JP2000082121A - Information card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information card of high reliability with high security because the place of a bar code is not known from the surface by composing the bar code by arranging a fine pattern of a film made of a material whose acoustic impedance is different from that of an information card provided to part of a card base material. SOLUTION: A card base material 1 is formed by sticking card base material pieces 1a and 1b made of a PET or the like and a bar code 3 for ultrasonic wave detection is buried between respective card base material pieces 1a and 1b. This bar code 3 is finely formed by a metal film such as aluminum or nickel whose acoustic impedance is largely different from that of the card base material 1. In this way, it is possible to mount a large amount of information by arranging a film fine pattern by a material which has an acoustic impedance different from that of the card base material 1 in the bar code 3. Thus, also, the bar code 3 does not reveal itself on the surface of an information card 10 and it is possible to have constitution in which an installation place is not known from outside.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a prepaid card, a card requiring high security, access control,
The present invention relates to an information card that has begun to be actively used for personal identification and the like, and particularly to a high security maintenance measure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various methods have been proposed for recording information on conventional information cards, some of which have already been put to practical use. Typical examples include a magnetic method and a bar code method.

FIG. 7A is a perspective view showing an information card using a conventional bar code system, and FIG.
It is a sectional view showing the outline of the information reading method of the information card of (a).

[0004] As shown in FIG. 7 (a), an information card 50 using a conventional bar code system is composed of a bar code 52.
On the surface of the card base material 51 by printing or the like.

As shown in FIG. 7B, a method of reading information from the information card 50 is to irradiate a light beam 53 and optically convert the bar code 5 from the reflected light 53 'and the like.
2 is a method of reading.

[0006]

The above-mentioned conventional optical reading system has the following disadvantages. That is, in order to optically read the barcode, it is necessary to install the barcode in a place that can be seen from the surface, which imposes restrictions on the card design. In addition, malfunction may occur due to dirt on the card surface, etc.
The content is relatively easy to read, and high security cannot be obtained.

[0007] Therefore, a technical problem of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable and highly reliable information card since the location of the barcode cannot be determined from the surface.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an information card using a barcode as an information recording medium.
The barcode is formed by arranging a fine pattern of a thin film made of a material having a different acoustic impedance from the information card provided on at least a part of the card base material,
An information card is provided in which a large amount of information can be mounted by the bar code.

Further, according to the present invention, in the information card, the information card is characterized in that the barcode is embedded in a card base material.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a method of reproducing information of any one of the information cards, wherein the bar code is detected and read using high frequency ultrasonic waves. The usage of the information card is obtained.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing an information card according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a view showing FIG. 1A.
FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b), the card base 1 is formed by bonding card base pieces 1a and 1b made of PET or the like. A bar code 3 for ultrasonic detection is embedded between the two.

The bar code 3 is finely formed of a metal thin film such as aluminum or nickel whose acoustic impedance is largely different from that of the card base material 1.

As described above, the bar code 3 is attached to the card base material 1.
By arranging fine patterns of thin films made of materials having different acoustic impedances, a large amount of information can be mounted. Further, thereby, the barcode 3 is not exposed on the surface of the information card 10 and the installation location can be determined from the outside.

When reading the information card 10, the ultrasonic beam is narrowed down and a well-known ultrasonic microscope,
The focus is applied to the barcode 3 inside the card base material 1 according to the same principle as that of the ultrasonic flaw detector, and the reflected or transmitted wave is read and the information is detected by patterning.

Therefore, according to the information card 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, it can be used for various prepaid cards, cards which are often used for entering and leaving management cards, and the like.

The information card 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention having the above-described configuration is manufactured as follows.

As shown in FIG. 2, a bar code 3 for ultrasonic detection is applied to the upper surface of one card base piece 1b by vapor deposition or printing. The place where the information is provided, the size of the barcode 3 and the like can be appropriately selected depending on the necessary information amount. It is also convenient that the bar code can be provided without greatly affecting the design of the entire information card 10 and the design of the decoration. Such an ultrasonic detection bar code 3 can be obtained by vapor deposition of an aluminum thin film on one surface of the card base material 1a by vapor deposition or the like, or by printing. The overall shape of the barcode 3 may be square or rectangular depending on the purpose of use, and the barcode size, which has been limited by the conventional surface design, can be freely designed in the information card 10. As described above, the information is recorded by giving the ultrasonic detection barcode 3 to the information card 10.

