JPH0642873Y2 - prepaid card - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the display of the number of valid times or the valid amount of money in a prepaid card, that is, a prepaid circulation card.

<Prior Art> Conventionally, a prepaid card is composed of a magnetic section in which information is magnetically recorded and a printing section for indicating the number of valid times, as in a telephone card. When the user inserts these magnetic cards into the reader / writer of the main body, the reading head in the reader / writer reads the information of the balance or the remaining number of times recorded in the magnetic part, and the read information is displayed on the display of the main body, At the same time, driving of the main body is started. Next, when the user uses the main body for the required amount of money or the required number of times within the balance or the remaining number of times of the card, the amount of money used or the number of times of use is charged to the magnetic part by the stop signal indicated by the user. It is updated by subtracting from the remaining number of times, and further, the reduction or the number of times of reduction is displayed visually on the printing part of the effective number display,
The drive of the main body is stopped. Further, when the display of the main body displays the balance or the remaining number of times 0, the drive of the main body is automatically stopped.

In recent years, prepaid cards, like telephone cards, are in high market demand and will be used in various fields in the future.

<Problems to be solved by the invention> However, since a magnetic card as a prepaid card is provided with a magnetic part and a printing part in the card body, processing cost and material cost are required, and the manufacturing cost of the card is never cheap. Instead, it was uneconomical to use magnetic cards for prepaid cards that are used in large numbers.
Further, since data is magnetically recorded on the magnetic card, there is a possibility that the data may be lost when it is touched with a clasp using a magnet on the mouth of the handbag or a magnetic necklace. Further, when magnetic cards and readers for reading the magnetic cards have become quite popular as in today's world, and there are many people who have technical knowledge about them, there is a fear that forgery and falsification can be performed relatively easily. An object of the present invention is to provide a card having a fluorescent recording portion instead of the magnetic recording portion as described above, and particularly to solve the problem of how to display the reduction count or the reduction display. Is.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to solve such problems, the present invention has a fluorescent absorption layer on at least one surface of a card substrate, and heats the fluorescent absorption layer on the surface. A prepaid card which is provided with a transparent material, and a fluorescent material which sequentially emits fluorescent light upon irradiation with a number of rays in a specific wavelength region corresponding to the effective number of times or the effective amount of money, on the transparent material. Is provided.

<Operation> When the user inserts the card of the present invention into the reader, the number of read heads including the light source, the light receiving element, and the heating element is equal to the number of valid times or the effective amount of money on the card.
The main body starts to drive when approaching the fluorescent body, the light source section irradiates a light beam in a specific wavelength range, and the light receiving element detects whether or not the fluorescent light is emitted. .

At the same time, the remaining number of times or the remaining amount may be calculated from the number of cases in which no fluorescence is detected and displayed on the display of the main body.

Next, when the user uses the main body for the required amount of money or the required number of times within the balance of the card or the remaining number of times, the stop signal issued by the user causes the number of fluorescent bodies to be directly below the number of fluorescent bodies equal to the used amount or the number of uses. When the heating element comes into contact with a certain heating transparent material and the heating transparent material at the contact point becomes transparent, the driving of the main body is stopped.

<Example> Next, an example of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a prepaid card (1) according to the present invention. A fluorescent absorption layer (3) is provided on the surface of the card substrate (2). As the fluorescence absorption layer (3), a material that absorbs fluorescence having a peak of emission spectrum in the visible region and the infrared region is used. Black ink is suitable as such a material. When the ink is used, the fluorescent absorption layer (3) is formed by a method such as silk screen printing or offset printing. A heat transparent material (4) (white in this embodiment) is formed on the fluorescent absorption layer (3). At room temperature, the heat-transparent material (4) hides the underlying fluorescent absorption layer (3) and at the same time reflects the fluorescent light, and becomes transparent when heat is applied by the heating element (10), and the fluorescent material under the fluorescent material becomes transparent. It is necessary that the absorbing layer (3) has a property of being transparent. As such a material, there is an emulsion in which fine particles of a synthetic resin having a high minimum film forming temperature are dispersed in water. Examples of the synthetic resin include a simple substance or a copolymer of styrene, butachen, vinyl acetate acrylate and the like.

