JPH087778B2 - Magnetic memory card identification structure - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reader / writer for a magnetic memory card having a magnetic stripe on the surface thereof, and more particularly to a magnetic memory having a light reflecting surface portion capable of identifying an authentic card by optical identification means. The present invention relates to a card reader / writer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to prevent forgery of a magnetic storage card having a magnetic stripe on the surface, a magnetic layer has a multi-layered structure, a bar code or a magnetic bar code is provided on the surface of the card, Further, in the case of a magnetic card that is not reused, methods such as punching holes after use on the magnetic recording surface have been implemented, but in each of the above methods, the forgery side can relatively easily analyze the structure. There is a problem that the card can be forged by using a relatively inexpensive device.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3 (1994) by the same applicant as the present application
In JP-71383, a hologram portion having a peculiar diffraction characteristic is provided on the surface of a card, illumination light is emitted toward the hologram portion by a reader / writer, and the reflected light is received,
A structure is disclosed that identifies a card as a regular card when the received light intensity is within a predetermined range. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-7
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-713 discloses a structure in which a diffraction grating portion having a unique diffraction characteristic is provided in place of the hologram portion.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 85 discloses a structure in which a large number of parallel V-shaped or U-shaped grooves having unique reflection direction characteristics are provided in place of the hologram portion.

According to each of the above publications, it is extremely difficult to analyze the hologram, diffraction grating, etc. for the purpose of counterfeiting a card, and it takes a great deal of cost to produce a similar hologram, diffraction grating, etc. This makes it virtually impossible to forge a card.

On the other hand, for example, there is a magnetic storage card in which the magnetic stripe extends parallel to the card transport direction and at a position deviated from the center line. Further, as a reader / writer for such a card, when the card is held in the hand and passed through a slot provided in the reader / writer, the magnetic stripe passes through a magnetic head provided so as to face this slot, and There is a form in which the exchange of This type of reader / writer can be downsized because there is no card transport structure, and the cost can be reduced because the number of parts is small.

[0006]

The object of the invention is to be Solved However, the above-mentioned identification
In another structure, the hologram part (or multiple parallel V-shaped or
Is the reflection (diffraction) of the light radiated to the U-shaped groove)
The hologram part (or
Relative position between the groove) and the optical identification means on the reader / writer side
The relationship is important, but in the case of reader / writers of the above type,
Since the user grips the card and passes it through the slot,
Example depending on the position of the program part (or groove part)
For example, when the card is tilted and passed,
The relative positional relationship between the
The above identification structure is used for cards that pass through reader / writers such as
There is a problem that it cannot be applied easily and its application range becomes narrow.
It was

In addition, when the reader / writer of the above-mentioned type is used, the portion touched by the user is easily soiled, and the hologram portion and the diffraction grating portion for optically performing data processing on the portion always touched by the user are used. Since the provision of such a mark may cause identification failure, care must be taken in its handling, which is extremely complicated. Therefore, the present inventors
In the case of a reader / writer of the type, the user can insert the card
When passing the
It is customary to press on the bottom of the lot and the user
Do not touch near the magnetic stripe of the card
I focused on that.

In view of the above problems of the prior art, a main object of the present invention is to provide a reader / writer for a magnetic storage card provided with a light reflecting surface portion having a unique reflection direction characteristic that can be identified by optical identifying means. Can be downsized and handled
And operations are not complicated, and identification failures are reduced.
It is to provide a possible magnetic storage card identification structure.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the above object is achieved by a magnetic stripe for magnetically recording data.
Is parallel to each long side of the rectangular card surface,
Also, the card surface is extended to a position biased to one long side.
A magnetic storage card whose surface is divided into a narrow region and a wide region, the magnetic stripe of the magnetic storage card, and the
Slots that pass through the area including the narrow side of the card surface
Of the data for the magnetic stripe at the position facing the
A structure for identifying a magnetic storage card in a magnetic storage card system having a reader / writer provided with a magnetic head for transmitting and receiving, the optical reflection having a unique reflection direction characteristic that can be identified by an optical identification means. surface portion, said
Area on the narrow side delimited by the magnetic stripe on the surface
Provided at one corner closer in the frequency, the a position facing the reader-writer of the slot, means for irradiating illumination light toward the light reflecting surface portion so as to identify the light reflecting surface portion and the illumination light of the light The present invention is achieved by providing an identification structure for a magnetic storage card, characterized in that an optical identification means having means for receiving the reflected light from the reflection surface portion is provided.

