Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
  • G06K13/00—Conveying record carriers from one station to another, e.g. from stack to punching mechanism
  • G06K13/02—Conveying record carriers from one station to another, e.g. from stack to punching mechanism the record carrier having longitudinal dimension comparable with transverse dimension, e.g. punched card
  • G06K13/08—Feeding or discharging cards
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
  • G06K7/00—Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns
  • G06K7/0013—Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns by galvanic contacts, e.g. card connectors for ISO-7816 compliant smart cards or memory cards, e.g. SD card readers
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/418—External card to be used in combination with the client device, e.g. for conditional access
  • H04N21/4181—External card to be used in combination with the client device, e.g. for conditional access for conditional access
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/442—Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk
  • H04N21/44236—Monitoring of piracy processes or activities

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a mechanical assembly according to the preamble of claim 1.
• accepters of badges or cards for example bank cards or credit cards, which allow the user, hereinafter called operator, to withdraw his card from the acceptor at any time.
• electro-mechanical acceptors designated hereinafter and in the claims by the general term of mechanical assembly, are for example intended to receive the front part of a badge of small dimensions, which can for example also serve as a key chain, this front part communicating with the acceptor in order to validate a transaction, such as for example the crossing of a door, requested by the operator.
• These front parts can be of any shape, the only constraint being that the operator easily checks by touch that the front part of the object of which he is the holder is properly inserted in the acceptor.
• smart cards play an increasing role in particular because of the significant possibilities offered by these chips or microprocessors embedded in the plastic of the card or object. . These possibilities are linked to the high density of information that it is possible to store in this kind of chip.
• the smart card can in particular be of conventional dimensions, corresponding to ISO 7816-1 and 7816-2 standards, or a more reduced format called SIM used in particular in mobile phones.
• the present invention relates to the field of personal objects to be inserted into acceptors or mechanical assemblies intended to receive such objects, these objects being of restrictive use.
• the object is intended to be definitively inserted into a mechanical assembly, theoretically without ever having to be removed from this assembly thereafter, except in the event of the mechanical assembly being returned to the factory or other operation being carried out. under the control of the body delivering the object to be inserted.
• This case is for example that of pay television decoders or IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder), in which a decoder is provided to the subscriber together with an object generally in the form of a card. chip of various dimensions.
• the object is introduced into the mechanical assembly during manufacture in the factory, irreversibly, and the mechanical assembly is delivered without the user being even informed of the fact that the delivered assembly contains a object which must never be extracted by an unauthorized person.
• SIM cards are sometimes, in known manner, included in an ISO 7816 format card with the possibility of breaking most of the surface of this card along lines of least resistance, by throwing the corresponding plastic to obtain a SIM card.
• the mechanical assembly consists, for example, of a small box provided with two rails, rails in which the edges of the SIM card slide. This small housing is mounted, in known manner, pivotally in the mechanical assembly.
• the SIM card can only be inserted into the case when an upper part of the mechanical assembly is open, which allows space to pivot up the case, to clear the opening through which the SIM card can be inserted or extracted by following the rails.
• the present invention proposes to solve this problem by the means described in the characterizing part of claim 1.
• the means for inhibiting the functionalities of the object can be, as we will see, both mechanical and electrical in nature. They involve the more or less complete destruction of the object at the same time as the inhibition of its functionalities.
• the personal object used to identify the operator or his installation is a so-called smart card, generally made of plastic material in the form of a relatively rigid sheet, having a recess in which is embedded, during the manufacture of the card, a microprocessor also called chip.
• chip is widely used and used in the industry, and pictorially evokes the fact that some processors are provided with metal tabs making contact with a substrate, which makes them look like a chip.
• the first case comes down to cards of a certain area, and in particular ISO 7816 cards.
• the inlay may, preferably but not necessarily, leave one or more depressions in the immediate vicinity of the chip, intended to facilitate the destruction or tearing of this chip as will be seen below.
• the plastic surface available is small and only allows with difficulty to arrange depressions next to the chip. It is then preferable to provide an irreversible clip-on of the housing in its housing in the mechanical assembly, as will be explained below.
