NL1029326C2 - Identification card. - Google Patents

Description

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Identification card

The present invention relates to an identification card comprising a part provided with a series of elongated adjacent lenses, wherein an information-containing layer is located under those lenses.

Such an identification card is known from US 4892336. Therein an identification document is described, provided with a cylindrical lens structure at the focal point of which a pattern of lines is present, whereby different lines can always be observed by tilting.

Such cards are increasingly protected against misuse. An important form of abuse is the modification of data present on the identification card. For example, in the state of the art all kinds of protections are known against changing photos, prints and the like. There are various levels of security. Certain data is more important than other data and therefore needs to be better protected.

With some identification cards such as driver's licenses, the information is important on both the front and back. Front is understood to mean that side where, in particular, there is data that makes it possible to identify the person in question, such as a photo of the holder of the identification card and biometric data! ; characteristics such as length and the like. Of course, chips can be included in the card to verify this on the spot. In this description the upper side is understood to mean the part closest to the observer.

Lower requirements are imposed on the reverse side of many identification cards.

This does not apply, or to a lesser extent, for driving licenses, for example, because the relevant categories that the holder of an identification card may drive are indicated at the rear.

1029326 (2 ί!

From US 4765656 a bank card is known with a cylinder-lens structure, wherein the offset effect of an image described above is obtained by tilting. ; The object of the present invention is to provide a further security for an identification card. More in particular, this security must be such that, on the one hand, variable data can be provided in a simple manner at the security site, i.e. data that is dependent on the rightful holder of the card and, on the other hand, it is immediately clear when 10 individually entered data has been tampered with.

This object is achieved with an identification card described above in that a pattern of lines and / or points is present adjacent to said information-containing layer, arranged such with respect to those lenses that when tilting that portion provided with lenses with respect to the observer a staggered (moire) pattern arises from that pattern relative to those lenses when the position of that information-containing layer remains unchanged.

It has been described above that according to the present invention the position of the relevant data is not changed. However, the intensity can be dependent! change the angle at which the relevant information is observed. j

According to the present invention, a moire pattern is used in combination | with the writable information. Because this individual information input does not meet the requirements with which a pattern that provides a moire pattern meets, the user will immediately notice the occurrence of the moire effect of the always present pattern when tilting the relevant part of an identification card. substantially not changing the position of the individually applied information.

30 Should any abuse occur, this can be seen immediately by the local loss of the moire effect.

3

The moire effect described above can be obtained in any manner known per se in the prior art. The moire effect is created in a particularly simple manner if a line pattern is provided under the lenses. Such lines are preferably parallel and extend in particular at a slight angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the lenses which are preferably designed as cylindrical lenses. This angle is more particularly an angle that is between 2-6 ° with respect to the longitudinal axis of the cylinder lenses and is more particularly about 3 °.

The frequency of the lines, i.e. the distance between the lines, is preferably at most the diameter of the cylinder lenses in question. If this distance is smaller, the pattern of the lines is preferably such that a fixed number of lines fits within the diameter of the lens.

Instead of lines, line segments (stripes), dots or a "grid" pattern can also be used in combination with the lenses. It will be understood that the lenses can also be designed differently from cylinder lenses.

This line pattern or other pattern is preferably above or next to the written information. This written information can be introduced using a laser light-sensitive layer. An example of a laser photosensitive layer is a polycarbonate layer in which very small proportions of carbon are present. When laser light is hit on the carbon, heat will develop which leads to the carbonization of polycarbonate and the blackening resulting therefrom.

By making the lines or other parts of moire pattern (partially) transparent, the written text will still be clearly visible when applying the written text below the moire pattern.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the staggered pattern lies in! 30 the focal point / focal line of the relevant cylinder lens. The information in question preferably does not lie at the focal point or the focal line, but can be arranged from the outside both in front of and behind the staggered pattern.

