JP2001209761A - Optical card and method for issuing card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for issuing an optical card holding visible information that is very difficult to be altered forged. SOLUTION: In this method for an optical card which has a substrate having a tracking group optically performing recording and reproduction on the surface and an optical recording layer covering the prescribed area of the surface of the substrate, a pit forming a part of an picture of visible information capable of being visually recognized is formed when the card is manufactured and the complementary information of the visible information is additionally recorded in the case of issuing the card, thus a completed visually recognizable picture is formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical card for optically recording, reproducing, or recording and reproducing information, and a card issuing method. In particular, the present invention relates to an optical card and a card issuing method capable of preventing forgery, tampering, and alteration for ensuring security.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as society has become more computerized, as a means for efficiently handling a wide variety of information, as a card-shaped information recording medium having excellent portability, a prepaid card, a credit card, a bank card, an ID card, etc. Is used. The storage of information on these cards is mainly performed magnetically on a magnetic stripe provided on a normal card.
However, since magnetic information is easily falsified and the recording capacity is extremely limited, in recent years, an IC card in which an IC chip or the like is embedded or a card-shaped optical card for optically recording information (hereinafter referred to as an “optical card”) ) Has been put to practical use or put to practical use.

Information is recorded on an optical card by, for example, irradiating the optical recording layer with a laser beam to change the optical recording layer, such as a crystal-amorphous phase change, formation of pits (holes), and magneto-optical effect. The information recorded in such a manner is detected by detecting the change caused in the optical recording layer using light. As described above, information recorded on an optical card cannot be visually recognized as meaningful information, and therefore, the recorded information is much more difficult to falsify than conventional magnetic information. Are better.

[0004] By the way, even for a card-shaped medium of such a new recording method, the card is issued by an authorized issuer, similarly to the conventional card-shaped information medium, or There is a strong demand for giving information indicating that the owner of the card is the true owner to the card-shaped medium as visible information. Considering the current usage of card-shaped media, which may perform personal authentication using only this visible information, it is one of the most important technical issues to prevent forgery and falsification of this visible information as much as possible. is there.

[0005] Many techniques have been proposed to make it difficult to forge or falsify such visible information. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-146795 discloses a certification card or the like in which an insertion card is covered with a transparent cover sheet, and visible information is recorded on the surface of the insertion card by a laser through the transparent cover sheet. ing.

A method for arranging a hologram image on a card-like optical information recording medium, as described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 62-191465,
Japanese Patent Publication No. 98 discloses a method in which visible image information is previously provided on a card, such as a method in which minute characters and patterns are attached to a card having an IC chip, magnetic recording, or optical information recording. Also, to increase security,
As a method for providing various information together with an optical information recording medium, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-329460 discloses a method for recording an image visualized by recording pits.

[0007]

In the distribution process of an optical card, a card medium is manufactured in a factory, and then personal information of a user of the system is printed and recorded on the card medium at a so-called card issuing office. In general, a card provided with personal information is distributed to each user. Further, in the conventional card issuance, forgery is easy because the card issuing office only provides visible information such as printing of a face photograph and a name which is easy to forge or falsify such as printing.

[0008] For this reason, if a method of providing forgery prevention means on a card at the time of manufacture, for example, by attaching a hologram, issuance of the card is easy, and it is very difficult to detect forgery at the time of card issuance. Was.

[0009] Further, unlike is a manufacturing factory, there are many issue offices scattered around the place where the system is operated, so that the forgery prevention technology itself at the issue office has a high risk of being leaked or stolen. Therefore, if only the method of providing forgery prevention means on the card at the time of issuance is used, there is no means for preventing forgery if the forgery prevention technology of the card itself is stolen and forged.

The present invention has been made in view of such background art, and has as its object to provide an optical card and a card issuing method that hold visible information that is extremely difficult to falsify or forge. It is.

[0011]

That is, the present invention relates to an optical card having a substrate having a tracking groove for optically recording / reproducing on the surface and an optical recording layer covering a predetermined area of the surface of the substrate. A pit forming a part of an image of visible information which can be visually recognized and formed at the time of manufacturing the card, and a part of the image is additionally recorded with supplementary information of the visible information at the time of issuance of the card, so that a completed visual An optical card, which is a part for forming a recognizable image.

