sensors for detecting the presence or absence of a document in each receptacle.
~0 Figure 2 shows one preferred embodiment of an assembly 50 for sensing the withdrawal of card from the receptacle in the ~etainer.
The assembly 50 includes a pair of stamped metal card contact sensor plates 21 and æ respectively. Each sensor plate 21,22 includes a plurality of contact segments 25,26 and 27 in echelon with the segments on each plate being aligned. Each segment has a contact surface 24 with lZ5~3~36 the surfaces 24 of each plate being opposed. The contact segments 25,26 and 27 protrude through retainer pocket linings and are biased to spring into contact upon removal of any one of the cards 28, 29 and 30 respectively held therebetween.

Figure 3 shows cross-section A-A of Figure 1 and better illustrates the pair of contact segments 26 and the manner in which they are maintained in opposing a1ignment. As can be seen, a moulded plastic mounting anchor or substrate 34 is positioned adjacent one end of the sensor plates. The substrate 34 has stepped pins 36 formed thereon including a large diameter porffion 38 and a smaller diameter poffion 42 which pass through holes formed at one end of each pair of contact segments 25,26,27 respectively. Preferably, the sensor plates are sub-assembled to the substrate 34 with the large diameter poffion 38 of the pins 36 being pressed through matching holes in the sensor plate 21 and the smaller diameter porffion 42 of the pins 36 being pressed through matching smaller holes in the sensor plate 22. After assembly, the pins 36 are heated and flattened as shown to ensure permanent integrity. A
card 29 is shown held within the pocket lining and separating the contact plates 21 and æ. It should be apparent to those of skill in the art that the depth aspect of the substrate 34 is exaggerated to magnify the features.
The substrate is preferably designed to be as thin as possible to make the retainer as thin as possible.

A pocket lining is used to isolate the sensor plates 21, 22 and to guide each card between its respective pair of contact segments.

1~37~36 Figures 4 and 5 better illustrate the pocket lining. As can be seen, the lining is made from one pre-cut sheet of thin insulating material 48.
Rectangular holes 54 are provided through the lining 48 and allow for protrusion of the contact segments Oll the plates 21,æ. In Figure 4, the dashed lines 60 represent fold lines. After folding of the lining 48 as shown in Figure 5 to define the receptacles, the bottom folds are fitted between the respective contact segments. The four lining mounting pins S9 on the substrate are then inserted into the corner holes of the lining 56 and the pins are heated and flattened, thereby fixing and aligning the lining 48 with respect to the substrate 34 and contact segments. This retainer assembly is then fitted and/or sewn into the retainer holder or wallet after connecting the electric circuit to terminals 57 and 58 (Figure 2) extending downwardly from the sensor plates 21,22 respectively.

lS Another preferred embodiment of the retainer assembly is shown in Figures 6 through 9. Figure 6 shows the substrate 86 in the form of a thin flexible insulating body which is disposed between two attached metal contact plates 88 and 90 respectively. Each contact plate includes a multitude of contact segments stamped such that the contacts from one plate 88 protrude through holes 86a in the substrate to align with and pre-load against the contacts formed on the other plate 90. This results in the formation of a series of protruding integrally spring loaded pairs of contacts 92 (Figure 7) closed on one side upon assembly.

For attaching and aligning the plates to the substrate 86, each plate 88,90 is provided with tabs 94 on the periphery for insertion 1~937~6 into mating apertures or slots 96 formed in the substrate. To enBage the plates and the substrate upon assembly, the plates are flexed to facilitate insertion of the tabs 94 in slots 96.

S Figure 7 shows the contact plates 88,90 sub-assembled to the substrate 86. The pre-curving of the contact plates 88,90 as illustrated in Figure 6 helps the plates to fit flush to the substrate 86 despite the reaction caused by the built in spring tension biasing the contacts 88a,90a formed on the plates together. Figure 8 is view B-B of Figure 7, showing how the contacts 88a formed on the rear contact plate 88 project through the aperture 86a formed in the substrate 86 to engage with the contacts 90a in the front contact plate 90.

Figure 9 shows a receptacle-sensor sub-assembly which is created byfitting the contactplate-substrate sub-assembly shown in Figure 7 between folds in the lining 48. After inserting each assembly between folds in the lining, the linings are athched to the substrate 86 along the marginal edges 104. Heat-pressure fusion is shown as a method of achieving this, however, it should be realized that stitching, adhesives or staples can also be used. Electrical coMections to an attached alarm circuit module can be made from the rear side of the assembly. The upper portion of the folds are untouched to provide an opening 102 for the insertion of document therein and between the conhcts 88a,90a respectively while the walls of the receptacle act as guides for the insertion and removal of cards from the recephcle.

lZ93786 An electrical schematic of the basic circuit for detecting removal of a document from a receptacle and subsequently energizing the alarms is shown in Figure 10. Reference numeral 62 shows the normally closed document retainer contact pairs which are held open by the documents held therebetween. The three retainer modules contained in the wallet shown in Figure 1 are connected in parallel so that the withdrawal of any document, which results in the closing of a contact pair, allows current from the compact battery, 66 to flow into the circuit.
This energizes the flashing LED 98 and starts the timing cycle, at the end of which the piezo-electric audible alarm 70 is energized. Pressing and releasing the reset switch 72 or replacing all of the documents and thus opening all of the contact pairs, resets the timer. A 555 timer integrated circuit 74 is connected to a bipolar PNP transistor 76, a capacitor 78 and resistors 80 and 82 as shown. The small signal diode 84 prevents circuit damage if a battery is inadvertently installed inverted.

