Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F7/00—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
  • G07F7/08—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
  • G06Q40/02—Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07C—TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
  • G07C9/00—Individual registration on entry or exit
  • G07C9/20—Individual registration on entry or exit involving the use of a pass
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F7/00—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
  • G07F7/08—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means
  • G07F7/10—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means together with a coded signal, e.g. in the form of personal identification information, like personal identification number [PIN] or biometric data
  • G07F7/1016—Devices or methods for securing the PIN and other transaction-data, e.g. by encryption

Definitions

• the invention relates to a data transmission system with at least one database and at least one subscriber station, via which data from the database can be queried.
• the subscriber station can, for example, have a screen or a printer in order to make the transmitted data visible.
• authorization cards which are inserted into the machine and first checked for authenticity by the machine. These authorization cards can also function as prepaid cards that represent a certain monetary value. When using a machine, the purchase price is deducted from the credit recorded on the card and then the new credit is recorded.
• the object of the invention is to provide a data transmission system of the type mentioned in the introduction, in which the subscriber stations are protected against unauthorized use.
• the subscriber station has a reader for machine-readable authorization cards, which only permits data interrogation if an authorization card fulfilling certain test criteria is supplied to it.
• the authorization cards can carry individual identification information that is recorded by the reading device and a computer provided at the subscriber station and the database are fed.
• the database contains an encryptor, which mixes the useful information output from the database by reversibly linking it with the identification information, and the computer uses an inverse link to restore the useful information from the information mixture.
• the ⁇ labeling information serves another purpose. It is linked to the user information, namely in the encryptor according to a specific link or function, so that the user information is not transmitted to the subscriber, but rather a data mixture consisting of the user information and the identification information.
• the functions by which the fastener tion and the decryption of the data mixture takes place, are stored or wired in the computer or the encryptor.
• the data transmission system preferably works with the aid of the public telephone network. In this case, each telephone subscriber can be given the possibility to receive data from the database using an authorization card and also to provide data to the database using appropriate equipment.
• the subscriber can find out, for example, by selecting an airline's computer, whether a particular flight is fully booked. If this is not the case, he can make a booking, which of course requires a corresponding data input device in the form of a keyboard at the subscriber station. Money transfers are also possible in this way.
• the data is transmitted in the form of encrypted data in which the data to be transmitted are modified by the identification information.
• the authorization card only prompts the data input and data output of the database if a specific code is additionally entered on the keyboard of the subscriber station. In this way, misuse of the authorization card (even if it is lost or stolen) is practically impossible.
• the encryptor and the computer can be designed such that they interleave or deinterleave the bits of the identification information with the bits of the useful information.
• the bits of the identification information are scattered at specific locations between the bits of the useful information, so that neither of these two items of information can be selected from the mixed signal without knowing the law of the interleaving.
• the link can consist of a summation or a subtraction.
• the authorization card In order to protect the authorization card against unauthorized copying, it preferably contains two information groups which can be read separately and fed to the computer.
• the first information group can be card-specific and unchangeable, while the second information group consists of an information mixture of data that the correspond to the first information group, and variable data exists.
• the account balance of the cardholder's account or the date of the last use of the card can be recorded as variable data.
• This variable data is mixed with the card-specific data.
• the card-specific data are parameters which differ from card to card, for example the position of an optical marking on the card, an individual card number or the like.
• the function according to which the encryptor links the identification information with the useful information is the same as the function according to which the first information group on the card is linked to the variable data.
• the calculator can both test the
• the identification information on the card at least partially corresponds to the first information group, but may additionally contain further signals.
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the data transmission system
• Figure 2 is a view of the card reader and a card at the subscriber station and Figure 3 uses a block diagram to show the information flow at the subscriber station.
• a database 11 in the form of a large computer is connected to the public telephone network 10.
• the subscriber station 15 is also connected to a telephone subscriber line 12 to which a telephone set 13 is connected via a coupling device 14. This in turn is connected to a keyboard 16 and a printer 17.
• the database 11 has access to a large number of memories 17, in which retrievable data from banks, travel agencies, department stores, archives etc. are stored. However, this data is not sent directly from the database to the telephone network, but in encrypted form. To achieve this, an encryptor 18 is located at the exit of the database.
• a magnetic tape device 20 which is connected to the output of the coupling device 14, is used to record the encrypted data.
• the subscriber station 15 is activated by inserting an authorization card 21 into a card reader unit 22 (FIG. 2).
