JP2001266077A - Contactless ic card issuing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a contactless IC card issuing system having very high productivity. SOLUTION: The system is the one for issuing a contactless IC card by writing prescribed data and is provided with a transmission data generating part, a card carrying part and a data writing part. The transmission data generating part extracts basic data to be written in each contactless IC card from an aggregation data file, generates transmission data as basic data, having a form with a substantial transmission time as the minimum time from a basic data attribute and generates carrier control data for minimizing a writing waste time. The card carrying part carries the contactless IC card by a proper carrier interval with the writing waste time as the minimum time, based on carrier control data. A data writing part generates writing data, having a form to be written in the IC card based on transmission data and data to be written in the carrier contactless IC card is written in a data writable range.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention belongs to the technical field of non-contact IC cards. In particular, the present invention relates to a contactless IC card issuing system that issues a contactless IC card by writing data such as ID information to an IC chip mounted on the contactless IC card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When data volumes to be written in individual contactless IC cards are different, the time required for issuing in each contactless IC card is different. However, in the conventional contactless IC card issuance system, the issuance of the contactless IC card is performed at specified time intervals. That is, a time obtained by adding a margin to the assumed maximum time is uniformly defined as a time interval applied to all non-contact IC cards to be issued.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a system of this conventional contactless IC card issuing system. When the transport speed is constant, as shown in FIG. 3, the supply intervals of the cards fed from the card feeder of the card transport unit to the antenna of the data writing unit are uniformly constant. Also, the time during which the card and the antenna are in the communicable range is uniformly constant.

[0004]

However, if such a time interval is uniformly defined, a non-contact IC card having a smaller data capacity to be written than the maximum non-contact IC card will cause a writing dead time. In almost all contactless IC cards, the data capacity to be written is smaller than the maximum, so that the sum of the dead time for writing becomes enormous, which significantly impairs the productivity of the contactless IC card issuing system. ing.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a contactless IC card issuing system having extremely high productivity.

[0006]

The above object is achieved by the present invention described below. That is, the contactless IC card issuing system according to the first aspect of the present invention provides a contactless IC card that issues a contactless IC card by writing predetermined data.
A card issuing system, comprising: a transmission data generation unit, a card transport unit, and a data writing unit, wherein the transmission data generation unit extracts base data to be written to each non-contact IC card from an aggregate data file. Also, the transmission data is generated as the basic data in the form of substantially minimizing the transmission time from the attribute of the basic data, and the conveyance control data for minimizing the writing dead time is generated. The non-contact IC card is transported at an appropriate transport interval that minimizes the writing waste time based on the transport control data, and the data writing unit writes the non-contact IC card based on the transmission data. And writing the write data to the non-contact IC card conveyed to a data writable range.

According to the present invention, the transmission data generation unit extracts the base data to be written to each non-contact IC card from the collective data file, and, based on the attribute of the base data, the base data in a form that substantially minimizes the transmission time. Transmission data is generated as data, and transport control data for minimizing the write dead time is generated. The card transport unit generates the transport control data based on the transport control data at an appropriate transport interval to minimize the write dead time. The non-contact IC card is conveyed, and the data writing unit generates write data of a form to be written on the non-contact IC card based on the transmission data. Prescribed data is written. That is, the actual transmission time and the write dead time are minimized. Therefore, the non-contact I with extremely high productivity
A C card issuing system is provided.

[0008] In the contactless IC card issuing system according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the contactless IC card issuing system according to the first aspect, the substantial transmission time is a time obtained by adding a transmission time and a compression / expansion time. It is as it were. According to the present invention, the time obtained by adding the transmission time and the compression / expansion time is minimized as the substantial transmission time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-contact IC card issuing system according to the first or second aspect.
In the C card issuing system, the writing dead time is:
This is a time difference between a time required to generate write data of the next non-contact IC card and a time required to transport the next non-contact IC card to a range where data can be written. According to the present invention, the time difference between the time until the writing data of the next non-contact IC card is generated and the time until the next non-contact IC card is conveyed to the data writable range is the writing dead time. Is minimized as

[0010]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of the contactless IC card issuing system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a host computer, 2 is a transport control device, 3 is a card feeder, 4 is a read / write (RW) control device, 5 is an antenna, and 6 is a card collection unit. Is a non-contact IC card.