• the empty housing is first pivotally mounted in the mechanical assembly, the upper part of this assembly obviously being not yet installed.
• the construction of the mechanical assembly is carried out in such a way that when one pushes the casing down, that is to say to make it take its normal horizontal position before mounting the upper part of the 'mechanical assembly, the housing is irreversibly inserted, or even snaps, into its housing.
• This housing can preferably be with restricted accessibility, so that it is difficult for the operator to release the housing.
• the only accessibility constraint is to authorize the insertion of the SIM card by sliding in the rails of the case in the upwardly pivoted position, before pressure and snap-in during assembly.
• the chip is, in known manner, in contact with connectors, themselves connected with the electronic part housed by the mechanical assembly.
• the object has a fragile and brittle part in tension.
• the object comprises on the one hand a portion remaining accessible by the operator when the object is inserted into the mechanical assembly, and on the other hand a portion which is it out of access.
• a part of the object which does not necessarily correspond to one of the aforementioned portions, is easy to break, for example thanks to the presence of a line with less resistance or of smaller section, or by inclusion impurities in the material of which the object is made.
• the fragility of the part in question can possibly also manifest itself in bending. It is however essential, in this form, that it effectively causes the object to rupture when an attempt is made to extract it from the mechanical assembly.
• This result can be obtained by various means, one of which consists in providing at the level of this fragile part, in the mechanical assembly, a device which reinforces embrittlement, for example local heating, causing a degradation of the mechanical resistance characteristics of the line of least resistance, or the actuation of a guillotine crushing the line of least resistance and causing its partial collapse, or a combination of these two methods.
• the actuation of this guillotine, or the local heating of the line of least resistance are activated for example by the closing of a contact at the bottom of the housing of the object in the mechanical assembly, closing which is triggered during the whole start of object removal.
• the object is broken into at least two parts, one being removed by the operator during the attempt to extract the object, and the other remaining permanently and inaccessible in the mechanical assembly
• the housing comprises connectors coming into contact with the surface of the SIM card
• These connectors have at least one preferred breaking point in the event of abnormal mechanical stress, in particular such occurring during an unauthorized attempt to extract the SIM card
• these connectors are broken, the inhibition of the functionality of the mechanical assembly is acquired and irreversible unless return to the factory, which is equivalent to screening for an attempt to extract the SIM card
• the connectors coming into contact with the surface of the chip are applied to this surface only when the card is fully inserted into the slot provided for this purpose in the mechanical assembly
• This manual insertion into the bottom of the slot by the operator is the event triggering the irreversibility of the insertion of the card II can indeed be provided, very simply, that the edge of the smart card comes to close a contact at the bottom of the housing and that this contact controls the lowering of the connectors on the smart card.
• bracing means which come to grip the edge of the chip thanks to this crevice, and this as soon as the card is put in place.
• bracing means may in particular be hooks combined with the connectors, by a sizing chosen in such a way that they snap onto the edge of the chip when the connectors are lowered.
• the bracing effect means that as soon as an attempt is made to withdraw the card, an edge of the chip is lifted and tends to be peeled off or torn from the bottom of the recess of the plastic card .
• This tear-off effect automatically and certainly results in the loss of the functionality of the chip.
• the operator manages to extract the card from the mechanical assembly one or more of the contacts of the chip are then missing or damaged, and the calculation means present in the chip are able to detect the damage and therefore to detect the prohibited maneuver. The card is therefore rendered unusable for later use.
• the bracing means are independent of the connectors and include inclined knives which slide into the abovementioned crevice. They are obviously, for better efficiency, tilted in a direction which precisely causes a bracing effect.
• knife is meant a rigid piece whose active edge is sufficiently tapered to wedge between the edge of the recess of the plastic card and the edge of the chip.
• the knives can be subjected to the action of one or more springs which make them constantly press on the surface of the card.
• the leading edge of the card temporarily raises the knives by compressing the spring or springs, then when the card is at the bottom of its slot the edges sharp knives snap into the crevice separating the edge of the chip from the plastic part of the card.
• an attempt to withdraw the card automatically causes an operation of thermal destruction, by strong current and Joule effect, of the sensitive components included in the chip and secondarily of the chip itself.
