JPH08249437A - Non-contact card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To know the exhausting of battery in advance without using a power source driving a card main body by providing the solar battery driving a voltage detection means and a display means. CONSTITUTION: In a card main body C', each of a solar battery (solar panel) e and a display device d composed of plural LED lamps d1 to d4 and d1 to d3 is provided. Each reception part in a card C, a CPU and a phase modulation part are driven by receiving the power supply from the battery. When the storage capacity of this battery is reduced, the card C can not be driven. Therefore, the battery is constituted so that the state of the battery may be understood when the solar battery e provided on the card main body C' is exposed to solar ray. Namely, when the solar battery e is irradiated with solar ray in the card C, a voltage detection circuit is driven and the voltage of the battery is detected. The driving circuit inputs the detection value, and turns on a and displays the LED d1 to d3 of the display device d corresponding to the inputted detection value.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contactless card,
In particular, the present invention relates to a device that can know the voltage state of a battery.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-246687, data is exchanged between a main body of an automatic ticket gate and a commuter ticket in a non-contact manner so that the main body of the automatic ticket gate is connected to the commuter ticket. You can do automatic ticket gates without inserting
The commuter pass used in the non-contact type automatic ticket gate is composed of a non-contact type card (hereinafter referred to as a card) which is an IC card having a communication function. The card has a built-in battery and is used as a drive power source for the card body.

By the way, since the above-mentioned card is constructed so as to be driven by a battery, the card cannot be used during the validity period of the card (commuter pass), or an expensive card is replaced due to battery exhaustion. There is concern that it will not be used.

Therefore, in order to solve such a concern, the voltage of the battery provided in the card body is monitored, and when the voltage drops below a predetermined voltage, that is, a voltage that hinders the driving of the card body. It has been proposed to issue an alarm prompting battery replacement (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-173109).

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned card in which the battery replacement alarm is issued, the circuit for detecting the voltage of the battery and the circuit for issuing the alarm also use the power source of the battery for driving the card main body. There is a drawback that it shortens the life of the card body.

[0006] Further, since a card in which an alarm is issued is often unusable thereafter, the appearance of a card capable of giving advance notice of battery exhaustion has been awaited.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a card capable of knowing a battery exhaustion in advance without using a power source for driving the card body. To provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a non-contact type automatic ticket gate according to the present invention is provided with a wireless transmitter provided in a main body of a card processing machine such as a non-contact automatic ticket gate. In a card that performs non-contact data transfer between them to perform a predetermined process such as an automatic ticket gate, voltage detection means for detecting a voltage of a battery for driving the card body,
The display device is characterized by having display means for displaying the voltage value detected by the voltage detection means or contents corresponding to the voltage value, and a solar cell for driving the voltage detection means and the display means. Further, the display means is characterized by comprising an LED lamp. Further, the display means emits an alarm sound when the detected voltage value is below a predetermined value.

[0009]

In the above structure, the voltage of the battery for driving the card body is detected by the detecting means driven by the solar cell,
The detected content is displayed on the display means driven by the solar cell.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of the back side when the card processing machine is a non-contact type automatic ticket gate and the card C is a commuter pass (card) used in the automatic ticket gate. Shows an example in which the voltage state of the battery (not shown) provided in the card body (card case) C'is indicated by voltage, and FIG. 9B shows the case where it is provided in the card body C '. The example which demonstrated and displayed the state of the battery which has been shown is shown.

Each of the above cards C'has a solar cell (solar panel) e and a plurality of (four in FIG. 1A and three in FIG. 1B) LED lamps d1 to d4, d1 to d1.
Indicators d3 are provided respectively.

Before describing the specific structure of the card C, the card C and the automatic ticket gate G will be described with reference to FIG.

The automatic ticket gate main body G has doors 1a and 1b for opening and closing the ticket gate passage P on the front and rear side surfaces of the housing H, and the front and back surfaces of the housing H have a passable direction. A display unit 2 is provided for displaying to the user. Further, a communication area 3 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the card C carried by the user by wireless communication is provided at the upper part of the front part and the rear part of the housing H. An antenna a connected to a transmitter, which will be described later, faces each of these communication areas 3.

Reference numeral S denotes a human detector for detecting a user's entry into the ticket gate passage P, exit from the ticket gate passage P, or passage of the user, and is attached to the side surface of the housing H and the arm 4. Speakers 5 for broadcasting a predetermined guide to the user are attached to both side surfaces of the housing H.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a controller for controlling the operation of the automatic ticket gate body G, which is configured by using a microcomputer. A transmitter T for transmitting / receiving data to / from the card C is connected to the controller 6.

Like the well-known non-contact type automatic ticket gate, the transmitter T transmits a transmission signal modulated with data such as a station name and today's date from the automatic ticket gate body G to the card C via the antenna a. It has a function of receiving a reflection signal reflected by the card C and demodulating data of the boarding section and the like sent from the card C.

Next, the card C will be described with reference to FIG. The card C, like a normal IC card having a communication function, has a receiving antenna 10a, a reflecting antenna 10b that phase-modulates data transmitted from the card C to the automatic ticket gate body G to generate a reflected signal, Receiving antenna 1
CPU 12 having a receiving unit 11 for processing the signal 0a received, a memory for storing data from the automatic ticket gate body G, and also for storing card data such as a boarding section
And a phase modulator 13 for modulating the subcarrier from the CPU 12 with the card data to modulate the phase of the reflected signal,
A battery E for driving each of these parts, that is, for driving the card body C is provided.