The heated transparent material (4) is made into an ink and formed by a method such as silk screen printing or offset printing.
An anchor layer may be provided on the heat-transparent material (4) in order to improve the adhesiveness to the fluorescent body portion described below. On the heat-transparent material (4), the fluorescent substance portion (5) is printed by means of ultraviolet-emitting fluorescent ink by means such as printing, as shown in the plan view of FIG. (10 in the present embodiment, that is, 3-
1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 3-
7, 3-8, 3-9, 3-10) are provided. The ultraviolet light-emitting fluorescent ink is a mixture of an ultraviolet light-emitting fluorescent material and a transparent silk screen ink or offset ink called medium.

The first of these ultraviolet-emitting phosphors is one that is excited by ultraviolet rays and has peaks in the fluorescence spectrum emitted when returning to a lower energy level than this, in the blue, green, and red wavelength ranges. For such ultraviolet light emitters,
Ca ₂ B ₅ O ₉ Cl: Eu ²⁺ , CaWO ₄ : ZnO: Zn, Zn ₂ SiO ₄ : Mn, Y ₂ O ₂ S: E
u, ZnS: Ag, YVO ₄ : Eu, Y ₂ O ₃ : Eu, Gd ₂ O ₂ S: Tb, La ₂ O ₂ S: Tb, Y
₃ Al ₅ O ₁₂ Ce, etc., which are used as a simple substance. The second one is a mixture of the first phosphors in several kinds at an appropriate ratio, and the fluorescence spectrum has peaks other than the wavelength ranges of blue, green, and red. is there.

If the weight ratio of the ultraviolet fluorescent substance in the ink is 5% or more, the fluorescent element can detect the fluorescent substance. This ultraviolet-emitting fluorescent ink is printed by silk screen printing, offset printing, or the like.

Paper, synthetic paper, PET or the like is used as the material of the card base material. Designs and characters (6) are printed on other portions as necessary.

Next, reading of the ultraviolet light emitting fluorescent material portion will be described. FIG. 3 is a view in which the prepaid card (1) of the present invention is inserted into the reader (12) attached to the game machine body (11). FIG. 4 is a view in which the reading head (7) built in the reader (12) is located on the fluorescent main unit (3) of the inserted prepaid card (1). (8) is an ultraviolet source,
(9) is a light receiving element, and (10) is a heating element. The heating element (10) is already connected to (11), and the transparent heating material (4) under the fluorescent body part (5) becomes transparent, and the fluorescent absorption layer (3) under it.
Is the place where you can see through.

The operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

When the prepaid card (1) is inserted into the reader (12), the reading head approaches the fluorescent body part (5), comes to the first position (3-1), stops, and comes from the ultraviolet source (8). When the fluorescent substance part (5) is irradiated with the ultraviolet ray (λ1), the ultraviolet ray excites the fluorescent substance part (5) to emit the fluorescent light (λ2) (visible light in this embodiment).
Is emitted, and this fluorescence is directed to the light receiving element (9). When the light receiving element detects this fluorescence, the main body starts driving. At the same time, the effective amount of the card or the remaining number of times is displayed on the display (not shown) of the main body, and the remaining amount or the remaining number of times is continuously displayed while the main body is driven.

Next, if the user is within the effective amount or number of times the card is valid,
When the main body is used for the required amount of money or the effective number of times, the heating transparent material (4) immediately below the fluorescent body parts (5) of the number equal to the amount of use or the number of times of use is generated by the stop signal issued by the user to the main body. The heating element (10) descends on each of them and comes into contact with them to become transparent, so that the fluorescent absorption layer (3) under the heating transparent material (4) can be seen through as shown in (11) of FIG. Then, the main body stops driving.

This transparency is made in the same area as or slightly larger than the fluorescent body portion (5). It should be noted that each of the heating elements rises after each color development, and moves to stop at a predetermined position.

Next, when the prepaid card position is again inserted into the reader (12), the reading head (7) approaches the fluorescent body part (5) as described above, comes to the first position (3-1), and stops.
Ultraviolet rays are radiated from an ultraviolet ray source (8) to receive a light receiving element (9).
Operates to detect the fluorescence (λ2), but if the transparent material (4) is already transparent, the dye (black in this example) of the fluorescence absorption layer (3) therebelow causes Since most of the fluorescence (λ2) is absorbed, the fluorescence toward the light receiving element (9) is extremely reduced, and the fluorescence is not detected.