• the closing of a contact as described above when starting to withdraw the card can trigger the placing under high electrical voltage of certain connectors in contact with the chip.
• the contacts of the chip are traversed by a current greater than the maximum tolerable by the processor electronics. This is reflected on the one hand by the desired inhibition of the functionality of the processor, this inhibition being irreversible thanks to the fragility of the components. This is reflected on the other hand and secondarily by the degradation of the characteristics of the insulators forming the border between the different contacts of the chip.
• the material chosen for the contacts has a relatively low melting point, heating can also melt the contacts. It is understood that at this stage of disturbance, the chip is unusable for any subsequent attempt at normal use, which obliges the operator to report to obtain the replacement of his card and possibly of the mechanical assembly, if it he suffered in the operation.
• a source of autonomous and protected energy in the mechanical assembly for example the same as that which takes over from the normal source of energy in the event of a power failure.
• the mechanical assembly corresponds to the second case in the sense that the object is a SIM card inserted in a housing, but the mechanical assembly also comprises means for detection of the presence or absence of this SIM card in its case.
• detection means can consist of a so-called contactless smart card; in this way the mechanical assembly has two interfaces for smart cards.
• the test routines can then include a verification of a number for matching the object to the mechanical assembly considered, and cause the inhibition of the functionalities by the aforementioned means in the event that the detected number is not the normal pairing number. In this way, even an unauthorized but successful attempt, in which an indelicate operator would have managed to insert a foreign SIM card for the purpose of fraud, would still be detected by the mechanical assembly.
• the object is placed in its housing in the mechanical assembly, this housing having days or openings of sufficient size for a viscous self-hardening adhesive mass. , injected into the assembly in the immediate vicinity of the housing and the object, adheres to both the object and its housing.
• This viscous mass is preferably a defined dose of resin such as epoxy resin, known per se, intended to form a compact block after crosslinking and hardening.
• Epoxy resins are known to adhere very strongly to plastic, this embodiment will therefore be particularly well suited to the case where the object and the housing both comprise protruding parts made of plastic, such as the cards already described. In this form, the object and its housing receive a defined quantity of resin which seals them during assembly, making this assembly irreversible.
• the mechanical assembly is part of a decoder for encrypted television programs.
• decoders operate in a known manner with smart cards inserted in slots of a size adapted to the type of card.
• Another way of obtaining the expected effect is to block the card in its housing by an adhesive in an automatic way.
• a first embodiment is provided by an adhesive capsule, the envelope of which is broken by the insertion of the card. Once the glue has dried, there is no way to remove the card without mechanically destroying the connector or the card itself.
• This capsule can advantageously be placed at the bottom of the connector close to the contacts and pierced by a lever actuated by the passage of the card. However, it must be ensured that the glue does not spread before the part of the contacts is in its working position.
• the latter is in the form of a hot glue pellet, that is to say that it spreads under the effect of heat.
• the heating element can be triggered either by the host device of such a connector, or by itself.
• the triggering sequence of the heating element is controlled by the device program. We can thus define that during the test phases, this bonding function is inhibited.
• the connector includes sufficient elements to trigger the heating of the glue.
• the card presence sensor is coupled to the heating device and as soon as the card is inserted, the heating element comes into operation. It takes several seconds for the glue to heat up and this inertia makes it possible to test several cards for example before blocking the card definitively.
• the energy source for controlling the heating element can have several origins, either the main source of the appliance or the replacement source when there is no main power supply.
• the start of the chemical reaction is done mechanically, by inserting the card into its housing. This insertion is detected by a mechanical probe which can be placed in the passage of the card or activated when the connector is closed. We then have a limited time to perform some tests before the glue does its work.
• FIG. 1 represents a front view of a mechanical assembly according to the invention, provided for a smart card according to ISO 7816 standard,
• FIG. 2 represents, seen in profile, a personal object and the corresponding mechanical assembly in another embodiment
• FIG. 3 represents a perspective view of a smart card according to ISO 7816 and of the various portions and parts which compose it in the invention
• FIG. 4 schematically shows the operation of the connectors which are applied against the chip of the card of FIG. 3,
• FIG. 5 represents a partial section of a part of the mechanical assembly according to the invention, in a form comprising knives and a contactor at the bottom of the housing;
