GB2385299A

GB2385299A - Thermally writeable card, ticket or pass with holder's image

Info

Publication number: GB2385299A
Application number: GB0205538A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Mark Kingsley Gardner
Original assignee: EC SMART
Current assignee: EC SMART
Priority date: 2002-03-08
Filing date: 2002-03-08
Publication date: 2003-08-20
Also published as: GB0205538D0; AU2003214392A1; EP1483734A1; WO2003077197A1

Abstract

A card, ticket or pass has a thermally writeable region and magnetic or electronic data storage means. When it is issued, an image of the authorised holder or purchaser, along with other information, is thermally written. Further information is stored in the data storage means. The card may be authenticated by comparing information written in the thermally writeable region with information in the data storage means. The identity of the card holder may be checked visually by observation of the image. The card may be used as an aircraft boarding pass or cinema, sporting event, etc, entrance ticket, as a means of ensuring that its bearer is the person to whom it was issued. After use, cards which have been collected may be reused.

Description

Card, Ticket or Pass and Method Employing the Ticket or Card There are many situations in which it is desirable to be able to quickly generate and issue a card, ticket, pass or similar token which entitles the bearer to be provided with goods or services or to be allowed access to a controlled location. In many situations it is desirable to allow verification that a person holding or presenting the card, ticket or pass is the person to which the card ticket or pass was issued. This requirement may not arise, in many situations a ticket is used once to confirm that the requested goods or services have been paid for but the actual identity of the person presenting the ticket is not of significance.

However, where a ticket or pass is to authorise entry into a controlled area, there are a number of situations where verification that the person holding or presenting the ticket is the authorised ticket holder is of importance.

One way of dealing with this problem has been to print the name of the authorised user on the ticket or pass and to require them to carry some further identification proving that they are that named person such as an identity card bearing a photograph or a passport.

However, this has the disadvantage that further identification documents are required in addition to the ticket or pass itself In a first aspect, this invention provides a card having a thermally writeable region and a magnetic or electronic data storage means, the thermally writeable region displaying an image of an authorised holder and first information and second information being stored in the data storage means, at least a part of the second information being such that the card can be authenticated by comparing the first and second information.

In a second aspect, this invention provides a method of authorising access to areas, goods or services using a card having a thermally writeable region and a magnetic or electronic storage means, and comprising the steps of, taking a picture of a user, writing the picture and first information to the thermally writeable region, writing second information to the magnetic or electronic storage means, and subsequently reading and comparing the first and second information to authenticate the card and authorise access.

This invention employs a thermal card as the ticket or pass. A thermal card is a relatively thin substantially planar card, tag or sheet having a thermally writeable, erasable and

re-writeable area on at least part of one surface. Conveniently the thermal card has the same physical dimensions as a conventional credit card for ease of storage and handling. In addition to the thermally writeable, erasable and re-writeable region the thermal card may also have regions bearing permanently printed or embossed information, may have a magnetic strip for storing data or may include electronic data storage means similarly to a conventional credit card or smart card. Where such a magnetic strip or electronic data storage means is provided, it is preferred for the thermal card to be the same size, shape as a conventional credit card or to allow conventional magnetic strip or electronic data readers to be used.

In the present invention, the user's picture is printed onto the thermally writeable region of the thermal card together with any information that needs to be readable by eye.

Corresponding information is also written into the magnetic strip or data storage element on or within the card.

The thermal card can then be used as a ticket or pass with the thermal and magnetically/electronically written information identifying the goods, services or access to which the user is entitled while the thermally printed picture allows the person carrying the card to be identified as the authorised holder of the card.

A first example of a system using a thermal card is to authorise travel on public transport.

Currently, tickets for use on public transport are generally card tickets with details of the journey or journeys paid for and the card duration printed in a human readable form on one face of the card while corresponding data is magnetically stored on a magnetic strip on the rear of the card. When necessary, the card is visually inspected by ticket control personnel, or more commonly it is visually inspected and the data stored on the magnetic stripe 1 read by suitable equipment in order to see that both sets of data indicate that the ticket is valid for a current journey. Further, in some locations such as stations, barriers are installed which read the magnetic data from the ticket and allow passengers to pass through the barrier to or from trains if they have a ticket which is currently valid for a journey on a train which starts from or ends at the barrier controlled location respectively.

The ticket control personnel or barrier machinery commonly retain used tickets which have completed their valid journey or journeys. Usually return tickets are issued as a pair of single tickets, one for each direction, so that multiple use of a return ticket is not possible.

However, this approach is not effective for season tickets which can be used an unlimited number of times during a specified period of validity so that there is considerable scope for fraud by persons travelling using a season ticket issued to someone else. either with the cooperation of the authorised ticket user who is currently not using it or after obtaining the ticket fraudulently from the authorised user.

The problem is usually addressed for long term season tickets by issuing the ticket holder with an identifying pass bearing a photograph and writing or printing the photo pass number of the person authorised to use the ticket on the ticket.

Although this approach is effective it is quite expensive to operate and it is time consuming and inconvenient for a new user not having an identity card to be issued a season ticket.

Accordingly, this procedure is only used for relatively high value long term season tickets and not for short term season ticket such as one day travel cards. The fraudulent re-use of such short term tickets and particularly one day travel cards is a common and significant cause of loss of revenue to public transport operators.

If a thermal card as described is used as a season ticket a picture of the user can be taken and printed onto the ticket when the ticket is issued.

Preferably, this is done using a thermal printer integrated with the conventional ticket issuing and printing machinery so that the picture can be printed onto the thermally writeable section of the ticket at the same time as other ticketing information is printed on the ticket and the corresponding data is written onto the magnetic strip.