It is conceived that many alternative circuit arrangements are possible, especially those using specially designed application specific integrated circuits manufactured for this particular purpose.
The present document retainer may also be used for:
1) Storage of documents in a large index file. An LED
panel mounted on the front of the cabinet and/or on the dividers indicates from which cabinet and/or divider the documents were taken. Signals can be fed into a central security monitor. A connected computer can also illuminate the LEDs for quick location of retained documents.

~,., 12~3~7l~6 2) The incorporation of a card retainer conveniently located and secured by key or special code in the interior of an automobile. A
dashboard light or message, audible alarm and/or disabling interlock activates if the card is not replaced before attempting to start the vehicle.
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Claims (12)

1. A document retainer comprising:
a plurality of receptacles, each of said receptacles for receiving and holding a document therein;
sensing means associated with each of said receptacles for detecting the presence or absence of a document in said receptacle;
an electronic circuit responsive to said sensing means and being energized by a power supply upon detection of a document absent from said receptacle by said sensing means, said electronic circuit including:
an audible alarm operable to provide an audible signal;
time delay means in communication with said audible alarm and being operable to connect said audible alarm to said power supply after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed after energization of said electronic circuit; and switch means in communication with said time delay means, said switch means being manually actuable to reset said time delay means to inhibit said audible alarm from sounding.

2. A document retainer as defined in claim 1 wherein said time delay means includes a timer, said timer initiating a count upon energization of said circuit, said timer connecting said audible alarm to said power supply once said count reaches a predetermined value, said switch means resetting said timer upon actuation thereof.

3. A document retainer as defined in claim 2 wherein each actuation of said switch means resets said timer, said timer resuming said count upon resetting by said switch means and the subsequent release thereof.

4. A document retainer as defined in claim 3 wherein said count reaches said predetermined value in the time taken for a typical credit card transaction to take place.

5. A document retainer as defined in claim 1 further comprising an inaudible alarm operable to provide an inaudible signal upon energization of said electronic circuit.

6. A document retainer comprising:
a receptacle having front and back walls to receive a document;
sensing means having first and second electrical contacts disposed in said receptacle, said contacts having a pair of juxtaposed faces spring biased towards one another to be engageable with one another and to establish electrical contact therebetween, said faces being maintained in a spaced relationship by insertion of a document in said receptacle, each of said contacts being secured in an electrically insulated manner at one end thereof to a substrate;
said substrate maintaining said faces in alignment and preserving said spring bias;

said receptacle front wall and back wall constituting guide means for the insertion of a document in said receptacle and between said faces, each of said walls being provided with at least one aperture therein, each of said apertures allowing at least one of said contacts to pass therethrough so that said faces are located in the interior of said receptacle;
said substrate extending laterally beyond said contacts to provide laterally spaced marginal edges for attachment of said substrate to one of said receptacle walls, adjacent the edges thereof, to maintain alignment of said substrate to said receptacle and said faces within said receptacle; and means provided to connect operatively said contacts to an alarm circuit to trigger said circuit upon the withdrawal of a document from said receptacle.

7. A document retainer as defined in claim 6 wherein attachment of said laterally spaced marginal edges of said substrate to said receptacle wall also serves to form sealed lateral marginal edges for said receptacle.

8. A document retainer as defined in claim 6 further comprising a plurality of receptacles, each of said receptacles being operable to receive and retain a document therein, each of said receptacles being provided with said sensing means.

9. A document retainer as defined in claim 8 wherein said plurality of first contacts are provided on a first electrically conductive plate and said plurality of second contacts are provided on a second electrically conductive plate, said first and second plates being attached to said substrate such that said faces are opposingly aligned, said contacts being laterally spaced on said first and second plates respectively.

10. A document retainer as defined in claim 9 wherein said plates are provided with projections on the periphery thereof and said substrate is provided with apertures to receive said projections and thereby attach said plates to said substrate.

11. A document retainer as defined in claim 10 wherein said substrate is formed from an insulating material and is interposed between said first and second plates, said substrate further including passages formed therethrough to permit one of the juxtaposed faces in each of said first and second contacts to pass and to permit said faces to move into engagement and establish electrical contact therebetween.

12. A document retainer as defined in claim 8 wherein said plurality of receptacles are in echelon.