Contactless reading system for chip cards placed on objects

• US 20060181470A1
• Filed: 04/01/2004
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ask S.A. (Paragon Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Ask S.A. (Paragon Group Limited)
• Inventors: Pangaud, Nicolas, Sabbah, Elias
• Granted Patent: US 7,339,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 343/742
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10336 the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners

Abstract

A contactless reading system, wherein a chip card is fixed on a planar support of an object such as a book (11) for identification by means of the data contained in the chip card, and a mobile reader (16) provided with an antenna in order to read the data of the card. The antenna of the reader (16) consists of a small-sized convolution disposed in a series with a large-sized convolution, which are concentric and which have the same winding direction. A maximum value is obtained for the component (H) of the electromagnetic field produced by the antenna parallel to the antenna at a given distance from the antenna. Maximum reception by the chip card of electromagnetic signals emitted by the antenna is obtained when the antenna is disposed in a perpendicular position in relation to the support of the card and at the given distance from the card.

Claims

1. A contactless reading system comprising contactless smart cards, each smart card being placed on an object with the aim of identifying this object by means of identification data contained in the chip of the card, and a mobile reader equipped with an antenna to read said identification data, in which each smart card is fixed on a flat support of said object;

wherein the antenna of said reader comprises a flat antenna support on which is fixed at least one turn of small dimension in series with one turn of large dimension, said turns being concentric and having the same direction of winding, so as to obtain a maximum value of the component (H) of an electromagnetic field produced by the antenna parallel to said antenna support so that reception by a smart card of electromagnetic signals transmitted by said antenna is maximum when said antenna support is placed perpendicular to said flat support of the card.

2. The contactless reading system according to claim 1, wherein said turns of small dimension and of large dimension are circular turns.

3. The contactless reading system according to claim 2, wherein a ratio between the diameter of the circular turn of large dimension and the diameter of the circular turn of small dimension is between 2 and 3.

4. The contactless reading system according to claim 3, in which said reader includes three simple antennae in series, each comprising a small turn in series with a large turn, the antenna wire being wound so as to respect a symmetry of the resulting antenna and to obtain a uniformly distributed electromagnetic field according to radial symmetry.

5. The contactless reading system according to claim 1 in which said contactless smart cards are fixed on a flat support of the object which is substantially parallel to a predefined plane.

6. The contactless reading system according to claim 5, in which said objects are books placed on shelves of a library.

7. The contactless reading system according to claim 5, wherein said predefined plane is a vertical plane.