The host computer 1 stores, in a storage device, an aggregate data file which is all base data to be written on a contactless IC card to be written. An aggregate data file in which a set of basic data to be processed in one operation is recorded is created in advance by, for example, another computer system for editing data. The aggregate data file is a floppy disk, M
It is stored in a storage device of the host computer 1 from a portable recording medium such as an O (magneto-optical) disk or through a communication line such as a LAN (local area network).

The host computer 1 extracts base data to be written to each non-contact IC card from the collective data file. The base data is a record in which information regarding a process regarding one non-contact IC card as one unit is recorded.
The set data file is a set of the records. An ID (identification) indicating the order of issue of the contactless IC card to be issued is attached to the record (for example, recorded in the first field). The host computer 1 stores data (flag) indicating that writing to the non-contact IC card by the read / write control device 4 has been completed.
Receive. Upon receiving this flag, the host computer 1 reads the record in the next issue order. That is,
Next, the base data to be written to the non-contact IC card is extracted.

The time during which the non-contact IC card is transported from the card feeder 3 to the antenna 5 varies depending on the distance therebetween. Therefore, if the distance between them is long and there is a non-contact IC card being transported during that time, the host computer 1 reads the records in the order of issuance according to the number of non-contact IC cards that are present. That is, synchronization is achieved by extracting the base data to be written into the non-contact IC card by the number of the base data.

The extracted base data is generally not data that can be read by the read / write control device 4. In this case, the host computer 1 generates the base data obtained by converting the base data into data in a form that can be read by the read / write control device 4.

The host computer 1 generates transmission data as basic data in a form that minimizes the actual transmission time from the attribute of the basic data. The substantial transmission time is a time substantially required in the process of transmitting data from the host computer 1 to the read / write control device 4. For example, the effective transmission time is the sum of the transmission time and the compression / expansion time.

The transmission data expanded by the read / write control device 4 is not generally data written in a non-contact IC card. In that case, the read / write control device 4 generates write data in which the transmission data is converted into data to be written into the non-contact IC card.
Including the conversion time, the actual transmission time is a time obtained by adding the transmission time, the compression / decompression time, and the conversion time. This time differs depending on the attribute of the base data, for example, the data capacity.

The host computer 1 stores parameters relating to the transmission speed in the data transmission path with the read / write control device 4. Further, the host computer 1 stores data relating to the compression speed in the host computer 1 and parameters relating to the decompression (decompression) speed in the read / write control device 4 and the conversion speed to write data. Using these parameters, the host computer 1 calculates the actual transmission time A when data transmission is performed as it is from the attributes of the original data. Further, after the host computer 1 compresses data and performs data transmission, the read / write control device 4
Calculates the actual transmission time B when the data is decompressed. The host computer 1 compares the real transmission time A and the real transmission time B, generates transmission data from the base data in the form of the shorter real transmission time, and transmits the transmission data.

For example, the data capacity before compression is 9600
In the case of transmitting base data with B (byte), a compression ratio of 2, and a decompression time of 2 sec on the read / writer control computer on the receiving side through a 1024 B / sec transmission line,
The time required for data transmission when uncompressed is 9.4 seconds,
The time required for data transmission during compression is 9.4 / 2 = 4.
7 seconds. That is, the reduction of the time required for data transmission by compression is-= 4.7 sec, whereas the decompression time is 2 sec. Therefore, the host computer 1 transmits the data after compression.

Further, the host computer 1 generates transport control data for minimizing the writing dead time. The writing dead time is a time difference between a time required to generate write data of the next non-contact IC card and a time required to transport the next non-contact IC card to a data writable range. In other words, while the write / ready time is in a state where the read / write control device 4 can perform writing, the non-contact I
This is the waiting time because the C card has not reached the data writable range.

The transport control data for minimizing the write dead time is, for example, data for determining an interval for transporting a non-contact IC card. That is, it is data relating to the timing at which the card feeder 3 supplies a non-contact IC card to a conveyor belt or the like. In particular,
The actual transmission time calculated by the host computer 1 can be used as the transport control data, but is not limited thereto as described later.

The transport control device 2 transports the non-contact IC card at appropriate intervals based on the transport control data so as to minimize the writing dead time. The transport control device 2 controls the transport speed of the transport belt and controls the timing at which a non-contact IC card is supplied from the card feeder 3. For example, assuming that the transport speed of the transport belt is constant, the transport control device 2 operates the card feeder 3 that transports the non-contact IC card at intervals corresponding to (transport speed) × (substantial transmission time). Control.

