GB1581624A

GB1581624A - Magnetic records carriers

Info

Publication number: GB1581624A
Application number: GB2054175A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: EMI Ltd
Current assignee: EMI Ltd
Priority date: 1976-05-17
Filing date: 1976-05-17
Publication date: 1980-12-17

Description

(54) MAGNETIC RECORDS CARRIERS (71) We, EMI LIMITED, a British company of Blyth Road, Hayes, Middlesex, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to security documents, or credit cards or tokens or the like carriers for the recording of information.

Such documents and the like, which often either represent a certain sum of money or entitle the bearer to take possession of or enter property, are at risk by fraud or forgery.

The recording process especially when magnetic can be simulated or information transferred from document to document etc.

It is an object of the invention to provide such documents etc. which are more resistant to fraud or forgery.

According to the invention there is provided a security document, credit card or token or the like items, including an area of material carrying a coded record of information and an area of permanently structured material, the form of the permanent structure providing a code or code identity by reference to which said information is encoded or decoded.

The term encoding (and code, coding, decoded etc.) is used to indicate an arbitrary system for conveying information which does not openly tell a reader the information. Thus the term does not include the mere translation of say numbers, from the written decimal form to the conventional binary form whether written or in the form of two-condition electrical signal but does include the replacement of one written number with another, which may be of the same form, according to an arbitrary and not immediately apparent set of rules, provided by the code. The term encoding etc as used herein encompasses actions also known as ciphering etc.

The permanent structure may include elements to determine the correct position of elements for the recorded information.

The permanently structured material may be examined to verify the document etc.

The permanent structure may be an optically readable material e.g. sensed by I.R. radiation.

The permanent structure may be of magnetic material. The information may be recorded on magnetic material.

The recorded information may include information which is read decoded, modified and then re-encoded for re-recording on using the document etc. providing further security for the document etc.

The code or code identity may be the same for a plurality of cards or may be different and individual to each card, possibly in random manner.

The invention also provides a system of security documents or the like as described above and terminals or reading and/or recording and/or examining apparatus therefor, the apparatus being responsive to the code or key to a code on the document or the like to read and decode andjor encode and record information and/or verify the document or information thereon, to protect against fraud.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawing accompanying the Provisional Specification of a plan view of a credit card.

Methods of constructing credit cards from laminated plastic and layers of magnetic materials are well known. Permanently structured magnetic materials in layer form are also well known and may comprise magnetically anisotropic particles, some of the particles with an easy axis of magnetisation aligned in one direction and other of the particles not being so aligned, or being so aligned in another direction, as described in U.K. Patent Specification 1331604, which is the basic patent in the art. However the present invention is not limited by the disclosure of the above specification.

Referring to the drawing the credit card is indicated generally at 1. Areas of magnetisable material are indicated at 10, 11 and 12 while areas of information in visible written or printed form are indicated at 13, 14. The area 10 of magnetisable material has a permanent structure of magnetic material which can be detected by suitable known technique as a signal, such as a digital signal of a sequence of binary bits, which can be checked against a reference or against some feature included in the sequence to verify that the signal corresponds to an authentic permanent structure. (This is some times known as "magnetic watermarking" from its analogy with the conventional visible watermark).

The present invention provides that the signal shall include a code identity or even form the code itself. Code techniques are many and well-known so it will suffice to say that the use of any appropriate code technique is envisaged, although some may prove more suitable than others. The area 11 of the magnetisable material is usable for the recording of "permanent" information, e.g.

the name of the card user, an initial credit balance, an expiry date or other relatively stable information. The area 11 may or may not be of permanently structured magnetisable material. The infonnation recorded on area 11 is encoded by use of the data in area 10. The code itself may be extracted from area 10 or generated by the apparatus used with the card from information in area 10.

Area 12 may also be used for the recording of "revisable" information, e.g. the present value of the card in money balance or other terms or the access permitted by the card. The information in area 12 may be recorded in "clear" so that the simplest possible reading and recording apparatus may be used when this information is not of a critical nature.

The document, card etc. and system for its use outlined above can be put into effect using reading and recording machines of known form arranged to respond to the particular format of the document, card etc.

The nature of the code should be chosen to suit the type of system. One possible arrangement is that each document or card, when made, should be given one identity from a large set of such identities, say in a manner similar to a key for a cylinder lock.

