JP2598047B2 - Expired card - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to an IC card, a memory card, a wireless card, etc.
The present invention relates to a card having a built-in functional element, and more particularly to a card with an expiration date in which the expiration date is determined.

(Prior Art) In an information system or the like for controlling access to banking services and personal information, or entry into a confidential storage place, personal identification processing plays an important role. Conventionally, as this identification method, a method of identifying a user by a combination of a card in which personal information is registered and a recitation number has been adopted. Also, to make the system more reliable, IC
Development of a more sophisticated personal identification system using a card having a built-in functional element such as a card, a memory card, a wireless card, and the like is also in progress.

By the way, when a license, a passport, or the like is carded, for example, it is necessary to manage the expiration date. In addition, when using speaker verification for personal identification, it is necessary to provide a voice dictionary for verification in the card.However, since the characteristics of human voice usually change over time with age, the voice dictionary changes every few years. It is necessary to update the voice dictionary for collation, which also requires the expiration date of the card.

Therefore, conventionally, information on the expiration date of a card is stored inside the card, and the information on the expiration date is read out by a card reader and collated with the current time. If the expiration date has passed, the external device is prevented from accessing the card.

However, according to this method, data on the validity period stored inside the card is read out to determine whether the card is valid or invalid outside the card.
For example, access to the card can be made possible by operating the current time on the external device side or changing the judgment circuit, data inside the expired card can be read illegally, However, there is a problem in terms of security, such as generating false expiration date information by performing an unauthorized operation on the system and making it possible to use the system illegally.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in a conventional card with a built-in expiration date having a built-in functional element, information on the expiration date stored in the card is read out and the validity / invalidity judgment of the card is made outside the card. Because of this, the card whose expiration date has passed may be used illegally, and there is a problem in terms of security.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances,
An object of the present invention is to provide a card with an expiration date which is excellent in security by preventing a card whose expiration date has passed from being used illegally.

[Constitution of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention does not allow the validity period of a card to be rewritten in a card with an expiration date that is configured by incorporating a functional element in a card body and has an expiration date. A validity period storing means for storing the validity period of the card from the outside, a clock means for starting operation when the validity period of the card is written to the validity period storing means, and sequentially generating an elapsed time from the start of use of the card; An excess period detecting means for comparing the period with the elapsed time to detect that the elapsed time has exceeded the valid period, and causing the functional element to be in a function stop state when the excess period detecting means detects the excess period. And a function stopping means.

(Operation) According to the present invention, the validity period of the card stored inside the card is compared with the elapsed usage time generated inside the card, and when the validity period is exceeded, the function of the functional element is stopped by itself. State. These processes are all performed inside the card. For this reason, even if any unauthorized manipulation is performed outside the card, the card whose expiration date has passed cannot be used or the information disappears and cannot be used illegally. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an expiration date card with extremely high security when the expiration date is exceeded.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a memory card according to one embodiment of the present invention.

This memory card has an information recording unit 1
1, clock unit 12, validity period measurement unit 13, display unit 14, and I / O unit 15
And a built-in functional element.

The functional element recording unit 11 is a memory that stores information such as a personal user's personal card and a keyword. The information recording unit 11 also has a function of clearing the information stored therein by inputting an information erasure signal described later.
The clock unit 12 starts operating simultaneously with the first external writing of data, counts a predetermined clock pulse, and sequentially outputs the card usage elapsed time that changes every moment, that is, consumption time data. The validity period measuring unit 13 is an I / O unit 15
Is stored in a non-rewritable state, and the stored validity period data and the clock unit 12
When the consumed time data approaches the valid time and exceeds the valid time, information indicating this is output to the display unit 14, and the consumed time is calculated based on the valid time. An information erasure signal is output to the information recording unit when the time is exceeded. The display unit 14 receives the signal from the valid period measuring unit 13 and displays when the consumption time approaches the valid period and when the consumed time exceeds the valid period. As this display mode, any mode such as character display, blinking, color change, and sound can be considered. The I / O unit 15 controls exchange of data inside and outside the card, and exchanges data between the information recording unit 11 and an external device via a data line. The I / O unit 15 also supplies the expiration date data, which is the first data, to the expiration date measuring unit 13, outputs the data write signal W to the expiration date measuring unit 13, and outputs a clock start signal to the clock unit 12. Has the function of giving

