JPH0371385A - Information storage card and structure and method for identifying said card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the easy forgery of an information storage card and also to easily identify a regular card by providing an identifying part containing many parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves on the card surface. CONSTITUTION:A card 1 contains an identifying part 4 containing many parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves on its surface. Then a card reader/writer is provided with a means 9 which irradiates the part 4 with the illumination light, a photodetecting means 10 consisting of the 1st and 2nd photodetecting parts which receives the light reflected from the part 4, and a means 11 which compares the intensity of the reflected beams received by both photodetecting parts of the means 10 with each other and identifies the regular card 1. In such a constitution, the card identifying operation is not complicated and at the same time the groove forms of the part 4 are analyzed in order to avoid the easy forgery of the card 1. Thus the forgery of the card 1 can be prevented.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention is directed to counterfeiting of information storage cards, such as magnetic cards, IC cards, and optical cards, in which information is exchanged by a reader/writer. In order to prevent this, the present invention relates to an identification structure and method of an information storage card for identification by a reader/writer, and an information storage card.

<Prior art> For example, in order to prevent magnetic cards from being counterfeited, magnetic layers have been made to have a multilayer structure, barcodes or magnetic barcodes have been provided on the surface of the card, and magnetic cards that are not reused have been developed. When the magnetic recording surface is no longer needed, methods such as punching holes in the magnetic recording surface have been implemented.

However, each of the above methods has the problem that the counterfeiter can relatively easily analyze the structure of the card and can counterfeit the card using relatively inexpensive equipment. Furthermore, it is possible to complicate the internal structure of the card itself, but there is a problem in that the reader/writer that reads/writes to the card becomes complicated and larger.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In view of these problems of the prior art, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a card that is difficult to forge and easy to identify as a genuine card. An object of the present invention is to provide an identification structure and method for an information storage card, and an information storage card.

[Structure of the Invention] <Means for Solving the Problems> According to the present invention, such an object is an identification structure of an information storage card that exchanges information with a reader/writer,
The card has an identification section on its surface having a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves, and the reader/writer includes means for irradiating illumination light toward the identification section; a first groove parallel to the surface and extending in a direction perpendicular to the groove to receive reflected light of the illumination light;
and a second light receiving surface extending in a direction parallel to the surface and not orthogonal to the groove; An identification structure of an information storage card and an identification part consisting of a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves, characterized in that the card has a means for identifying that the card is a regular card by comparing the strengths with each other. A method for identifying an information storage card provided on the front surface using a reader/writer that sends and receives information to and from the card, the method comprising: directing illumination light toward the identification section of the card inserted into the reader/writer. a first light-receiving surface part parallel to the surface and extending in a direction orthogonal to the groove; And the light is received by a light receiving means consisting of a second light receiving surface section extending in a direction not perpendicular to the groove, and the intensity of the reflected light received by both the light receiving surface sections of the light receiving means is compared with each other. An information storage card identification method characterized by identifying that the card is a regular card, and an information storage card that sends and receives information using a reader/writer, the information storage card having a plurality of parallel cards that can be identified by optical identification means. This is achieved by providing an information storage card characterized by having an identification portion having a V-shaped or U-shaped groove on its surface.

<Operation> By doing this, card identification will not become complicated, and the groove shape of the identification part provided on the card can be analyzed,
Since it is difficult to forge, it is possible to prevent the card from being forged.

<Embodiments> Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment based on the present invention, and is a perspective view schematically showing the main structure of a magnetic card 1 and a card reader/writer.

The card 1 is driven by a conveyance roller (not shown) in the direction of the arrow, that is, approximately in the left-right direction in FIG. Writing/reading of information is performed using

On the other hand, an identification section 4 is located near the shoulder of the main surface 1a of the card 1.
is provided. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the identification portion 4 has several pieces/mm to
A first set 5 consisting of a large number of parallel V grooves 6 of several hundred grooves/mm.
and a second set 7 consisting of a large number of parallel V-shaped structures 8 extending in the direction of an imaginary line T different from the above direction.

On the card reader/writer side, a light emitting element 9 is provided as a laser beam irradiation means, which is perpendicular to the main surface 1a and at a predetermined interval with respect to the identification part 4 when the card 1 is in the position shown by the solid line in FIG. It is being In addition, as clearly shown in FIG.
A light-receiving element 10 consisting of a multi-division photodiode having .
1 is connected.