Techniques akin to those of key-suites i.e.

master and sub-master keys, can be used if required. Alternatively a batch of documents can have a common identity.

Furthermore in such a case the card could be retained after one or more times of use and a card from a batch with a different identity issued in its place, with the information from the old card transferred to it.

Briefly dealing with a transaction in a system according to the invention, say a credit travel system, a user would pay for the issue of a card such as shown above bearing in area 10 the watermark, code or code identity and "clocking" reference points, and in area 11 in coded form the card expiry date, a serial number and initial credit amount. On using the card this would be inserted into a reader and recorder apparatus at an entry point of a transport network which apparatus, if the card is valid, would allow the user entry to the system. The card has recorded on it, in e.g.

area 12 and possibly in "clear" and encoded form, the entry point. The user travels to his destination and there again inserts the card into similar apparatus which reads the entry point and alters the credit balance in accordance with the cost of the journey from there to the destination. The reduced credit balance is again written in encoded form. The use of "clear" and "encoded" forms would permit a simple reading apparatus to carry out a check within the system, say at an interchange point.

The apparatus by which the coded information would be decoded can be one of many possible forms known in the art. One form could be a feed back sequential shift register whose operation is controlled by the code from the card etc to "translate" the coded information to decode it and then "translate" information to be written back onto the card into coded form. Alternatively the shift register may be fixed to operte in one code and the code on the card merely checked for correspondence with this code.

Clearly modifications and additions of the information recorded and the locations in which it is recorded are possible but these are related more to the use of the information rather than its form of recordal and transfer by the user and protection against fraud.

The following operations are possible in attempts to simulate or modify security documents and the like: (1) "Refreshing" or restoring the value of a genuine credit card or other document by inserting a higher value than that to which the card user is entitled, similar actions can be envisaged e.g. extending the expiry date of a travel pass.

(2) Acquiring blank or unissued documents etc. and preparing a document etc. with spurious mgnetic markings similar to the genuine ones using conventional recording techniques.

(3) Acquiring access to or possession of a machine used for preparing documents and preparing unauthorised documents on it.

(4) Acquiring another person's document or card and continuing to use it.

To combat the above operations the present invention provides the following: (l)(a) The permanent structure of the watermark can be used as a reference for the correct positioning of the information recorded on the document etc. For example specific points of the watermark can be used to generate a clocking signal during the reading of the document etc. Discrepancies from the referecne position will give rise to suspicion that the document etc. has been tampered with.

(l)(b) If the encoded information is to be modified then the code must be known. The intzormatin in the key in the watermark structure even when extracted need not be all that is required to operate the code, e.g. the reading and recording machine could have a variety of coding circuits brought into operation in accordance withthe key.

(I)(c) The system can be arranged so that each time a document etc. is passed through the system it is retained and a replacement issued on a differently coded watermark, the replacement having had the current information in encoded and clear form transferred to it. This ensures that a user would have to decipher the key and code each time.

(2) To be successful the spurious markings applied to blank documents etc. must both agree with the watermark and be of a possible content, which would require considerable knowledge of the system, and access to a system reading and recording machine or the skill and resources to simulate one. These are difficult conditions to satisfy at one time and are thus unlikely to occur if the system is properly staffed and operated.

(3) Clearly the reading and recording machine must be under secure control to prevent unauthorised use. Acceptance is arranged so that documents etc. which have been handled by a stolen machine are rejected or retained and not acted upon. This can be achieved by the design of the system or the machine.

(4) The person losing the document etc.

faces a loss but the risk of this can be reduced if required by arranging that reading and recording machines can check for specifically identified documents etc. on instructions fed to them by a system control.

The precautions available by the application of the invention in one or more ways described above are very suitable for systems in which a document, e.g. a card, is issued to an individual and assigned a certain value in monetary terms for use as say a card for purchases from shops, petrol stations etc., or as a travel pass. In such a system the risk of "refreshing" the card is clearly high and steps must be taken to prevent or reduce such an action which would defraud the system.

The form of information required on the card etc, forms no part of this invention, there are many proposals for such credit systems extant which deal with this.

