GB2228821A - Method of forming data cards - Google Patents

Abstract

In a data card transaction system, wallet-size visually readable information (75,79) relating to a person is created on material disposed on one side of a wallet-size card (71) and machine readable information relating to the person is recorded on a laser recordable optical data storage strip (77) disposed on the opposite side of the card. The strip (77) is such that information indicia can be recorded in situ thereon. The visually readable information may be a fingerprint or face photograph (75) created by conventional photography or with a laser. The data storage strip (77) is disposed in the card and may be a pro-formed strip of laser recording material. Information spots recorded on the strip (77) may be insurance, medical, banking, security or other transaction information. The machine readable information and the eye readable information can be read simultaneously by a pair of optical systems, one disposed on each side of the card (71). <IMAGE>

Description

METHOD OF FORMING DATA CARDS The invention relates to wallet-size data cards on which personal information can be recorded.

There is a requirement for a card containing both eye readable images and laser recorded machine readable data.

Indentification cards have used magnetic data strips in conjunction with photographic prints of the card owner.

Patent specification US-A-4 236 332 to Domo discloses a medical record card containing a microfilm portion having some data visible to the eye and other data visible by magnification. The directly visible data is alphanumeric character codes pertaining to emergency medical conditions of the patient and the magnifiable data portions detail the medical history.

Silverman et al., teach in patent specification US-A-4 213 038, an access control system with an identification card. The card has machine recordable indicia used to choose a master microspot pattern from the machine's memory. This master pattern is compared with an identical pattern on the card for verification. The card also has space for a picture and a signature. Similarly, Idelson et al., in patent specifcation US-A-4 151 667, teach an identification card having a photograph and a phosphorescent bar code pattern used for verification.

The amount of information these cards can hold is extremely limited.

Data visible to the eye occupies a considerable amount of space on a card, which further limits the amount of information that can be stored. In the patent to Idelson et al., the photograph and bar code pattern overlap.

Random microspot patterns can only be used for verification, while bar codes can only represent a small amount of specific data. The prior art does not provide for simultaneous reading of machine readable and eye readable information.

According to the invention there is provided a method for recording personal information on a wallet-size data card comprising, creating visually readable information on an optical recording medium, the information relating to a person, disposing the visually readable information on a first side of a wallet-size card, disposing a laser recordable optical data storage lamella on a second side of the card, the second side being-opposite to the first side, and recording information indicia related to the person onto the lamella, in situ, by means of a laser.

Thus the invention can provide a method of recording personal information on a data card, both a visual image and data to accompany that image either prior to, during, or after exposure forming such image, where the data does not overlap the visual image and permitting for simultaneous reading of both types of data.

The visually readable information, which is adhered to an inner or outer surface on one side of the card, relates to a person, and may, for example, comprise a face image or fingerprint. A laser beam records data on the strip of optical storage material, in situ, either by ablation, melting, physical or chemical change, thereby forming spots representing changes in reflectivity. The recording process produces differences in reflectivity detectable by a light detector. In this manner data concerning the person may be recorded and read directly from the strip. Since visually readable information and laser written data are disposed on opposite sides of the card, no overlapping occurs and a wider data strip with greater information capacity may be used.

The uniform surface reflectivity of the reflective strip before recording typically would range between 20% and 65%. For a highly reflective strip, the average reflectivity over a laser recorded spot might be in the range of 5% to 25%. Thus, the reflective contrast ratio of the recorded spots would range between 2:1 and 4:1. Laser recording materials are known in the art that create either low reflectivity spots in a reflective field or high reflective spots in a low reflectivity field. An example of the latter type is described in patent specification US-A-4 343 879. When the reflectivity of the field is in the range of 8% to 2UG/ó the reflective spots have a reflectivity of about 40%. The reflective contrast ratio would range from 2:1 to 5:1.Photographic pre-formatting, as described, for example, in patent specification US-A-4 304 848, would create spots having a 10% reflectivity in a reflective field or 400it in a low reflectivity field.