Further, the present invention relates to a method for issuing an optical card having a substrate having a tracking groove for optically recording / reproducing on the surface and an optical recording layer covering a predetermined area of the surface of the substrate, A pit that forms a part of an image of visible information that can be visually recognized at the time of manufacturing the card is formed, and supplementary information of the visible information is additionally recorded at the time of issuing the card to form a completed visually recognizable image. This is a characteristic card issuing method.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the pits forming a part of the visually recognizable visible information image are constituted by pre-pits provided in advance on the substrate. It is preferable that the pits forming part of the visually recognizable visible information image are constituted by pits recorded on the optical recording layer of the optical card.

It is preferable that pits forming a part of an image of visible information formed at the time of manufacturing the card and pits forming complementary information of the visible information recorded at the time of issuing the card are provided as pits having different shapes. . It is preferable that the optical recording layer has visible light transmittance. Preferably, the optical recording layer is an organic dye recording layer.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention, which can achieve the above-mentioned object, comprises a substrate having a tracking groove for optically recording / reproducing on a surface, and a predetermined surface of the substrate. An optical card having an optical recording layer covering an area, which is provided with a pit that forms part of an image of visible information that can be visually recognized at the time of manufacturing the card, and supplementary information of the image is additionally recorded when the card is issued. An optical card and a card issuing method for forming a completed visually recognizable visible information image.

According to a second embodiment of the present invention, a pit forming a part of visible information which can be visually recognized at the time of manufacturing the optical card is constituted by a pre-pit provided in advance on the substrate. It is characterized by the following.

Further, in a third embodiment of the present invention, the pits forming a part of visible information which can be visually recognized at the time of manufacturing the optical card are constituted by pits recorded on the optical recording layer of the card. It is characterized by having.

By employing such a configuration and system, a medium can be provided with a visible information image that can be visually checked for forgery or falsification at the time of manufacturing an optical card. Further, at the time of card issuance, by additionally recording information that complements the visible information, it is possible to easily and visually confirm that the issuance has been performed by an authorized issuer.

Further, if it is attempted to tamper with the visible information of the completed optical card, there is a high possibility that the function of the optical card itself is impaired. The history will remain in the optical recording layer. Therefore, there is little danger that a forger will make unauthorized changes to the visible information of the optical card and successfully make a falsified or forged optical card.

An optical card according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Conditions for Forming Pits Before Issuance) First, pits which are provided at the time of manufacturing an optical card and which form part of an image of visible information which can be visually recognized will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of the optical card of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the optical card 100 of FIG. FIG. 1 corresponds to a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB ′ of FIG. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 102 denotes a transparent substrate, 103 denotes an optical recording layer, 104 denotes an adhesive layer, 105 denotes a protective substrate, and 106 denotes adhesion of scratches and dirt on the recording / reproducing light beam 107 incident surface of the transparent substrate 102. The hard coat layer 108 for prevention is, for example, a printed layer carrying visible information that can be recognized when the optical card is visually observed from the direction of arrow A. Reference numeral 110 denotes a tracking groove provided on the substrate for guiding a recording / reproducing light beam. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 200 denotes a recording layer forming area in which the optical recording layer 103 spreads in a plane, and 202 denotes an area in which data or the like is recorded or data to be read by a laser beam is recorded (recording). The non-data recording / reproducing area 204 is an area other than the recording / reproducing area 202 of the recording layer forming area 200.

Reference numeral 206 denotes visible information formed in a non-recording / reproducing area and recognizable when the optical card is visually observed from a direction in which a recording / reproducing light beam is incident.
Reference numeral 207 denotes visible information formed in a recording / reproducing area and recognizable when the optical card is visually observed from a direction in which a recording / reproducing light beam is incident. The visible information 206 and 207 are composed of pits formed on the transparent substrate 102. The visible information 206 and 207 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows the visible information 206 and 207 of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line CC ′ of FIG. 3 and 4, reference numeral 301 denotes pits constituting visible information 206 and 207.
The pits 301 are formed in a region 303 (hereinafter referred to as a “land portion”) between the two tracking grooves 110, and visible information is formed by the arrangement of the pits 301.

Here, the pit 30 provided in the land portion 303
The shape and size of 1 may be appropriately set according to the visibility of the visible information and the like. For example, the visible information may be configured by pits having a shape as shown in FIG. The pit depth is preferably, for example, 0.05 to 1 μm in order to obtain a good visible image.