Next, the operation of the memory card thus configured will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, a write signal R is input to a card on which nothing is written to write data (step 1). This write signal is a clock start signal with the clock of the clock unit 12 as a star. When data is written to the information recording unit 11, the clock unit 12 starts (step 22). With these processes, the card can be used (step 23). The validity period measuring unit 13 receives the data of the consumed time from the clock unit 12, and compares the data with the validity period specified in advance. As a result, when the consumption time becomes larger than a certain value m, the user is notified from the display unit 14 that the validity period has decreased (step 26). For example, if the validity period is 3
Assuming the year, m is set to about 2 years and 11 months. Therefore, the display unit 14 displays, for example, the number of remaining days when the expiration date falls below one month, and notifies the user that the expiration date is short.

As described above, the valid period and the consumed time are compared, and when the valid period is used up, the information erasing signal is output from the valid period measuring unit 13 to erase the data in the information recording unit 11 (step 27). When the data is deleted, the expiration date is displayed on the display unit 14, and the card cannot be used.

According to the above embodiment, if the card becomes useless after the expiration date, the internal data will not be stolen even if the card is not used up. Further, unlike the case where the expiration date is read by a card reader or the like, the data is controlled to be stored in hardware, so that unauthorized use becomes extremely difficult.

Further, according to this embodiment, since the validity period data is stored as non-rewritable information, it is possible to prevent an illegal act of rewriting the validity period. Note that the expiration date may be set in advance in hardware, without depending on a method of writing from outside.

Furthermore, according to the above embodiment, when the expiration date approaches and when the expiration date is exceeded, the display unit 14 also has a function of displaying the expiration date, so that the user can inadvertently exceed the expiration date. This makes it possible to provide an easy-to-use card.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the means for erasing the information in the information recording unit 11 is used as the function stopping means. However, a method of giving an excess detection signal to the I / O unit 15 and cutting off the external access may be used. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a memory card, but the present invention is applied to an IC card having an arithmetic processing function,
It goes without saying that the present invention is also applicable to a wireless card having a transmitter therein. When applied to a wireless card, a transmitting unit may be provided instead of the I / O unit in FIG. 1, and the function of the transmitting unit may be stopped after the expiration of the validity period. In addition, as a method of clock, time measurement, data erasure, and the like, various conventionally known methods can be appropriately used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the validity period and the elapsed time are compared inside the card, and when the expiration of the validity period is detected, the card itself stops its function. Therefore, it is possible to provide a card with an expiration date that is more secure than the conventional method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a memory card according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of the memory card. 11 Information recording unit, 12 Clock unit, 13 Valid period measurement unit, 14 Display unit, 15 I / O unit.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An expiration date card having an expiration date set by incorporating a functional element in a card body and having an expiration date set therein, and an expiration date storage means for irrevocably storing the expiration date of the card; A clock means for starting operation when the validity period is written to the validity period storage means and sequentially generating an elapsed time from the start of use of the card; and comparing the validity period with the elapsed time to determine the elapsed time. It is characterized by comprising a period excess detecting means for detecting that the validity period has been exceeded, and a function stopping means for bringing the functional element into a function stopped state when the period excess detecting means detects the period exceeding. Expired card. 2. A card with an expiration date according to claim 1, wherein said function stopping means is means for erasing information stored inside said functional element. 3. The card with an expiration date according to claim 1, wherein said function stopping means is means for disabling access between said functional element and an external element. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said period elapse detecting means indicates that the elapsed time has approached the valid period and / or that the elapsed time has exceeded the valid period. Card with expiration date stated.