By means of in situ laser recording, transaction data, information, or the like related to the photographic image can be recorded at subsequent times. For example, insurance claims or medical record entries may be processed sequentially, recording various transactions on the strip one after another, without erasing data. Digital voice recordings or signatures could also be recorded. A photograph of the claimant would protect against fraudulent use of the card. A card reader, capable of simultaneously reading machine readable data and projecting eye readable data gives a user adequate information for making a human judgement regarding a new transaction.

The invention is diagrammatically illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure i is a top view of a first embodiment of a recording medium of a data card transaction system; Figure 2 is a top view of a second embodiment of a recording medium of a data card transaction system; Figures 3-6 are alternate sectional constructions of the medium of Figure 1 taken on line A-A in Figure 1; Figure 7 is a top view of a personal information card of a data card transaction system; Figure 8 is a bottom view of the card of Figure 7; Figures 9-11 are alternate sectional constructions of the card of Figure 7 taken on line B-B in Figure 7; Figure 12 is a partial sectional view of an alternate embodiment of the medium of Figure 1;; Figure 1# is a plan view of optical apparatus for reading and writing on a data strip portion of the medium illustrated in Figures 1 and 7 by a method according to the invention.

With reference to Figure 1, a data medium used in a data card transaction system may comprise a photographic medium 11 having a planar major surface 13 which is divided into a visual image area 15 and a data strip 17. The photographic medium 11 is in sheet form disposable on a wallet-size card, that is to say a card of a size which can conveniently be received in a wallet of usual size. The visual image area 15 can bear conventional photographic images, produced by usual photographic techniques, typically by exposure and development of the medium.

Alternatively, a laser can be used to create eye-readable visual images on a thin laser recording medium. The visual image areas 15 may occupy the entirety of the visual image medium, except for the data strip, or discrete areas as shown in Figure 1. Several images may be disposed on the photographic medium. Alternatively, only a single image may be on the medium.

The data strip 17 may have prerecorded optical information, but must have user written information, written on the strip in situ. The type of material that may be used is relatively highly reflective material which forms a shiny field against low reflectivity spots such as pits, craters, holes or dark spots in the reflective surface which tend to be absorptive of lignt energy. The contrast differences between the low reflectivity spots and the shiny reflective field surrounding the spots cause variations at a detector when the spots are illuminated by light of lesser intensity than the light that originally created the spots. Alternatively, a low reflectivity material may be used which creates high reflectivity spots when recorded with a laser.

The data strip 17 is intended to provide a personal data record accompanying the visual images on the same material just as a movie sound track accompanies a sequence of frames of film. Data is written in individual tracks extending in a longitudinal direction, as indicated by spot patterns 19 and these spot patterns are analogous to sound track on a film, except that the data tracks contain a much higher density of information and are usually read in reflection, rather than in transmission. The information density is greater because each of the spots in the spot pattern is approximately 5-25 microns in size with a spacing of about 5-25 microns between spots. The spots may be either digital or analog data, and can be circular or oblong, but in any case are recorded by a laser in known manner, for example as shown in patent specification US-A-4 278 756 to Bouldin, et al.

Figure 2 is similar to Figure 1 except that a larger visual image medium 21 is used with a plurality of rows of images 23, 25 and 27.

Accompanying each row of images is a corresponding data strip 33, 35 and 37. These data strips are analogous in construction to the strip 17 of Figure 1. Once again, it is not necessary that each row has individually different images. Each row may comprise either multiple images or a single image.

The embodiment of Figure 2 is a microfiche type medium where each row of images would have corresponding data on a data strip. The images are such that they can be viewed with the naked eye or with low power (magnification) optical systems. On the other hand, the data strips are not usually read with the naked eye, but require either microscopic inspection or preferably reading by reflection of a scanning laser or light emitting diode beam as explained below. However, a laser could record visual images such as serial numbers, personal data, or even face images on the laser recordable material.