[0010]

[Function] As described above, the light reflecting surface portion is used as a magnetic sheet on the card surface.
One of the narrow sides divided by the tripe
By installing it near the corner, the corner of the
The optical identification hand of the reader / writer
The positional relationship between the step and the light-reflecting surface part does not almost shift.
Yes. In addition, the user is customary to partition with a magnetic stripe.
Gripping the wider area of the two created areas
Therefore, there is no need to worry that the light reflection surface part gets dirty. In addition,
The magnetic head for the tripe and the means for identifying the light reflecting surface
It can be installed in close proximity to the reader / writer side
The lot can be made shallow and the reader / writer can be miniaturized.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a first embodiment according to the present invention, in which a magnetic storage card 1 and a card reader / writer 2 are used.
It is a perspective view which shows typically the principal part structure.

As shown in FIG. 2 which is a plan view of the card 1, the rectangular surface of the card 1 is, for example, JIS,
The magnetic stripe 3 extends in parallel with the transport direction of the card 1 and at a position deviated from the center line thereof as defined by ISO. In addition, a narrow area 1a on the surface of the card 1 defined by the magnetic stripe 3 has a rectangular shape, and has a unique diffraction characteristic of diffracting and reflecting the illumination light emitted from the facing direction toward a predetermined position. A hologram portion 4 is provided as a light reflection surface portion made of the reflection hologram.

On the other hand, the card reader / writer 2 side is provided with a slot 5 for passing a portion of the card 1 including the magnetic stripe 3 and the area 1a. As shown in FIG. 3, a magnetic head 6 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the magnetic stripe 3 is provided in the card reader / writer 2 so as to face the slot 5. In addition, at a position upstream of the magnetic head 6 in the carrying direction of the card 1, in order to identify the hologram section 4 in order to identify that the card 1 is legitimate, an illumination of laser light is directed toward the hologram section 4. A light emitting element 7 as a means for irradiating light is provided so as to face the slot 5 as described above.

The light emitting element 7 has its position at the hologram portion 4
When the light passes through, the light-emitting element 7 and the hologram section 4 are shown in FIG.
It is designed to face each other as shown in. Further, the light emitting element 7 irradiates the hologram portion 4 with illumination light so that its optical axis is orthogonal to the extending surface of the hologram portion 4.

An annular light receiving element 8 is provided integrally with the light emitting element 7 at a position surrounding the light emitting element 7 (FIG. 5). The light receiving element 8 is composed of a multi-divided photodiode radially divided into eight portions 8a to 8h capable of receiving light separately. The light receiving element 8 is connected to an identification unit 9 including a known CPU, memory, I / F, etc. for identifying whether or not the card 1 is an authorized card.

In order to actually exchange data with the magnetic storage card 1 by the card reader / writer 2, the card 1 is moved in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 1, that is, from the upper right to the lower left in FIG. The card reader / writer 2 is passed through the slot 5 while being held in the hand. Then, first, since the hologram portion 4 and the light emitting element 7 face each other, the illumination light is irradiated toward the hologram portion 4 (FIG. 5), and the reflected light thereof is received by the light receiving element 8.
Among the portions 8a to 8h of 2 above, any two portions at symmetrical positions with respect to the light emitting element 7 are received as spot light, and when the received light intensity is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the identification unit 9 uses this card 1 Is identified as a legitimate card. Then, only when the card is identified as a legitimate card, the data is transmitted / received to / from the magnetic stripe 3 by the magnetic head 6. Therefore, for example, even if the card 1 is obtained for the purpose of counterfeiting a card, it is not only difficult to analyze the hologram, but also a great cost is required to create a similar hologram, so that the counterfeiting prevention effect is obtained. It will be extremely high.