Next, as shown in FIG.
The bar code 3 is stuck so as to be sandwiched between the card base pieces 1a and 1b by pasting another card base piece 1b so that the printed side faces inward. Code 3 is set inside information card 10.

As described above, the barcode 3 is embedded in the information card 10 and is read out using ultrasonic waves.

In the information card 10 manufactured as described above, the installation and reading of the bar code 3 are not affected at all by the surface, and a picture or the like can be freely designed on the surface.

Next, a method for reading information from the information card 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. Specifically, there are a reflection system shown in FIG. 4 and a transmission system shown in FIG.

The reflection type shown in FIG. 4 uses a dedicated ultrasonic reader in which a pair of transducers 11 and 12 are juxtaposed, irradiates ultrasonic waves from the surface of the information card 10, and sets a bar installed inside the information card 10. Utilizing the difference in ultrasonic wave reflection due to the difference in acoustic impedance of code 3,
This is a method of reading the information of the barcode 3.

As shown in FIG. 4, when reading information from the information card 10, an ultrasonic wave having a high MHz band is used, and the ultrasonic wave from the transducer 11 is focused through an acoustic lens (not shown). The diameter is about 0.1 mm, and the focus is on the surface of the information card 10 where the barcode 3 is formed. In the case of the information card 10 having a thickness of about 0.4 mm, the bar code 3 exists at an intermediate depth of 0.2. In this method, a signal reflected from the bar code 3 on the irradiation surface by the irradiation of the ultrasonic beam 13 is used.

The transmission system shown in FIG. 5 differs from that shown in FIG. 4 in the arrangement of the transducers 11 and 12, but is otherwise the same. This transmission system employs a pair of transducers 11, which are arranged so as to sandwich the information card 10,
An ultrasonic beam is radiated from the surface of the information card 10 using the transducer 11 using a dedicated ultrasonic reader using the information card 12, and the transmittance due to the difference in acoustic impedance of the barcode 3 installed inside the information card 10. Utilizing this difference, the ultrasonic beam 13 reads the information of the barcode 3 using the signal transmitted to the back of the information card.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, any of the methods shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 may be used.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an information card according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the information card according to the second embodiment of the present invention is similar to the first embodiment,
A bar code 3 is provided in the information card 20, and a conventional magnetic recording medium is used on the surface.

Specifically, the information card 20 according to the second embodiment has a magnetic tape 5 on one side of the surface of the card base 1.
Etc. are attached or directly formed. As described above, by using the magnetic recording medium in combination, it is possible to obtain an information card which is used in combination with the conventional writing and reading methods, further increases the amount of information, facilitates the management of the information card, and expands the range of application.

Although the second embodiment of the present invention has been described as applied to a magnetic recording medium, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to an information card such as an IC card other than the magnetic recording medium.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the present invention, a bar code which cannot be seen from the outside is installed, and information is read out by using ultrasonic waves and using transmitted or reflected signals. Cards can be supplied, and erroneous reading or unreadable due to dirt on the card surface is extremely rare. In addition, since it cannot be seen from the front side, it is possible to provide a safe information card without being read by a third party.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing an information card according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a method for manufacturing the information card of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a method for manufacturing an information card, similarly to FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an information reading method of the information card of FIG. 1, showing a reflection method.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an information reading method of the information card of FIG. 1, showing a transmission method.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an information card according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7A is a perspective view showing an information card using a conventional bar code system. (B) is a sectional view schematically showing the information reading method of (a).

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,51 Card base material 1a, 1b Card base material piece 3,52 Bar code 10,20,50 Information card 11,12 Transducer 13 Ultrasonic beam 53 Light beam 53 'Reflected light

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B035 AA01 AA11 BA03 BB00 BB01 BB02 BB09 BB11 BB12 BC01 BC02 BC03 CA06 CA23 5B072 AA09 BB08 CC02 CC24 DD04 GG02 HH20

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information card using a barcode as an information recording medium, wherein the barcode is a fine pattern of a thin film made of a material having a different acoustic impedance from the information card provided on at least a part of a card base material. An information card comprising a bar code and a large amount of information. 2. An information card according to claim 1, wherein said bar code is embedded in a card base material. 3. The method for reproducing information from an information card according to claim 1, wherein the barcode is detected and read by using high-frequency ultrasonic waves. Method.