Figure 5 illustrates a first construction of the recording medium shown in Figure 1. The sectional view shows a substrate 22 which is transparent and may be one of the many polymeric substrate materials known in photographic arts. Applied to the substrate 22 is a subbing layer, not shown, and an emulsion layer 24. The emulsion layer has a photographic image area 15 made by exposure and development in the usual way. Wavy lines 26 represent filamentary silver particles which characterise normal photographic images. The data strip 17 is one of many laser recording materials.For example, it could be a reflective silver/gelatin layer converted from silver halide emulsion having fine grain size, less than 0.1 microns, by a silver diffusion transfer process described in patent specification US-A-4 312 938 (Drexler and Bouldin), incorporated by reference herein. Such material is known as DREXON, a registered Trade Mark of Drexler Technology Corporation, and is sold by said firm.

In the process described in patent specification US-A-4 312 938, silver halide emulsion is exposed to a non-saturating level of actinic radiation to activate silver halide. The activated emulsion is then photographically developed to a gray colour of an optical density of 0.05-2.0 to red light, forming an absorptive underlayer. There is no fixing after this first development step. The surface of the emulsion strip is then fogged by a fogging agent such as borohydride to produce silver precipitating nuclei from the part of the unexposed and undeveloped silver halide emulsion. The strip is then contacted with a monobath containing a silver halide solvent and a silver reducing agent to complex, transfer and reduce the remaining unexposed and undeveloped silver to reflective, non-filamentary silver at the nuclei sites on the surface.The reflective layer contains from 20% to 50% silver particles of which 1% to 50% may be filamentary silver formed in the initial development step. Beneath the reflective layer is an absorptive underlayer.

The reflective surface layer is characterised by non-filamentary particles 28 overlying a concentration of filamentary particles which form the absorptive underlayer. Separating the data strip 17 from the image area 15 is an unprocessed silver halide buffer area 30 which would remain generally clear since it is neither exposed nor developed. The buffer area 30 is not necessary, but is desirable because chemical processing of data strip 17 differs from the processing of the image area 15. The buffer area 30 may be fixed to remove silver halide so that the area will remain clear.

This is optional. Both processes may occur by spraying of chemicals onto the surface of the film, with a mask covering the buffer area 30. Such spray processing is well known in photolithography. However, in the present case it may be ncessary to proceed in two steps. In the first step, conventional photographic processing of the image area 15 takes place. Subsequently, the image area, together with the buffer area 30 is masked to allow separate processing of the data strip 17. After processing is complete, a transparent plastics layer 32 is adhered to the emulsion, forming a protective layer. The layer 32 may be any of the well known plastics protective layers. The remainder of the film, apart from the data strip 17, need not have fine grain size.The data strip 17 can also be added to the photographic material in the form of an adhesive tape which is bonded to the photographic material either before or after the photograph is developed, or both can be bonded separately to a wallet-size card.

Figure 4 is similar to Figure 3 except that a substrate 34 is coated with silver halide emulsion only to the right of a line 36. The image area 15 is exposed, developed and fixed. A protective coating 38 may then be applied. A pre-formed strip 40 of laser recording material may then be disposed on the substrate. This may be a strip of OREXON material, previously mentioned. Such a pre-formed strip of laser recording material would have its own thin substrate 39 carrying the emulsion layer.

Alternatively, the recording material could be another direct-read-after-write laser recording material, for example such as that described in patent specification US-A-4 230 939 issued to DeBont, et al., which teaches a thin metallic recording layer of reflective metal such as Bi, Te, In, Sn, Cu, Al, Pt, Au, Rh, Sb, Ge, Se, Ga. Materials which are preferred are those having high reflectivity and low melting point, particularly Cd, Sn, TI, In, Bi and amalgams. These materials may be premanufactured on a very thin substrate and adhered to the substrate by means of a subbing layer.

After adhering the laser recording material to the substrate, a transparent protective coating 44 is applied. This coating material may be the same as the protective material 38.