By the way, it is preferable to control the shape, size or both of the visible information 206 and 207. That is, in the recording layer forming area of the optical card, the tracking groove 110 follows the recording / reproducing light beam 107 to a desired track not only in the recording / reproducing area but also in the non-recording / reproducing area. Function as a tracking groove for accessing a desired track.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a tracking method of the recording / reproducing light beam 107. That is, the sub-beam spots 601a and 601b are
The recording is performed in the central portion of the land portion 303 sandwiched by the tracking grooves 110 formed on the transparent substrate at a predetermined pitch by detecting the difference in the reflected light intensity of each sub beam. Reproduction light beam 107
Is controlled so that the spot 602 is always located.

Here, if the pits constituting the visible information 206 and 207 are formed in the area irradiated by the sub-beam, it may affect the tracking of the recording / reproducing light beam. Therefore, when the above-described tracking method is adopted, it is preferable to provide the pits 301 for visible information at positions on the land portion 303 where the pits 301 are not irradiated by the sub beam. Since the specific position varies depending on the spot size of the sub beam, the width of the tracking groove 110, and the like, it cannot be specified unconditionally. For example, as shown in FIG. 5 to 95% of the width of the land portion around the center line 603 of the portion, particularly 30 to 6%
When pits for visible information are formed in a region having a width of 5%, the visibility of the visible information is not impaired, and the tracking is not substantially affected. .

The size of the pits in the track parallel direction is not particularly limited, and may be a submicron pit, a different pit length, or a different shape. , A long pit shape extending over several cm.

However, when particularly high visual recognition is required, a pit having a length of 0.4 μm to 10 μm is preferable for the following reasons. It is known that when light hits the pits, the size of the pits where diffracted light is generated by reflection is larger than the irradiation wavelength, and the size of the pits is larger than that of visible light. More than the wavelength is required, and about 0.4 μm or more is required. The minimum size that can be visually recognized is about 100 μm.
It has been found that when zero or more pits are arranged, the contrast of visible information is high, so the pit size is 10 μm.
The following is preferred.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view of a visible information portion of another embodiment of the optical card according to the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line DD 'in FIG. As is clear from FIGS. 7 and 8, the pit 301 for the visible information 206 is displayed.
Are formed on the land portion 303 in a plurality of rows in the width direction. With such a configuration, the contrast difference between the land portion and the pit portion is large, and it can be recognized as clear information that can be recognized more clearly.

In this embodiment, the pit 301
As described in the first embodiment, the land 303 does not affect the tracking by the sub-beam.
Is preferably provided at the central portion of Also in this configuration, the shape of the pits and the like are not particularly limited. For example, the size of the pit in the track parallel direction is not particularly limited as long as it is within the non-data recording area. It may be a repetition, a different pit length, a repetition of a different shape, or a long pit shape extending over several cm. Specifically, for example, the pits may be shaped as shown in FIG.

(Method of Providing Images Before Issuance in Pre-Pits) The second embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method in which pits which form part of visible information that can be visually recognized when the optical card of the first embodiment is manufactured are formed. It is characterized by being constituted by pre-pits provided in advance on the substrate.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described. As a method of forming a pit that forms a part of an image of visually recognizable visible information according to the above-described embodiment at the time of manufacturing an optical card, a tracking groove or a pre-pit provided in a recording / reproducing area may be used. When the stamper is created, a method of providing the stamper with the stamper at the same time can be cited. According to this method, the visible information is recorded at the same time as the molding of the substrate, and the cost of the optical card with visible information can be reduced. In addition, it is particularly preferable to adopt a method in which the substrate is provided on a stamper, since image information is formed on the substrate during the production of the substrate, so that it is difficult to forge or alter the substrate itself.

(Method of providing pits before recording by recording) The invention of the third embodiment of the present invention relates to a part of an image of visible information which can be visually recognized at the time of manufacturing the optical card of the first embodiment of the invention. Is formed by pits recorded on the optical recording layer of the optical card.