Of course, while the immediately preceding non-contact IC card is in the data writable range and writing is in progress, the next non-contact IC card must not enter the data writable range. It is necessary to secure intervals based on such constraints. Such a calculation including the constraint condition can be performed in the transport control device 2. However, the calculation may be performed in the host computer 1 having the ability to calculate at a higher speed. In this case, the transport control data is the interval itself for transporting the non-contact IC card, that is, the supply interval data, and the transport control device 2 determines the transport speed in the transport belt and the supply speed in the card feeder 3 based on the supply interval data. Control the timing.

The card feeder 3 supplies a non-contact IC card to the conveyor belt under the control of the conveyor controller 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the non-contact IC card supplied from the card feeder 3 is conveyed by the conveyer belt at the above-mentioned interval, and after passing through a writable range by the antenna 5, the card collection unit 6 Collected at

The read / write control device 4 generates write data in a form to be written on a non-contact IC card based on the transmission data. The read / write control device 4 inputs the transmission data generated by the host computer 1 and converts the transmission data into decompressed transmission data if the transmission data is compressed data. As described above, the transmission data expanded by the read / write control device 4 is not generally data written in a non-contact IC card. In this case, the read / write control device 4 performs data conversion of the transmission data to generate write data which is data to be written in the non-contact IC card.

When the non-contact IC card to be written is conveyed to a range in which data can be written, the read / write control device 4 outputs a signal obtained by modulating the write data by a predetermined method. Generate. The signal is an electric signal for driving the antenna 5. When the read / write control device 4 finishes generating the signal, that is,
When the writing to the non-contact IC card is completed, data (issuing result data) indicating this is transferred to the host computer 1 and the transport control device 2. With this data,
Synchronization (adjustment of timing deviation) between the host computer 1, the transport control device 2, and the read / write control device 4 is performed.

The antenna 5 is a data communication antenna for performing read / write with a non-contact IC card in a non-contact manner. For example, a loop antenna is used for the antenna 5 and an antenna provided inside the non-contact IC card.
They are coupled by electromagnetic action (electromagnetic induction). The card collection unit 6 collects the written non-contact IC card.

The configuration and operation of the contactless IC card issuing system of the present invention have been described above. Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the outline of this operation method will be summarized and described. As shown in FIG. 2, the contactless IC card issuing system of the present invention optimizes the supply interval of the contactless IC card. In FIG. 2, the distance from the contactless IC card corresponds to the time required for transmission and conversion of the contactless IC card. In addition, the distance from the non-contact IC card is
This corresponds to the time required for transmission and conversion of a non-contact IC card. Each time is calculated by the host computer 1 before data transmission.

[0028]

According to the contactless IC card issuing system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the noncontact IC card having extremely high productivity is provided.
A C card issuing system is provided. According to the contactless IC card issuing system according to the second aspect of the present invention, the time obtained by adding the transmission time and the compression / expansion time is minimized as the substantial transmission time. Further, according to the non-contact IC card issuing system according to the third aspect of the present invention, the time until the writing data of the next non-contact IC card is generated and the time to write the data of the next non-contact IC card can be set. The time difference from the time to transport is minimized as the write dead time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration in a contactless IC card issuing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an outline of an operation method in the contactless IC card issuing system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of a conventional contactless IC card issuing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer 2 Transport control device 3 Card feeder 4 Read / write control device 5 Antenna 6 Card collection part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A non-contact I / O by writing predetermined data.
A non-contact IC card issuance system for issuing a C card, comprising a transmission data generation unit, a card transport unit, and a data writing unit, wherein the transmission data generation unit is configured to generate individual non-contact IC cards from a collective data file. Extracting the base data to be written into the base data, generating transmission data as the base data in the form of minimizing the actual transmission time from the attributes of the base data, and generating transport control data for minimizing the writing dead time. The card transporter transports the non-contact IC card at an appropriate transport interval that minimizes the write dead time based on the transport control data, and the data writer is configured to transmit the non-contact IC card based on the transmission data. Write data in a form to be written to the non-contact IC card, and write the write data to the non-contact IC card which has been conveyed to a data writable range. Non-contact IC card issuing system. 2. The contactless IC card issuing system according to claim 1, wherein said substantial transmission time is a time obtained by adding a transmission time and a compression / expansion time.
C card issuing system. 3. The non-contact IC card issuing system according to claim 1, wherein the writing dead time is a time required to generate write data of the next non-contact IC card.
A non-contact IC card issuance system, which is a time difference from a time until a next non-contact IC card is transported to a data writable range.