With reference to Figure 5, a substrate 52 has a notch or groove 54 which allows placement of a laser recording material 56 therein. The laser recording material may be processed in situ from silver halide material previously existing in the groove, as in the case of Figure 3, or pre-existing laser recording material which is placed in the groove, as with the pre-existing laser recording material of Figure 4. In either case, the photographic image area 15 is exposed and developed in the usual way, while an unexposed and undeveloped area 58 protects the data strip 56. Since the emulsion area 58 is unexposed and undeveloped, it remains clear and forms a protective layer over the data strip.

In the embodiment of Figure 6, no groove is provided in a substrate 60. Rather, a photographic image area 15 is exposed and developed in the usual way, with the remainder of the substrate being covered with emulsion which is masked and protected from exposure and development, forming a protected region 62. On top of the protected region 62 a strip of laser recording material 64 is positioned. The laser recording material 64 may be formed in situ by application of a silver halide emulsion strip which is then processed, in the same manner as the data strip 17 in Figure 3 is processed, or may be a pre-formed strip which is applied as in Figure 4. The strip is then covered with a protective layer 66.

With reference to Figures 7 and 8, a personal information card 71 as illustrated may be of a size common to most credit cards. The width dimension of such a card is approximately 54 mm and the length dimension is approximately 85 mm. These dimensions are not critical, but are preferred because such a size easily fits into a wallet and has historically been adopted as a convenient size for automatic teller machines. A base 73 of the card 7 is a dielectric, usually a plastics material such as polyvinylchloride or similar material. Polycarbonate plastics is preferred.

The surface finish of the base should have low specular reflectivity, preferably less than 10 percent. The base 73 carries a photographic or laser recordable visual image medium 75 on one side of the card and an optical data strip 77 on the opposite side of the card from the medium 75.

The photographic medium 75 has a visual image, which can be a conventional photographic image produced by usual photographic techniques, typically by exposure and development of the medium. Alternatively, when the medium 75 is a piece of laser recordable material, a laser can be used to create eye-readable visual images. The images may occupy the entirety of the medium 75 or discrete areas as shown in Figure 8. A single image may be disposed on the visual image medium. Alternatively, several images may be on the medium. For example, user identification indica 79, such as a name, a card number and a card expiration date may be provided together with a face photograph or fingerprint photograph. Alternatively, the indicia 79 may be embossed on either surface of the card.

The strip 77 is preferably disposed on a side of the card opposite that containing the visual image medium 75. Whereas the strip 17 in Figure 1 disposed in side-by-side relationship to the image area 15 is typically about 15 mm wide to avoid overlapping with the image area 15, the optical data strip 77 in figure 7 may be larger, typically about 35 mm wide. The strip 77 may however have other sizes and orientations. The strip 77 may well have a data capacity which is at least as great as, and often more than twice, that of the strip 17 in Figure 1. The strip is relatively thin, approximately 100-500 microns, although this is not critical.

Figure 9 illustrates a first construction of the card shown in Figures 7 and 8, and is similar to Figure 3 except that the card base 77 is generally non-transparent and the photographic or laser recordable visual image material 75 is disposed on the opposite side of the card from the strip 77.

Applied to the card base 73 is the photographic material 75, comprising an emulsion layer, made according to ' techniques well known in the photographic art. Note that the card base itself becomes the substrate for the emulsion layer and should carry an appropriate subbing layer, as well as a moisture barrier layer. For the latter purpose, a very thin film of Aclar may be used having a thickness of about 1 mm. No separate film base layer is used in order to minimize the thickness of the card. Photographic images 81 are made by exposure and development in the usual way. Wavy lines 83 represent filamentary black silver particles which characterise normal photographic images. Visual images may if desired be made by a laser.

Such laser recorded visual images are typically made of a plurality of laser created spots, which alter the surface reflectivity of the recording medium.

The data strip 77 may be any of several laser recording materials.

