DE29904828U1 - Paper data carrier with integrated data storage made of flexible, electrically conductive plastic material - Google Patents

Description

Description:

Almost everyone needs paper every day as a data carrier for written or printed information in a wide variety of uses, such as invoices, letters, printed materials, etc. The amount of information that can be stored optically on the most commonly used DIN A4 format for letters and printed documents depends primarily on the font size/density and is on average around two to three thousand legible characters (numbers, letters, special characters). In order to be stored by the sender, these characters must either be written by hand or applied mechanically using a printing process (e.g. matrix, inkjet, thermal or laser printing) to the front or back of a paper or alternatively plastic page. At the same time, these characters must be read by the recipient with the eyes from the paper or plastic side of a letter, for example, in order to receive and process the information, or they must be read in mechanically using an optical process (e.g. scanner devices) in the form of light and dark detection systems and then processed further (e.g. display on a PC monitor).

All users of paper as a data storage medium are therefore faced with the problem of the limited amount of information that can be optically stored on, for example, the standard format of a DIN A4 page of paper, the time-consuming storage (writing/printing) and, above all, the laborious optical recording (reading) of the data. This is especially true as additional electronic storage options connected to paper, such as integrated circuits (IC) with the classic semiconductor material based on silicon, gallium arsenite or germanium, are not suitable for combination with paper as an optical data storage medium due to their inflexibility, high manufacturing costs and the need for an electrical wire connection. These integrated circuits, for example for data storage, have so far essentially consisted of a semiconductor base material and are applied to rigid and inflexible, easily breakable plastic boards, which have high manufacturing costs.

•J ^: 2; V"·*·"

•J ^: 2; V • .Ti I

J 2; V

• .Ti I \ . \.:»..s

The invention is therefore based on the problem of specifying a data carrier that provides a remedy for this problem. To solve this problem, a data carrier is provided which, in addition to the optical data application and storage options, is also characterized by electrically wired, wireless or radio-controlled input and output means as well as by storage means in the form of flexible, very thin and electrically conductive polymer plastic materials (thin-film film) for electronically storable data.
10

This data carrier makes it particularly advantageous to store optical data by applying handwritten or printed data, as well as to store electrical, digitalized data or binary code information in electrically conductive, very thin, flexible plastic materials. These thin-film films are coated on or under a normal sheet of paper or, due to their thickness of a few hundredths of a millimeter, are located in the paper body of a standard sheet of paper.

This electrically conductive plastic in the form of a thin film thus replaces the classic semiconductor material, is very inexpensive to manufacture as a mass product, is lightweight and has flexible properties, so that the paper data carrier can retain its own flexible properties (e.g. folding and bending ability) without damaging the electrically conductive thin film that serves as a storage medium in the body of the paper or on its surface or back and without the stored data being lost. For data protection, the stored information can be encrypted accordingly to prevent misuse.

• · ° * t · JI

An advantageous development provides that wired electronic input and output elements are provided. With this development according to the invention, it is possible to save or read the data on the storage medium of the thin-film film via an electronic wired connection.

A particularly useful development of the inventive concept provides that the data carrier has an input and output unit controlled by radio frequency waves. Using a wafer-thin short metal antenna integrated into the paper body, data can be received or sent by radio without a wired connection. Data that is to be stored or read on the storage medium of the thin-film film is received as electromagnetic signals by the metal antenna or read out via it after (de)coding has taken place. With the miniature components amplifier, mixer/PLL, controller, backup capacitor, amplifier and memory integrated into the thin-film film, the data carrier according to the invention does not require its own power supply to function.

A further useful development of the inventive concept provides that the data carrier has an optical miniature input and output unit (infrared), by means of which coded data or information can be transferred via infrared to the data carrier for (de)coding and storage or for reading out the memory.

1 : ·&udigr;&thgr;^#&igr;::&iacgr;

As a further embodiment of the data carrier according to the invention, it is possible, together with the transfer of the optical data to the paper data carrier, which is transferred by a copier to another sheet of paper, to also read out the content of the storage on the thin-film film by the copier via the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier and to transfer them accordingly to the newly created sheet of paper, i.e. to make a copy of both the data written or printed on the surface or underside of the paper together with the information stored in the thin-film film.

A further useful development of the inventive concept provides that together with the transfer of optical data to the data carrier paper, for example by means of a matrix, inkjet, thermal, laser, screen, gravure, offset printing device or other printing process device, the data or information to be stored on the storage medium of the thin film is transferred to the newly created sheet of paper via the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier.

A further useful development of the inventive concept provides that together with the remote transmission of optical data to the data carrier paper by means of a fax machine, the data or information stored or to be stored on the storage medium of the thin-film film are remotely transmitted to the sheet of paper to be produced remotely via the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier.