* 4

According to the present invention, in particular, the staggered pattern is provided with any printing pattern known in the art. The non-staggered information, which is preferably not in focus with the lens, is preferably applied at a later stage and more particularly, in the manner described above with a laser beam.

If a European driving license is to be secured, the lines, points and the like that are used to obtain a moiré pattern in combination with lenses will preferably have a pink / red color.

10

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing. It shows:

FIG. 1 the front of a driver's license, FIG. 2 the rear of a driving license according to fig. 1;

FIG. 3 the cross-section according to line III-III in fig. 2; and FIG. 4 the lines of the moire pattern in top view.

FIG. 5 shows the moire pattern that results from tilting the part of the driving license that is designed in accordance with the invention.

20

A driving license 1 is shown in Figs. The front is indicated by 2 and the ones shown in fig.

2 shown at the back with 3. The front contains information about the holder such as a photo 7 and a description of personal characteristics of the holder.

25

On the back, as shown in Fig. 2, there are the categories for which the user is entitled. Additional information may be present.

In order to ensure that changing the categories is unlawfully directly visible to the controlling authority, the security shown in Figs. 2-4 is proposed according to the present invention. It consists of a lens structure 9. The lenses 9 are elongated cylinder lenses with a diameter a. These lenses can be of any known transparent material, such as, for example, a polycarbonate material.

5

A layer 10 lies beneath these lenses forming this lens. This layer 10 consists of a laser-writable layer. At the top the layer 10 is provided with a print pattern. In the present example, this pattern consists of a large number of parallel lines 11 which extend at a slight angle with the longitudinal axis 16 of the cylinder lenses (Fig. 4). This small angle is approximately 3 ° in the exemplary embodiment shown. In the present exemplary embodiment, the lines 11 applied by the printer (for attaching the lenses 9) are colored red / pink and transparent for (black) information below. The distance between the lines is indicated by b. Preferably a = n x b. N is an integer.

Information can be written into the layer 10 with the aid of the laser beam 5 shown schematically. This information is provided in the layer 10 itself and is located below the lines 11 provided by printing. Because these are (partially) transparent, this is no obstacle to keeping the information 12 readable.

When tilting the map shown here as shown in Fig. 5, a so-called moire effect will arise for the observer 15 as regards the lines 11. This effect is clearly visible to the observer. However, the information provided with the laser beam 5 will not exhibit the offset effect. As a result, the observer can see clearly whether the map has been manipulated when tilting.

After the above, 25 variants will immediately occur to those skilled in the art. It is thus possible to provide all kinds of other types of moire patterns. Moreover, it is possible to provide further safety features in combination with the above described. Examples of this are the application of a metallic strip which makes photocopying impossible. These and further changes are obvious after the above and within the scope of the appended claims.

1029326

Claims (11)

Identification card (1) comprising a part (3) provided with a series of elongated adjacent lenses (9), wherein there is an information-containing layer (10) beneath said lenses, characterized in that adjacent to said information-containing layer pattern lines and / or points are present, arranged in such a way relative to those lenses that when tilting that part (3) provided with respect to the observer a staggered (moire) pattern of that pattern with respect to those lenses is created leaving the position 10 of that layer containing information unchanged. Identification card according to claim 1, characterized in that said information-containing layer is adjacent to said offset pattern. The identification card of claim 1, wherein said information-containing layer is a laser writable layer. Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said information-containing layer is located below said pattern. 20 Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said pattern is applied to said information-containing layer. 6. Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said pattern comprises a grid pattern. Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said pattern comprises a repeating pattern wherein the size (b) of said pattern is 1 / n x the diameter (a) of the lenses where n is a whole. 30 Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said pattern comprises a print (partly) of transparent ink. 1029326 Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, comprising a driver's license. 10. Identification card according to claim 9, wherein the information-containing layer 5 comprises information relating to the vehicle category to be controlled. 11. Identification card according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said pattern has a pink / reddish color and is transparent. 1029326