For example, it could be a reflective silver/gelatin layer converted from a fine grain silver halide emulsion by a silver diffusion transfer process, as described above with reference to Figure 3. Areas 85 and 86 are not subject to this process. After processing is complete, a transparent layer 87 is applied to the emulsion, forming a protective layer. The layer 87 may be any of the well known protective layers, such as acrylates. The data strip 77 can be bonded to the card base 73 either before or after the photographic material 75 is developed.

Figure 10 is similar to Figure 9 except that a pre-formed strip 91 may be disposed on a card base 93. This strip may be any of the direct-read-after-write laser recording materials described above with reference to Figure 4. Such a pre-formed strip 91 would have its own substrate 95 carrying an emulsion or thin metallic recording layer 97. After adhering the pre-formed strip 91 to the card base 93 a transparent protective coating 99 is applied. A transparent protective layer 101 may also be applied over the visual image medium 103, or any of the other image media in Figures 9 and 11. The protective layers 99 and 101 may be any of the well known protective layers, such as acrylates.

With reference to Figure li, a card base 105 has a notch or groove 107 which allows placement of laser recording material 109 therein. The laser recording material 109 may be created in situ from silver halide material previously existing in the groove 107, as in the case of Figures 3 and 9, or pre-existing laser recording material may be placed in the groove, as with the pre-existing laser recording materials of Figures 4 and 10. In either case, photographic emulsion material 111, having a construction and placement similar to the emulsion layer 83 in Figure 9, is exposed and developed in the usual way. In all cases, the preferred total thickness of the cn, such as a record of deposits and withdrawals.In former years, such transactions were recorded in a passbook, but because of the amount of time taken for sequential entries in a passbook and because of automation, passbook banking was abandoned, even though it was more favourable to consumers. Now, sequential transactions may be recorded automatically so that a consumer may once again have a complete record of prior transactions, although a card reader is necessary. The visual image on the card provides for security and guards against fradulent transactions.

Insurance transactions, immigration matters and the like all involve sequential transactions involving personal data. While it is important to record the transaction, it is also important to relate the transaction to eye-readable personal data so that a human judgement may be formed. For this purpose, a visual image of a face or fingerprint can assist in forming a human judgement relating to the validity of the transaction. Prior to execution of a transaction, the identity of a user is checked against the personal information on the reverse side of the card. Both sides of the card are read by a machine. Once the user's identity is verified by a human judgment, or that of a machine comparing user characteristics, such as fingerprints, then a transaction is entered on the data strip.

Of course, while the photo images may be read by conventional means, a low-powered laser or a photodetector array apparatus must be used to read the data strip. A laser apparatus is illustrated in Figure 13, which illustrates a side view of the lengthwise dimension of the medium of Figures 1 or 7, comprising a data strip in combination with photo images on a card.

In Figure 13, a side view of the lengthwise dimension of a card is shown. The optical system shown represents one embodiment of a laser read/write system. The card has a first data strip 41 and an eye readable image 43 adhered to opposite sides of a card 100. The strip 41 is laser recordable, in situ, while the image 43 is a pre-recorded eye readable image. The card is usually received in a movable holder 42 which brings the card 100 into the trajectories of beams. A laser light source 143 is preferably a pulsed semiconductor laser of near infrared wavlengths emitting a beam 145 which passes through collimating and focusing optics i47. A light source 173 is either a laser or light emitting diode of near infrared wavelengths which emits a beam 175 which passes through coliimating and focusing optics 177. The beam 145 may be either a read beam or a write beam. The beam 175 may be only a read beam. In the read mode, the laser power of the beam 145 is lowered to about 5% of the record power. The beam 145 is sampled by a beam splitter 149 which transmits a portion of the beam through a focusing lens 151 to a photodetector 153. The detector 153 confirms laser writing and is not essential.

The beams 145 and 175 are then directed to first servo controlled mirrors 155 and 185 respectively. The mirror 155 is mounted for rotation about an axis 157 in the direction indicated by arrows A. Likewise, the mirror 185 is mounted for rotation about an axis 187 in the direction indicated by arrows B. The purpose of the mirrors 155 and 185 is to find the lateral edges of the laser recording material in a coarse mode of operation and then in a fine mode of operation identify data paths which exist predetermined distances from the edges.