Regarding the pit 301 for visible information,
In the above-described second embodiment, the pit 301 has been described as a physical concave portion provided on the substrate.
In the present invention, the pit 301 for visible information is not limited to this, as long as a difference in reflected light intensity between the land and the pit can be obtained. For example, any of the conventional pre-groove forming methods can be used. For example, a method of obtaining a difference in reflection intensity between a land portion and a pit portion by a pit groove or a rough surface shape, a method using a difference in reflected light intensity due to a crystal-amorphous phase change, and a method of changing a polarization plane due to a magneto-optical effect There is a method using a change in reflected light intensity.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described. As a method of forming a pit that forms part of an image of visually recognizable visible information according to the above-described embodiment at the time of manufacturing an optical card, in the final step of card manufacturing, ordinary data is recorded / reproduced with a laser. Using a recording and playback device
It can be recorded in the same manner as ordinary data.

(Regarding additional recording at the time of issuance) Next, as described above, at the time of manufacturing an optical card, after providing a pit that forms part of an image of visible information that can be visually recognized, using a card printer or the like, It prints personal information such as name, face photo, and ID number, and issues a card with a hologram.

FIG. 2 shows a card provided with portions 206 and 207 of visible information images which can be visually recognized in advance during card production. In the present invention, at the time of card issuance, recording and reproduction are performed so that a completed image is formed by complementing the pits forming a part of the image of the visible information by the recording and reproduction device at the same time as having the personal information described above. The pits are additionally recorded by the laser mounted on the device. FIG.
2 shows a card on which completed visible information 208 and 209 are formed by additionally recording supplementary information at the time of issuance.

The part of the image of the visible information formed in advance and the design of the image to be completed upon issuance at the time of issuance are not particularly limited, and are recorded in such a way that the part of the image formed in advance is added. Alternatively, a method may be used in which pits of a visible image provided in advance are formed every several tracks and recorded at the time of issuance so as to complement the gap.

When a part of the visible image formed beforehand at the time of card production is formed by pre-pits,
The difference between the recording pit at the time of issuance and the pit at the time of manufacture cannot be recognized by ordinary visual observation, but the use of a magnifying means such as a rubet or a microscope can confirm the difference in the properties of the pits. Will be higher.

When a part of a visible image formed beforehand at the time of card production is formed by pits recorded by a recording / reproducing apparatus, the arrangement of the recording pit data at the time of issuance and the arrangement of the pit data at the time of production are changed. If they are different from each other, they cannot be recognized by ordinary visual observation, but if a magnifying means such as a rubet or a microscope is used, the difference in the properties of the pits can be confirmed, so that the forgery prevention effect is further enhanced.

Next, each member constituting the optical card of the present invention will be described. (Transparent Substrate) The transparent substrate may be any substrate as long as it has good transparency and can be optically recorded and reproduced, such as a glass plate or polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate, or polyethylene terephthalate. Plastic resins.

(Optical Recording Layer) As the optical recording layer, any material can be used as long as recording and reproduction and erasing can be performed by a laser beam, and an organic dye-based recording material and a metal-based recording material can be used. Further, there may be other functional layers such as a reflective layer and an undercoat layer.

(Adhesive Layer) As the adhesive layer, a conventionally known ordinary adhesive can be used. For example, vinyl acetate,
Polymers and copolymers of vinyl monomers such as acrylic acid ester, vinyl chloride, ethylene acrylic acid, acrylamide, thermoplastic adhesives such as polyamide, polyester, epoxy, amino resin (urea resin, melamine resin), phenol resin, epoxy Resin, urethane resin,
An adhesive such as a thermosetting vinyl resin or a rubber-based adhesive such as natural rubber, nitrile rubber, chloro rubber, or silicone rubber is used.

(Protective Substrate) As the protective substrate, a material that physically and chemically protects the optical recording layer is preferable.
For example, plastic, glass plate, metal, ceramics, paper, or a composite material thereof can be used.

(Hard Coat Layer) The material of the hard coat layer is an optically transparent protective layer having high abrasion resistance for protecting the surface of the front substrate from scratches and dusts.
Examples thereof include ultraviolet curable resins such as urethane acrylate, unsaturated polyester, and epoxy acrylate, and silicon-based thermosetting resins. Urethane acrylate having high hardness is particularly desirable.

(Printing Layer) In addition to ordinary design printing, a printing layer is provided on a general credit card or the like, such as a print receiving layer resin sheet for post printing, a magnetic stripe, a bar code, an OCR character, a hologram, a sign panel, and the like. Anything that is being done can be provided.

[0049]

The present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the following examples.