When this is confirmed, the reading head moves to (3-2), the same scanning is repeated, and when the fluorescence is detected, the main body starts driving. At the same time, the remaining amount of money or the number of remaining times is calculated from the number of undetected fluorescent lights and displayed on the display of the main body. Further, in this embodiment, when the transparent heating material (4) becomes transparent, the color (black in this embodiment) of the fluorescent absorption layer (3) thereunder can be seen through, so that it can be played on the game machine. Since it indicates the number of times played or the amount of money, it is possible to easily visually confirm the number of remaining plays and the amount of money remaining. The present invention can be used for vending machines, ticket vending machines, etc. as well as game machines because the balance can be confirmed.

The phosphor used in the prepaid card according to the present invention is not limited to the phosphor that emits light in the ultraviolet wavelength region as described in the present embodiment, and for example, the phosphor that emits light in the ultraviolet wavelength region. May be used.

Further, as the infrared fluorescent luminescent material, the composition is YF ₃ : Yb, Er,
ZnS: Cu.Co and the like. Further, there is a device which has a characteristic of receiving an excitation light having a wavelength of 1 and emitting an infrared ray having a wavelength of 2, and has a property of input 1 ≠ input 2 and input 1 <input 2.

As such an infrared fluorescent material, for example, the composition is LiNd
_{0. 9 Yb 0. 1 P} 4 O 12, LiBi 0. 2 Nd 0. 7 Yb 0. 1 P 4 O 12 NaNd 0. 9 Yb 0. 1 P
_{4 O 12, Nd 0. 8} Yb 0. 2 Na 5 (WO 4) 4, Nd 0. 8 Yb 0. 2 Na 5 (Mo 0. 5 W 0. 5
_{O 4) 4 Ce 0. 05} Gd 0. 05 Nd 0. 75 Yb 0. 15 Na 5 (W 0. 7 Mo 0. 3 O 4) 4, N
_{d 0. 9 Yb 0. 1} Al 3 (BO 3) 4 Nd 0. 9 Yb 0. 1 Al 2. 7 Cr 0. 3 (BO 3) 4, Nd 0.
_{6 Yb 0. 4 P 5 O} 14, Nd 0. 8 Yb 0. 2 K 3 (PO 4) has _two such, both receiving the infrared excitation light (ON 1) 800 nm, emission spectrum 980nm~1020nm It emits infrared rays (in 2) having a remarkable peak.

Such infrared light emitters are described in detail in JP-A-54-100991 and JP-B-53-40594, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

If the weight ratio of the infrared emitting phosphor in the ink is 5% or more, the light receiving element can detect the fluorescent light and the emitting infrared light.

In addition, by mixing several kinds of light-emitting fluorescent substances at an appropriate ratio, the emitted fluorescent light has a special wavelength, which is very effective as a method for preventing forgery.

<Effects of the device> The prepaid card according to the present invention does not require any special processing, and the material is inexpensive, so the manufacturing cost is reduced, and the data is lost due to the influence of the external magnetic field like a magnetic card. Since it will not be lost, it will further enhance safety. In addition, the reader is cheaper because it has a simpler mechanism than the one for magnetic cards, and the number of parts is small.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a prepaid card according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a plan view, FIG. 3 is a view in which a prepaid card is inserted into a reader attached to the game machine, and FIG. 4 is a view in which the reading head is close to the fluorescent body portion. Card substrate …… 2, Fluorescent absorption layer …… 3 Fluorescent material ………… 5, Heating transparent layer …… 4 Ultraviolet source …… 7 Light receiving element …… 9 Heating element …… 10 Transparent heating material The part you did …… 11

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G07F 7/08 H04M 17/00 2116-5K (56) Reference JP-A 63-272594 (JP, A) JP 56-94484 (JP, A) Actual opening 62-132467 (JP, U) Actual opening 63-130272 (JP, U) Actual opening 63-189672 (JP, U)

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A card base material having a fluorescent absorbing layer on at least one surface thereof, a heating transparent layer on the fluorescent absorbing layer, and an effective number of times or more on the heating transparent layer. A prepaid card characterized in that phosphors that emit fluorescence by irradiation with rays in a characteristic wavelength region corresponding to the effective amount are sequentially provided. 2. The prepaid card according to claim 1, wherein the phosphor emits fluorescence upon irradiation with light rays in the ultraviolet wavelength range. 3. The prepaid card according to claim 1, wherein the phosphor emits fluorescence upon irradiation with light rays in the infrared wavelength range.