To actually identify the card 1, the card 1 inserted into the card reader/writer is held at a position orthogonal to the light emitting element 9, and illumination light is emitted from the light emitting element 9 toward the identification section 4. Then, the light reflected by the identification section 4 is transmitted to the light receiving element 10.
Light is received on each light-receiving surface portion 10a to 10fI in a pattern as shown in FIG. Therefore, by detecting the positional relationship between the light-receiving surface portions (light-receiving surface portions 10d, 10j and light-receiving surface portions 10e, 10k in FIG. 4) with high light reception intensity, the card 1 is identified as a regular card. Therefore, even if this card 1 is obtained for the purpose of forging a card, for example, it is not only difficult to analyze the groove pattern of the identification part, but also it requires a great deal of cost to create a similar identification part. Therefore, the anti-counterfeiting effect becomes extremely high.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be applied in various ways. For example, the identification section may be provided on the back side of the card. Further, a plurality of identification parts having mutually different groove patterns may be provided on the surface of the card to perform high-level identification, or identification may be performed using different identification parts depending on the state of use of the card. Further, in each of the above embodiments, illumination light is directly irradiated from the light emitting element to the identification section, but a mirror, a prism, etc. may be inserted into the optical path to change the direction of the optical path.

Furthermore, a positioning sensing device (PSD) or the like may be used as the light receiving element in addition to the photodiode. Furthermore, the light irradiated to the identification section is not limited to light of a specific wavelength, and may be, for example, white light.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, an identification section having a large number of parallel V-shapes or Ujis is provided on the surface of the card, illumination light is irradiated to this identification section by a reader/writer, and the reflected light is detected. The light received by the card is received by a light receiving means at a predetermined position, and the received light pattern is used to identify a genuine card, thereby making it possible to analyze the groove shape of the identification part for the purpose of card forgery. This makes counterfeiting of the card virtually impossible since it is difficult and requires a great deal of cost to create the identification part. In addition, cards are identified simply by illuminating the identification section with illumination light and detecting the shape pattern of the light received by the light receiving section, which can increase the size and complexity of the equipment installed in the reader/writer. do not have. From the above, the effects of the present invention are significant.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part configuration of a magnetic card and a card reader/writer to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the main part of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view taken along the line ■--■ in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a view taken along the TV-IV line in FIG. 1. 1...Card 1a...Main surface 2...Magnetic stripe 3...Magnetic head 4...Identification section
5...First group 6...V Uji 7...
- Second group 8...V Uji 9...Light emitting element 10...Light receiving element 11...Identification circuit 10a~
10R... Light receiving surface section

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) An identification structure of an information storage card that exchanges information with a reader/writer, wherein the card has an identification portion having a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves on its surface, and the reader/writer , means for irradiating illumination light toward the identification section; and means extending in a direction parallel to the surface and orthogonal to the groove to receive reflected light of the illumination light irradiated toward the identification section. a first light-receiving surface section that is parallel to the surface and a second light-receiving surface section extending in a direction not perpendicular to the groove; An identification structure for an information storage card, comprising means for identifying that the card is a regular card by comparing the intensities of the reflected lights. (2) The information storage device according to claim 1, wherein the cross sections of each of the grooves have the same shape, and each light-receiving surface portion of the light-receiving means is provided at a position surrounding the light-emitting means. Card identification structure. (3) The identification portion may include a group consisting of a large number of grooves extending in a certain direction and one or more groups consisting of a large number of grooves extending in a direction different from the aforementioned direction. An identification structure for an information storage card according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the information storage card has an identification structure. (4) A method for identifying an information storage card having an identification portion on its surface consisting of a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves using a reader/writer that sends and receives information to and from the card, the method comprising: irradiating illumination light toward the identification section of the card inserted into the reader/writer, and directing reflected light of the illumination light irradiated toward the identification section in a direction parallel to the surface and orthogonal to the groove. The light is received by a light receiving means consisting of a first light receiving surface section extending in a direction parallel to the surface and a second light receiving surface section extending in a direction not perpendicular to the groove; A method for identifying an information storage card, characterized in that the card is identified as a regular card by comparing the intensities of the reflected lights received by the light receiving surface. (5) An information storage card for exchanging information with a reader/writer, characterized by having an identification portion on its surface having a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves that can be identified by optical identification means. Information storage card. (6) The identification portion may include a group consisting of a large number of grooves extending in a certain direction and one or more groups consisting of a large number of grooves extending in a direction different from the aforementioned direction. The information storage card according to claim 5.