Example 1 An optical card 100 having the structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 was prepared as follows. First, the tracking groove 110 and the pit 30 constituting the visible information 206 and 207
A stamper for forming the transparent substrate 102 provided with No. 1 was prepared by the following method. A master for forming a substrate for an optical card was prepared.

On a 130 mm (5 inch) square quartz glass substrate, a positive photoresist for i-line (trade name: THM)
R-iP3100: manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.) is formed into a film having a thickness of 0.5 μm by spin coating.
A second pre-bake was performed. Using a photomask, a contact exposure method using an exposure apparatus (trade name: PLA-500F; manufactured by Canon Inc.) and a mercury xenon short arc lamp (trade name: AHXD; manufactured by Oak Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) as a light source. Patterning was performed.
The exposure amount was 30 mJ / cm ² at i-line (365 nm), and the mask pattern dimensions were a groove width of 2.3 μm, a recording track width of 9.7 μm, and a pitch of 12 μm. Also, 3 μm × 10 μm pits in a non-recording / reproducing area are visible information 206 in a repetitive pattern, and
The visible information 207 was provided at a position where the center of the pit overlaps the center of the land in the repetition pattern of the pits of μm.

Next, the photoresist was heated at 23 ° C. and 30 ° C. with a developer (trade name: NMD-3; manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.).
Spin development was performed under the condition of seconds. Next, post-baking was performed at 130 ° C. for 20 minutes to obtain a master. Next, after forming a conductive film on the master by electroless plating, electroforming is performed using this conductive film as an electrode to laminate an electroformed film, and then the electroformed film is peeled off together with the conductive film. , And made it a stamper.

Next, thickness 0.4 mm, length 54 mm, width 8
The stamper obtained above is superimposed on a 5 mm polycarbonate substrate (Panlite; Teijin Chemicals Limited) via a photopolymer resin, and the pattern of the stamper is transferred by irradiating UV light, and the tracking groove 110 and the visible light are visible. A transparent substrate provided with pits 301 for information 206 and 207 was obtained.

Next, a polymethine dye (1, 1, 5, 5) is formed in the recording layer forming area 200 on the side of the transparent substrate 102 where the tracking grooves 110 and the pits 301 are formed.
5-tetrakis- (p-diethylaminophenyl)-
2,4-pentadienium-p-chlorate) and an azulenium salt compound (N, N, N, N-tetrakis- (p-
Di-methoxyethyl) -p-phenylene-aminium)
And an antimony fluoride salt in a weight ratio of 3: 1 and a gravure coat of a 3.0 wt% diacetone alcohol solution, followed by drying to form an optical recording layer 103 having a thickness of 900 ° on the transparent substrate 102. .

Next, thickness 0.3 mm, length 54 mm, width 8
A protection substrate 105 was prepared by printing visible information on a 5 mm polycarbonate substrate (trade name: Panlite; manufactured by Teijin Chemicals Limited). Next, a hot-melt type dry film adhesive 104 having a thickness of 50 μm (trade name: O
The transparent substrate on which the optical recording layer was formed and the protective substrate were hot-pressed together at 120 ° C. through -4121;

Finally, a hard coat agent (trade name: Unidick 17-824-9; on the surface of the transparent substrate opposite to the optical recording layer)
Dainippon Ink and Chemicals Co., Ltd.)
Hard coat layer 10 cured by UV light and having a thickness of 10 μm
6 was manufactured, and an optical card 100 in which a part of an image of visible information that can be visually observed was formed in advance was manufactured.

Example 2 A card was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 without forming pre-pits on the stamper. In the final step, a visible image 207 having a pit size of 3 μm × 3 μm was formed in the recording area.
The optical card 100 in which a part of an image of visible information that can be visually observed was formed in advance in the same manner as in Example 1 was manufactured.

Further, when a card is issued, personal information such as a photograph of a face and a name are printed by a card printer and a recording / reproducing apparatus (product name: R
W50 (manufactured by Canon Inc.), and a laser beam with a linear velocity of 5.5 m / s is used to alternately provide pits of 3 μm × 3 μm and 3 μm × 6 μm with complementary information of a part of a previously provided visible information image. Recorded at the center position to form the completed image. Visible information could be confirmed very clearly visually.

Reference Example 1 Example 1 except that no pit indicating visible information was formed.
An optical card was created in the same manner as described above.