• FIG. 6 represents a perspective view of an embodiment in which the object is a SIM card inserted in a housing in the open position;
• Figure 7 shows the same view but the housing being closed and about to be sealed with a drop of epoxy resin.
• FIG. 1 shows, in front view, an example of a mechanical assembly 1 according to the invention in the form where the object to be inserted in a relatively elongated slot 7 is a chip card according to ISO standard 7816-1 or 7816- 2.
• Figure 2 shows another embodiment in which the personal object 2 shown is clearly provided with a part 3 remaining accessible to the operator.
• Figure 2 also shows a partial section of the mechanical assembly 1 receiving the personal object 2.
• the operator by exerting traction on part 3 of his personal object 2, can extract it from the housing 8 in which this object personnel 2 is inserted, for example to trigger a validation transaction such as crossing a physical limit or other form of authorization.
• FIG. 3 shows in perspective a card 2 according to ISO standard 7816-1 or 7816-2 such that it is inserted in the slot 7 (FIG. 1).
• a first portion 11 of the card 2 disappears in the slot 7 after insertion.
• the housing of the card 2 in the mechanical assembly 1 will be designed so that the surface of the part 3 is reduced and makes it difficult for the operator to extract card 2 of mechanical assembly 1. This reduces the risk of inadvertent extraction.
• the card 2 in FIG. 3 includes a chip 9 as well as a crevice 13, the usefulness of which will appear below. It also includes a line of least resistance 10 located in part 11 of the card, allowing the preferential and facilitated breaking of the card in the event of an attempt to extract it from the slot 7. After breaking, the chip 9 remains in the mechanical assembly 1 and is this time inaccessible.
• Figure 4 shows connectors 4 arranged on an arm 12 pivoting about an axis 16. These connectors 4 are applied to the corresponding contacts of the chip 9 embedded in the card 2, itself inserted in the assembly 1 (not shown in Figure 4, but which includes the arm 12).
• the end of the arm 12 is further equipped with hook-shaped bracing means 5, a hook which snaps into the crevice 13 so as to exert a tearing effect on the chip 9 during a attempt to extract the card 2.
• FIG. 5 shows an inclined knife 5 independent of the contactors 4, pivoting about an axis 14 integral with the mechanical assembly 1 shown in partial section.
• An unreferenced spring keeps the knife 5 in the lowered position, but allows the easy introduction in one direction of a card or an object 2 into the housing 8.
• the arrangement of the knife 5 is in fact such that during the introduction of a card or an object 2 in the housing 8, the knife lifts, compressing the spring. But when the knife is in front of the crevice 13 ( Figures 3 and 4), it snaps into this crevice and provides a bracing effect.
• the insertion of a card 2 into the slot 8 causes the detection contact 15 to close.
• the attempt to extract a card or an object 2 from the slot 8 through the slot 7 (FIG. 1) causes the removal of the chip 9 from the card or from the object 2. This attempt is further detected by the opening of contact 15, which can optionally trigger additional destruction functions.
• the connectors 4 can convey and circulate in the contacts of the chip 9 a current strong enough to irreversibly inhibit the functionalities of the chip 9.
• FIG. 6 shows a particular form of housing 8 provided with rails 17. These rails are not necessarily continuous, it is sufficient that they provide guidance at the edges of the card. These rails 17 are supported by a housing cover capable of pivoting about an axis 18. This type of housing is suitable for receiving cards 19 known as SIM, of reduced format, provided with a keying wedge 20 intended to eliminate any error. introduction into the rails 17.
• SIM SIM
• Figure 6 we see the housing in an open or ajar position, position in which the introduction of the card 19 is possible.
• the connectors 4 are placed in the housing so as to make contact with the corresponding parts of the card chip 19, once the housing 8 is closed and locked.
• FIGS. 6 and 7 show an embodiment in which, for the sake of clarity, the housing is not wedged at the bottom of a well as may be expected to prevent any attempt to open the housing, for example using a screwdriver, and extraction of the card 19. This can also complicate the task of a careless manipulator by having components in the immediate vicinity of the housing 8 in the mechanical assembly 1 .

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Virology (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Artificial Intelligence (AREA)
• Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Credit Cards Or The Like (AREA)
• Storage Device Security (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)

Priority Applications (2)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=4226837

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Cited By (2)

Citations (3)

• 2000
  • 2000-11-15 TW TW089124190A patent/TW503603B/zh not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2000-11-20 WO PCT/IB2000/001701 patent/WO2001039101A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-11-20 EP EP00973172A patent/EP1232470A1/fr not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-11-20 AU AU11712/01A patent/AU1171201A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-11-22 AR ARP000106150A patent/AR035324A1/es unknown

Patent Citations (3)

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