Further, in the card C, a voltage detection circuit v formed by a voltmeter for detecting the voltage of the battery E driven by the solar cell e, the detected voltage value is compared with a predetermined reference voltage value, A drive circuit j formed by a comparison circuit for selectively turning on the LEDs d1 to d4 and d1 to d3 of the display d and driving a buzzer b (not shown in FIG. 1) when the detected voltage value is equal to or higher than a predetermined value is provided. Has been.

In the card C having the above-described structure, when the transmission signal transmitted from the antenna a is received by the receiving antenna 20a, the transmission data from the automatic ticket gate main body G side is received by the receiving unit 11 having a detection circuit, a demodulation circuit and the like. It is extracted and stored in the memory of the CPU 12.

The CPU 12 controls the frequency of the main carrier (for example, 2.45) when the transmission signal of the automatic ticket gate body G is generated.
GHz), for example, a multiplication circuit (not shown) of the phase modulator 13 for generating a subcarrier of 500 KHz, which is sufficiently lower than
And the card data (digital signal) to be sent to the automatic ticket gate main body G is also output to the multiplication circuit (not shown) of the phase modulator 13. Therefore, a signal obtained by modulating the subcarrier with the card data is generated from the multiplication circuit.

The generated signal is transmitted through the phase modulation circuit (not shown) of the phase modulation section 23 to the reflection antenna 10b.
Is powered. Therefore, when the main carrier that is transmitted from the antenna a of the transmitter T in a time-division manner and hits the reflecting antenna 10b and is reflected, the phase is just modulated with the card data.

When the antenna a of the transmitter T receives the reflection signal reflected by the reflection antenna 10b, the reception circuit (not shown) performs detection processing, filtering processing, and amplification processing to extract data from the card C side. Then, the extracted card data is the controller 6 of the automatic ticket gate body G.
It is used for the calculation processing of the automatic ticket gates sent to.

Now, the receiving units 11 and C of the card C
The PU 12 and the phase modulation unit 13 are driven by being supplied with power from the battery E. When the storage capacity of the battery E decreases, the card C cannot be driven. Therefore, in the card C according to the present embodiment, the state of the battery E can be understood when the solar cell e provided in the card body C ′ is held over the sun rays (including the light rays of the electric light in the room). It is configured.

That is, in the card C, when the solar cell e is irradiated with sunlight, the voltage detection circuit v is driven and the voltage of the battery E is detected. Then, the drive circuit j inputs the detected value and causes the LED of the display d to light up and display corresponding to the input detected value.

In the example of FIG. 1A, the LED d1 is displayed to indicate that the voltage of the battery E is 3.0 V or more, and in the example of FIG. 1B, the LED d1 is displayed to indicate the battery It is displayed that the voltage of E is sufficient. When the voltage of the battery E detected by the voltage detection circuit v is equal to or lower than a predetermined value, for example, in the example of FIG. 1A, the voltage is 2.6.
When LEDd3 or LEDd4 is lit below the voltage, the buzzer b sounds, and in the row of FIG. 1B, LEDd2
Alternatively, when the LED d3 is turned on, the buzzer b is sounded to inform the user by voice.

Therefore, the owner of the card C (owner of the commuter pass) can easily know the state of the battery E of the card C and can know in advance that the battery is dead. Then, when the notice of the battery exhaustion is received, it is possible to request the staff to exchange the battery E, and it is possible to avoid the unusable state of the card C due to the battery exhaustion.

The battery E may be a secondary battery composed of a paper lithium battery, and the card body C'may be provided with a charging terminal so that charging can be performed through this terminal. Furthermore, the secondary battery E may be charged in a non-contact manner. That is, an antenna may be provided in the card body C ′ so that when the card C is held over the charger, the electromagnetic waves transmitted from the card C can be received and charged.

Further, in the above embodiment, the card C is the commuter pass used in the non-contact type automatic ticket gate, but it may be various cards such as a non-contact type credit card. Of course.

[0029]

The non-contact type card according to the present invention comprises voltage detecting means for detecting the voltage of the battery for driving the card body,
The voltage value detected by the voltage detection means, or display means for displaying the contents corresponding to the voltage value, and a solar cell for driving the voltage detection means and the display means, the state of the battery is the solar cell It is possible to monitor using the power source of No. 1, there is no fear of shortening the life of the card due to the monitoring, and it is possible to prevent the battery from running out. Further, when the display means is indicated by an LED lamp or when an alarm sound is emitted when the detected voltage value is below a predetermined value, the voltage state of the battery can be reliably notified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a card.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view when the card processor main body is a non-contact type automatic ticket gate.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a controller, transmitter and card.

[Explanation of symbols]

 G Automatic ticket gate main body a Antenna 6 Controller C card E Battery 10a Reception antenna 10b Reflection antenna 11 Reception section 12 CPU 13 Phase modulation section T Transmitter e Solar cell v Voltage detection circuit j Drive circuit b Buzzer d Display d1 ~ d4 LED

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A non-contact type which performs a predetermined process such as an automatic ticket gate by exchanging data in a non-contact manner with a wireless transmitter provided in a card processing machine body such as a non-contact type automatic ticket gate. In the expression card, a voltage detection unit that detects the voltage of a battery that drives the non-contact type card body, a voltage value detected by the voltage detection unit, or a display unit that displays the content corresponding to the voltage value, A non-contact type card comprising: a solar cell that drives the voltage detection unit and the display unit. 2. The non-contact type card according to claim 1, wherein the display means comprises an LED lamp. 3. The non-contact type card according to claim 1, wherein the display means emits an alarm sound when the detected voltage value is equal to or lower than a predetermined value.