In the present embodiment, the light emitting element is arranged so as to directly face the hologram portion (light reflecting surface portion), but in reality, the optical path is changed by an optical means such as a mirror or a prism. It may be. Further, in this embodiment, the card is identified and then the data is exchanged, but the card may be identified after the data is exchanged.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing a second embodiment according to the present invention, in which the same parts as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted. To do. In this embodiment, a diffraction grating section 24 having a unique diffraction characteristic is provided as a light reflecting surface section on the surface of the card 1. The diffraction grating portion 24 is composed of grooves of several hundreds / mm to several thousands / mm,
When the illumination light having the optical axis is irradiated in the direction orthogonal to the extending surface of the diffraction grating portion 24, the 0th-order diffracted light is applied as spot light to any two symmetrical portions of the portions 8a to 8h of the light receiving element 8. It is designed to diffract and reflect. The other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment.

In each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the hologram diffraction grating having the unique diffraction characteristic is used as the light reflecting surface. However, a large number of parallel V-shaped lines or U of several lines / mm to several hundred lines / mm are used.
You may comprise with a groove. In that case, the illumination light becomes an elliptical pattern and is received by symmetrical portions sandwiching the light emitting element 7 among the portions 8a to 8h of the light receiving element 8 including the multi-divided photodiode similar to the first embodiment. .

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the identification structure of the magnetic storage card of the present invention, the light reflecting surface is
Part is narrowed by the magnetic stripe on the card surface
By providing it near one corner in the side area, that corner
If the corner of the side card is in contact with the bottom of the slot,
Positional relationship between the optical identification means of the dalitter and the light reflecting surface
Is almost never displaced, and the user is
The larger area of the two areas divided by stripes
Since the area side is gripped, there is no need to worry that the light reflection surface will become dirty.
In addition, defective identification can be reduced. In addition, the magnetic head for the magnetic stripe and the identification means of the light reflecting surface portion can be provided in close proximity to each other, the slot on the reader / writer side can be made shallow, and the reader / writer can be miniaturized.

[0021]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of essential parts of a magnetic storage card and a card reader / writer showing a first embodiment according to the present invention.

2 is a plan view of the card of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the card reader / writer of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of FIG.

5 is a IV-IV showing the light emitting element and the light receiving element of FIG.
It is the arrow line view seen about the line.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a card similar to FIG. 2 showing a second embodiment according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Magnetic storage card 1a, 1b Area 2 Card reader / writer 3 Magnetic stripe 4 Hologram part 5 Slot 6 Magnetic head 7 Light emitting element 8 Light receiving element 8a-8h part 9 Identification unit 24 Diffraction grating part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic recording medium for magnetically recording data.
Leips should be flat on each long side of the rectangular card surface.
In a row and at a position biased to one long side
A magnetic storage card whose surface is divided into a narrow area and a wide area; and the magnetic stripe and the card of the magnetic storage card.
Slot that allows passage through the narrow surface area
Data transfer to and from the magnetic stripe at a position facing the
A structure for identifying a magnetic storage card in a magnetic storage card system having a reader / writer provided with a magnetic head for performing a light reflection surface part having a unique reflection direction characteristic that can be identified by an optical identification means. But the magnetic stripe on the surface
Is provided near one of the corners in the narrow side area defined by the above, and at the position facing the slot of the reader / writer, the illumination light is directed toward the light reflection surface portion in order to identify the light reflection surface portion. A discriminating structure for a magnetic storage card, comprising: an optical discriminating means having means for irradiating the light and means for receiving the reflected light of the illumination light from the light reflecting surface portion.