The above description is of a document, credit card, token or the like having considerable resistance to fraudulent modification or manipulation. Although in the description both the permanent structure and the recordings are based on magnetic material other materials, such as structures detectable by light but not readable by the unaided eye, may be used for either or both. Radiation other than light e.g. infra red or other electro magnetic or ionising radiation may be used with appropriate permanent structure materials.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS 1. A security document, credit card or toekn or the like items, including an area of material carrying a coded record of information and an area of permanently structured material, the form of the permanent structure providing a code or code identity by reference to which said information is encoded or decoded.

2. A security document or the like as claimed in Claim 1 in wich the permanent structure is in a magnetic material.

3. A security document or the like as claimed in Claim 2 in which the magnetic material includes magnetically anisotropic particles, some of the particles with an easy axis of magnetisation aligned to one direction, and others of the particles not being so aligned or being so aligned to another direction.

4. A security document or the like as claimed in Claims 1 to 3 in which the information is revisably recorded on magnetic material.

5. A security document or the like according to Claims 2 and 4 or Claims 3 and 4 having two areas of magnetic material one for the permanent structure and the other for the information record.

6. A security document or the like according to anyone of Claims 1 to 5 in which the form of the permanent structure includes clocking elements to determine the position of elements of the recorded information.

7. A security document or the like according to Claim 1 in which the permanent structure is formed by areas of material having different degrees of transmission and/or reflection of radiation such as light or infrared or other documents or ionising radiation.

8. A group of security documents or the like according to any one of Claims 1 to 7 each of the group having a specified individual permanent structure to form an individual code or code identity.

9. A system of security documents, credit cards or tokens or the like items and terminal apparatus to cooperate with them, the documents or the like items each having an area for the carriage of a coded record of information and a permanently structured material whose form provides a code, or code identity, by reference to which the information is encoded or decoded, which apparatus is adapted to detect the code or code identity to read any coded record of information present in said area and decode the information therefrom and/or to encode information and write said information in said area.

10. A system according to Claim 9 in which the permanent structure and the infor mation record are of magnetic material.

11. A system according to Claim 9 or

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. intzormatin in the key in the watermark structure even when extracted need not be all that is required to operate the code, e.g. the reading and recording machine could have a variety of coding circuits brought into operation in accordance withthe key. (I)(c) The system can be arranged so that each time a document etc. is passed through the system it is retained and a replacement issued on a differently coded watermark, the replacement having had the current information in encoded and clear form transferred to it. This ensures that a user would have to decipher the key and code each time. (2) To be successful the spurious markings applied to blank documents etc. must both agree with the watermark and be of a possible content, which would require considerable knowledge of the system, and access to a system reading and recording machine or the skill and resources to simulate one. These are difficult conditions to satisfy at one time and are thus unlikely to occur if the system is properly staffed and operated. (3) Clearly the reading and recording machine must be under secure control to prevent unauthorised use. Acceptance is arranged so that documents etc. which have been handled by a stolen machine are rejected or retained and not acted upon. This can be achieved by the design of the system or the machine. (4) The person losing the document etc. faces a loss but the risk of this can be reduced if required by arranging that reading and recording machines can check for specifically identified documents etc. on instructions fed to them by a system control. The precautions available by the application of the invention in one or more ways described above are very suitable for systems in which a document, e.g. a card, is issued to an individual and assigned a certain value in monetary terms for use as say a card for purchases from shops, petrol stations etc., or as a travel pass. In such a system the risk of "refreshing" the card is clearly high and steps must be taken to prevent or reduce such an action which would defraud the system. The form of information required on the card etc, forms no part of this invention, there are many proposals for such credit systems extant which deal with this. The above description is of a document, credit card, token or the like having considerable resistance to fraudulent modification or manipulation. Although in the description both the permanent structure and the recordings are based on magnetic material other materials, such as structures detectable by light but not readable by the unaided eye, may be used for either or both. Radiation other than light e.g. infra red or other electro magnetic or ionising radiation may be used with appropriate permanent structure materials. WHAT WE CLAIM IS

1. A security document, credit card or toekn or the like items, including an area of material carrying a coded record of information and an area of permanently structured material, the form of the permanent structure providing a code or code identity by reference to which said information is encoded or decoded.

11. A system according to Claim 9 or

Claim 10 in which the terminal apparatus includes means to verify the authenticity of a presented security document and provide an output indicative of the authenticity or otherwise of the presented document.

12. A security document, credit card or token or the like items substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the drawing accompanying the Provisional Specification.

13. A system of security documents, credit cards or tokens or the like items subsantially as hereinbefore described.