The ticket including the magnetic strip bearing ticketing data can then be used conventionally and read by access control barriers and ticket control staff and the identity of the user can easily be verified by ticket control staff by comparing them with the picture on the thermally written part of the thermal card.

Thus, the invention allows fraudulent use of season tickets to be prevented without the cost and inconvenience of the conventional photocard approach.

It is possible that the card system according to the invention could be used alone for short term season tickets while longer duration season tickets could instead, or in addition use the conventional photographic identity card approach.

A further application of the invention is in airport security.

In this application the thermal card is used as an identity and boarding pass. When a passenger checks in at the airport and their tickets, passport and any other relevant documentation are checked the passenger's picture is taken using a digital camera and their picture, identity and relevant flight details are printed using a thermal printer onto the thermally writeable section of the thermal card. At the same time some of this information is also printed onto the magnetic strip on the card.

The thermal card is then given to the passenger as a boarding pass. The passenger must then show the card/pass at the flight departure gate before boarding the aircraft. and may also be requested to show the pass elsewhere in the airport as required by airport staff At the departure gate, just before boarding the aircraft, the passengers hand the pass to the departure gate staff who will visually examine the card to see that the picture on the card is a picture of the person who has handed over the card and to verify the flight details.

Conveniently, the staff can also pass the card through a conventional magnetic strip reader which will further confirm the flight details and automatically record the number and identity of passengers boarding the aircraft. The pass can then be retained by the departure gate personnel or more conveniently, automatically be retained within the magnetic strip reader.

In the event that the flight reaches its destination safely and there are no complications or events requiring investigation the retained passes can be re-used. However, if for any reason it is necessary to investigate a person on the flight the retained passes will confirm the numbers and identities of the persons who boarded the flight together with up-to-date images of their appearance.

When the passes are to be re-used the thermal cards can either be erased and supplied blank for subsequent use or can simply be returned as they are to the passenger check-in-desks.

The printers must then be set to automatically erase and then re-write thermal data.

Conveniently the data held on the magnetic strip can be erased and/or re-written simultaneously with the new written data but this is not essential.

Thus, use of this invention can provide confirmation that the person boarding the aircraft is the same person to whom the ticket was issued. This allows substitution of one individual for another by handing over a boarding pass to be prevented. Further, in the event that anyone is able to get on board the aircraft by impersonation or the use of false documentation the retained boarding pass according to the invention will provide an image of person who actually boarded the aircraft, regardless of their purported identity.

Use of the invention as cited above for boarding passes should prevent passengers impersonating one another and so boarding flights different from those they are believed to be boarding.

In order to authenticate boarding passes the magnetically stored data preferably includes some coded element allowing the boarding pass be authenticated. Preferably the human readable information such as passenger identity and flight details written on the thermally writeable section are reproduced in the magnetically stored data. In order to provide a higher level of security a machine readable code could be included in the information or image printed onto the thermally writeable area of the thermal card so that when the pass is passed through the magnetic strip reading machine at the departure gate the machine reads the magnetically stored data on the magnetic strip and also scans the image on the thermally writeable area to extract the machine readable code and then compares these codes of information to confirm that the pass is valid.

A further example of use of the invention is in a ticket to allow access to cinemas or other events. A picture of the customer buying the ticket is taken using a digital camera and printed onto a thermally writeable part of the thermal card when the ticket is issued. The ticket is then surrendered in order to obtain access to the event and so can be re-used for subsequent events.

The picture on the ticket can be compared to the person presenting it to confirm that the person presenting the ticket is the buyer, if desired.

In the event of a fire, disturbance or other event, the retained tickets provide a convenient temporary record of the images of those attending the event. These can be used to identify those attending the event if necessary, or once it is clear that this is not necessary the tickets can be re-used.

Although many events having ticket controlled access are not concerned whether ticket buyers and persons attending the event using the tickets are the same person provided that tickets have been paid for there are many events where it is desired to prevent re-sale of tickets by touts or where public order problems are likely if tickets are transferred or re-sold, for example at football matches where physical segregation of fans is used to prevent-violence.

In the examples given above the use of a thermal card having a thermally writeable area and magnetic strip for the magnetic storage of data is described. This is expected to be a

particularly useful arrangement because it will allow magnetic strip reading systems which are already in place to be used. However, it is expected that other methods of data storage on the card such as electronic storage of the so-called smart card type could also be used.

The examples of uses for the invention described above are given by way of example only and the skilled reader will be able to envisage other situations to which the invention could be applied. Further, details described with reference to different ones of the embodiments can be applied to the other embodiments in different combinations if desired.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A card having a thermally writeable region and a magnetic or electronic data storage means, the thermally writeable region displaying an image of an authorised holder and first information and second information being stored in the data storage means, at least a part of the second information being such that the card can be authenticated by comparing the first and second information.
2. A card as claimed in claim 1, in which the first information is displayed in human readable form.
3. A card as claimed in claim 2, in which the first information identifies the authorised holder.
4. A card as claimed in claim 1, in which the first information is a machine readable code.
5. A card as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the card is a flight boarding pass.
6. A card as claimed in claim 5, in which the first information includes flight details.
7. A card as claimed in any one of claims I to 4, in which the card is a public transport ticket.
8. A method of authorising access to areas, goods or services using a card having a thermally writeable region and a magnetic or electronic storage means, and comprising the steps of; taking a picture of a user, writing the picture and first information to the thermally writeable region, writing second information to the magnetic or electronic storage means, and subsequently reading and comparing the first and second information to authenticate the card and authorise access.

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9. A method according to claim 8, in which the first information is human readable.
10. A method according to claim 8, in which the first information is machine readable.
11. A method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, in which the card is a boarding pass used to authorise access to an aircraft.
12. A method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, in which the card is used to authorise travel on public transport.