A further expedient development of the inventive concept provides that, together with the reading of optical data from the paper data carrier by means of an optical scanner device, the data or information stored on the storage medium of the thin-film film can be read accordingly via the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier.
10

A particularly useful development of the inventive concept provides that the data stored or to be stored on the storage medium of the thin film can be received, sent and transmitted or forwarded using the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier with corresponding input and output units of (radio) landline telephones, fax machines, combined devices or other data transmission devices.

A further useful development of the inventive concept provides that the data stored or to be stored on the storage medium of the thin-film film can be received, processed or sent with the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier of devices (with which, for example, the software of personal computers is controlled via touch-sensitive touchscreen monitors), barcode readers or the like with corresponding input and output units that are connected to a personal computer, data processing machines or the like.

A further useful development of the inventive concept provides that, depending on the storage requirements, the surface of the thin-film film as a data storage device can extend over the entire surface of the data carrier made of paper or similar material. At the same time, the thin-film film can also be located in multiple layers on the surface, the underside or in the paper (or similar material) body.

Further advantages, features and details of the invention emerge from the embodiment described below and from the drawing.

The drawing shows a data carrier according to the invention.

Number 1 shows the data carrier made of paper or similar printable and writable flexible material.

Number 2 shows the flexible data storage device made of very thin and electrically conductive polymer plastic material (thin-film film) - which in reality is not visible on the paper data carrier due to its miniature plastic conductor tracks - and the miniature parts or components integrated into the thin-film film such as amplifiers, mixers/PLLs, controllers, backup capacitors and amplifiers. Depending on the storage requirements, the surface of the thin-film film can also extend over the entire surface of the data carrier made of paper or similar material. At the same time, the thin-film film can also be located in multiple layers on the surface, the underside or in the paper (or similar material) body.

Number 3 shows the input and output unit controlled by radio frequency waves,
by means of an extremely thin short metal antenna integrated into the paper body.
Number 4 shows the optical miniature input and output unit (infrared) as well as the wired electronic input and output elements (contacts).

The use can now be such, for example, that during or after the completion of printing, faxing or copying of data onto the surface of the paper, a radio frequency signal is sent directly via a transmission unit provided for this purpose in the printer, fax or copier to the miniature antenna, which receives this data signal, converts it into electrical signals and stores them in the memory of the thin-film film. The paper therefore has both optical data printed on it that can be read with the eye and additional data stored in the memory of the electrically conductive thin-film film.

This data can be read from the data storage by a device (e.g. a reading pen, which is held briefly over the corner of the paper where the mini antenna is located and reads out the data in a matter of seconds) that is equipped with a corresponding receiving and transmitting unit and can be further processed in a personal computer, for example. A practical example is invoices that have optically printed data for quick recognition or sorting, as well as extensive electronic data stored in the data storage for direct and quick further processing in a PC. Or extensive texts, images, drawings or spreadsheets, the content of which can be transferred in a matter of seconds, for example, to a software program on a PC.

Claims (10)

Protection claims: 1. Data storage media characterized by optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output means for sending, receiving, storing and processing data or information transmitted optically, electronically or by radio frequency waves. 2. Data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that computing means are present for storing and processing the information or data to be input and output. 3. Data carrier according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that means for storing data are provided which are based on the new storage medium of electrically conductive, flexible plastic material (thin-film film). 4. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the storage medium of electrically conductive, flexible plastic material (thin-film film) is applied or integrated in one or more layers on the surface, underside or in the body of print, paper or plastic film products (writing and printing paper/plastic films) and similar printable and writable flexible materials. 5. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a wired electronic input and output unit is present with which electrically transmitted data can be input and output. 6. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a radio-controlled input and output unit (mini antenna) is present with which data transmitted by radio frequency waves can be input and output. 7. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an optical input and output unit (infrared) is present, with which optically transmitted data can be input and output. 8. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data stored on the storage medium of the thin-film film can be read out optically, by wire or by radio and can be transmitted, read out and stored optically, by wire or by radio (remotely) by a copier, scanner, fax machine, printer and the like or other data transmission, reproduction or duplication devices to another data carrier together with the optically written or printed data and information. 9. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data stored or to be stored on the storage medium of the thin-film film can be received, sent and transmitted or forwarded using the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units integrated in the data carrier with corresponding input and output units of (radio) landline telephones, fax machines, combined devices or other data transmission devices. 10. Data carrier according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data stored or to be stored in the storage medium of the thin-film film can be received, processed or sent with the optical (infrared), wired (conductive contacts) or radio (mini antenna) input and output units of devices (with which, for example, the software of personal computers is controlled via touch-sensitive touchscreen monitors), barcode readers or the like with corresponding input and output units that are connected to a personal computer, data processing machines or the like.