• the authorization card 21 has a longitudinal information track 23 made of magnetizable material, as well as a perforated strip 24 inserted between two card layers, which carries a series of card-specific information through its perforation.
• the Paper tape 24 is shorter than the card length, so that its spatial arrangement can vary in the longitudinal direction of the card. In card production, it is ensured that the arrangement of the punched tape on the card scatters in the longitudinal direction of the card, so that the distance a of the leading edge of the punched tape from the leading edge of the card is one of the sizes for individually identifying the card. This distance is determined in the card reader 22 in addition to the binary information contained on the card. Alternatively, the distance of the first row of holes of the tape from the front edge of the card can be determined.
• the paper tape 24 located inside the card is scanned with suitable radiation, for which the card material is transparent but the paper tape is opaque, by the reading device 25.
• a distance determining device 26 determines the distance a of the front edge of the paper tape from the front edge of the authorization card.
• the content of the magnetic track 23 is read by a read head 27, while the labeling of the magnetic track 23 with
• Pulses are made by the magnetic write head 28.
• the variable information (useful information) is located on the magnetic track 23, which can be deleted and, if necessary, re-recorded in a changed form and is additionally linked to the identification function of the special card by an arithmetic function.
• the magnetic track 23 thus contains mixed information from which the variable information can only be filtered out by one Unlinking is done.
• the identification information of the card consists of a hole pattern at a specific point on the tape 24 and additionally from the distance a.
• a suitable, clearly reversible arithmetic function is implemented in the computer 29, by means of which variable information is linked to the identification information of the card in order to produce the encrypted mixed information to be recorded on the magnetic track 23. If the mixed information read by the read head 27 is combined with the arithmetic function mentioned, the identification function arises, which must correspond to the identification function read by the devices 25 and 26 so that the prepaid card is recognized as genuine. Only then can the database communicate.
• the participant can use the keyboard to send 16 queries to the database or provide information to the database.
• the bits 29 generated by the keyboard are also linked in the computer 29 to the identification drawing information of the card. This link is defined by the same arithmetic function as the link between the variable data of the card and the identification information.
• the data of the keyboard 16 are therefore delivered in encrypted form to the linking device 18 of the database 11.
• the linking device 18 is in principle constructed in exactly the same way as the computer 29 of the subscriber station.
• Logic device 18 and computer 29 contain the same arithmetic logic function.
• the database sends the identification information of the authorization card to the link device 18 from the subscriber station, so that the link device 18 is then able to decode the card-specific mixed information coming from the subscriber station.
• Data that are queried from the database 11 are encrypted in the encryptor 18 in the same way, that is to say with the predetermined encryption function, taking into account the identification information of the authorization card.
• mixed data are delivered to the subscriber station 15, which cannot be deciphered without knowledge of the encryption function and the identification information of the card in question.
• This mixed information can be decrypted at the subscriber station 15 and then sent to the printer 17 so that it prints the useful information in a pure form.
• the mixing information can also be fed directly to a magnetic recording device 20 where it is recorded. The recording of the recording device 20 cannot be called up without the subscriber station 15 and without the identification information of the card in question, so that the content of the recording device 20 is secured against unauthorized removal.
• the subscriber station 15 must be set in function with the aid of the authorization card, so that the recorded mixed information can be decrypted and the pure useful information can be displayed on the screen 19.
• the system described offers comprehensive protection of the subscriber station against misuse by third parties, for example through unauthorized commissioning.
• the information transmission path is secured by subscriber-specific encryption or nesting of the useful information with the identification information. It is impossible for unauthorized persons to query personal, discrete data from the database.
• the invention enables the setting up of public subscriber systems for a telecommunications system for self-service with payment of charges via prepaid card systems.
• the variable information contained on the authorization card can represent an account balance that initially corresponds to the issue price of the authorization card.
• the account balance or the credit recorded on the authorization card is reduced. Furthermore, the user of the database can be clearly identified on the basis of the identification information, so that the usage fee can also be billed separately.
• the extensive protection of the data transmission system against misuse makes it possible to use the system to conclude legal transactions, such as making binding bookings, placing orders or making sales.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Technology Law (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Control Of Vending Devices And Auxiliary Devices For Vending Devices (AREA)
• Radio Relay Systems (AREA)
• Storage Device Security (AREA)
• Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
• Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=6071987

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (8)

Citations (3)

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• 1979
  • 1979-05-30 DE DE2921878A patent/DE2921878C2/de not_active Expired
• 1980
  • 1980-05-30 GB GB8101652A patent/GB2061578B/en not_active Expired
  • 1980-05-30 WO PCT/DE1980/000081 patent/WO1980002756A1/de not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1980-05-30 JP JP50129280A patent/JPS56500628A/ja active Pending
  • 1980-12-15 EP EP80901067A patent/EP0029444A1/de not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (3)

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