The optical card prepared in each of Embodiments 1 and 2 and Reference Example 1 is used as an optical card recording / reproducing apparatus (trade name: RW-
50; manufactured by Canon Inc.), and data was recorded / reproduced with a laser beam having a linear velocity of 5.5 m / sec. As a result, no significant difference was observed in the occurrence frequency of the tracking error between the optical card and the optical card without the visible information. The spot system on the optical card surface of the recording / reproducing light beam of the optical card recording / reproducing apparatus is 2.5 μm.
The spot system on the optical card of the circular and tracking sub-beams is an ellipse of 2.4 × 5.5 μm, the major axis of which extends in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the tracking groove, and the elliptical spot of the sub-beams. The center is located at the boundary between the land where the spot of the recording / reproducing light beam is located and the tracking groove adjacent to the land.

[0061]

As described above, according to the present invention, visible image information is provided together with optical recording information to prevent forgery, tampering, and alteration of an optical card, and to form visible image information. In particular, counterfeiting and visual inspection during card production
By providing a medium with a visible information image that allows confirmation of the presence or absence of tampering, a medium with high security is provided, and information that supplements the visible information is additionally recorded, so that when a card is issued, the card is issued by an authorized issuer What has been done can be easily confirmed visually.

Therefore, the card carrier is not only used at the time of manufacturing,
It is possible to provide a high security optical card and a method of issuing that make it more difficult to forge, falsify, or modify the optical card even at the time of issuance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an optical card according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the optical card of FIG. 1 viewed from the direction of arrow A;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a visible information forming portion of the optical card of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of visible information.

FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a region where pits constituting visible information are formed.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of visible information.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line DD in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of the visible information.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing an optical card on which a completed visible information image is formed by adding supplementary information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 optical card 102 transparent substrate 103 optical recording layer 104 adhesive layer 105 protective layer 106 hard coat layer 107 recording / reproducing beam 108 printing layer 110 tracking groove 200 recording layer forming area 202 data recording / reproducing area 204 non-data recording / reproducing area 206 , 207 Part of visible information 208, 209 Completed visible information 301 Pits 303 Land portions 601a, 601b Sub beam spots 602 Recording and reproduction light beam spots 603 Center line of land portions 605 Pit formation area

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A substrate having a tracking groove for optically recording and reproducing on a surface thereof, and an optical card having an optical recording layer covering a predetermined area of the surface of the substrate. A pit that forms part of an image of recognizable visible information is provided, and the part of the image is a part that forms a completed visually recognizable image by additionally recording supplementary information of the visible information when a card is issued. An optical card characterized by the following. 2. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein the pits forming a part of the visually recognizable visible information image are constituted by pre-pits provided in advance on the substrate. 3. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein the pits forming part of the visually recognizable visible information image are formed by pits recorded on an optical recording layer of the optical card. 4. A pit that forms a part of an image of visible information formed at the time of manufacturing the card and a pit that forms complementary information of the visible information recorded at the time of issuing the card are provided as pits having different shapes. Item 4. The optical card according to any one of Items 1 to 3. 5. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein said optical recording layer has visible light transmittance. 6. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein said optical recording layer is an organic dye recording layer. 7. A method for issuing an optical card having a substrate having a tracking groove for optically recording / reproducing on a surface thereof and an optical recording layer covering a predetermined area of the surface of the substrate, the method comprising: A card issuance, wherein a pit forming a part of an image of visible information that can be visually recognized is formed, and supplementary information of the visible information is additionally recorded when the card is issued to form a completed visually recognizable image. Method. 8. The card issuance method according to claim 7, wherein the pits forming a part of the visually recognizable visible information image are formed by providing pre-pits on the substrate in advance. 9. The card issuance method according to claim 7, wherein pits that form part of the visually recognizable visible information image are formed by recording pits on an optical recording layer of the optical card. 10. A pit forming part of an image of visible information formed at the time of manufacturing the card and a pit forming complementary information of the visible information recorded at the time of issuing the card are formed by pits having different shapes. Item 10. The card issuance method according to any one of Items 7 to 9. 11. The card issuance method according to claim 7, wherein said optical recording layer has visible light transmittance. 12. The card issuing method according to claim 7, wherein said optical recording layer is an organic dye recording layer.