From the mirrors 155 and 185, the beams 145 and 175 are directed toward mirrors 161 and 191 respectively. The mirror 161 is mounted for rotation at a pivot 163, while the mirror 191 is mounted for rotation at a pivot 193. The purpose of the mirrors 161 and 191 is for fine control of motion of the beams along the length of the card. Coarse control of the lengthwise position of the card relative to the beams can be achieved by motion of the movable holder 42. The position of the holder may be established by a linear motor adjusted by a closed loop position servo system of the kind used in magnetic disc drives.

The mirrors 155, 185, 161 and 191 may be under independent servo control. The servos for the mirrors 155 and 161 are linked by software to the servos for the mirrors 185 and 191 to allow simultaneous reading or reading and writing of the strips 41 and 43. Alternatively, the mirrors 155, i85, 161 and 191 may be mechanically linked, so that one servo controls the mirrors 155 and 185, while another servo controls the mirrors 161 and 191.

Note that the mirrors 161 and 191 pivot about the axes 163 and 193 respectively. In simultaneous reading and writing of the strips 41 and 43, information is recorded on the strip 41 at a position corresponding to the position of the next transaction in a series of transactions. Both the strip and the eye readable image are read simultaneously from respective positions on the two strips.

In addition to text the card may be prerecorded with a pre-inscribed pattern containing servo tracks, timing marks program instructions, and related functions. These positioning marks can be used as a reference for the laser recording system to record or read data at particular locations.

Patent specification US-A-4 304 848 describes how formatting may be done photolithographically. Formatting may also be done using laser recording or surface moulding of the servo tracks, having marks, programming and related functions. Oil, in patent specification US-A-4 209 804 teaches a type of surface moulding. Reference position information may be prerecorded on the card so that position error signals may be generated and used as feedback in motor control. Upon reading one data path, the mirror 157 is slightly rotated. The motor moves the holder 41 lengthwise so that the path can be read, and so on.

As light is scattered and reflected from spots in the laser recording material, the reflectivity of the beam changes relative to surrounding material where no spots exist. The beam should deliver sufficient laser energy to the surface of the recording material to create spots in the data writing mode, but should not cause disruption of the surface so as to cause difficulty in the data reading mode. The wavelength of the laser should be compatible with the recording material to achieve this purpose. In the read mode, power is approximately 5% to 10goo of the recording or writing power.

Oifferences in reflectivity between a spot and surrounding material are detected by light detector 165 which may be a photo diode. Light is focused onto the detector 165 by a beam splitter 167 and a focusing lens 169. Servo motors, not shown, control the positions of the mirrors and drive the mirrors in accordance with instructions received from control circuits, as well as from feedback devices. The detector 165 produces electrical signals corresponding to pits. Other optics, including a beamsplitter 197, a focusing lens 199 and a camera i95 are used to observe the photo images, while data is being read or written on the data strip.

A photodetector array such as a CCD could also be used, rather than the camera 195. It could be either a linear array or area array. The number of detector elements per track would be approximately three elements to create a reading redundancy. The surface would be illuminated with low-cost, light-emitting diodes generating power primarily in the near infra-red to match the sensitivty spectrum of the photodetector array.

Claims (4)

1. A method for recording personal information on a wallet-size data card comprising, creating visually readable information on an optical recording medium, the information relating to a person, disposing the visually readable information on a first side of a wallet-size card, disposing a laser recordable optical data storage lamella on a second side of the card, the second side being opposite to the first side, and recording information indicia related to the person onto the lamella, in situ, by means of a laser.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the optical recording medium is a photographic medium.

3. A method according to claim 11, wherein the optical recording medium is a laser recording medium.

4. A method for recording personal information on a wallet-size data card as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as hereinbefore described.