Contractor's smart card device and method

• US 20080120243A1
• Filed: 11/20/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Janeice Lakin
• Original Assignee: Janeice Lakin
• Inventors: Lakin, Janeice
• Application Number:
  US11/601,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20080120243A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/72
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4012 Verifying personal identification numbers [PIN]

Abstract

A method for contractors working in single or multiple buildings or facilities to have a standardized card that would contain all information required by facilities personnel. This card allows facilities personnel to obtain the necessary personal, licensing, insurance, and other required information to pull building permits from local government building departments without requiring contractors to interview and complete paperwork. This provides an advantage to both building personnel and contractor over present methods. The contractor procures the card from a granting agency. The card can be designed for use either in secure or non-secure facilities. The secure card would be read at access terminals located at facility entry points. That card would contain all information required for access or application for building permits. This would save the considerable time spent by both the contractor and security personnel in gathering the information for temporary workers. In the preferred embodiment, the card is a smart card with a chip contained therein that may be queried.

Claims

1. A method for a contractor working at a single facility or at multiple facilities to provide necessary information to building department personnel to obtain building permits comprising:

a. applying or causing to be applied to a granting agency that is not directly affiliated with the facility or facilities;

b. submitting or causing to be submitted required information to the agency;

c. allowing or causing to be allowed the agency to verify the submitted information;

d. receiving or causing to be received a token from the agency, said token containing data concerning the contractor;

e. submitting or causing to be submitted the token for authorization to building personnel associated with the facility or facilities;

f causing a terminal to read the data from the token.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the facility or facilities is secure and the contractor requires secure access to the facility in order to work therein.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

g. causing an access terminal at an entry point at any one of the secure facilities to read the data from the token; and

,

h. entering the facility.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the contractor submits required information to the agency over the internet.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the contractor submits required information to the agency in person.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the submitted information includes biometric data.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the token is a card.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the card is a smart card containing a chip that can be queried electronically.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein the access terminal is taken from the group consisting of:

a kiosk having a card reader, a swipe attachment, a bar code reader, a magnetic stripe reader; and

a device capable of interactively querying a smart card chip.

10. The method of claim 3 further comprising receiving or choosing a PIN and entering the PIN into the access terminal to gain entry to the facility.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving an electronic key device that is separate from the smart card, wherein said key queries the chip and calculates a one-time PIN; and

,

entering the one-time PIN into the access terminal to gain entry to the facility.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising an interface with vendor software used by the building department personnel.

12. A method for a contractor working in a single secure facility or multiple secure facilities to update data in a token containing data required by facility personnel, wherein the token is already possessed by the contractor, said method comprising:

a. applying to a security granting agency that is not directly affiliated with the secure facility or facilities;

b. submitting required information to the agency;

c. allowing the agency to verify the submitted information;

d. submitting the access token to the agency for updating; and

,

e. receiving the access token from the agency, said token containing updated data concerning the contractor.

14. A device for a contractor working at a single facility or at multiple facilities to provide necessary information to building department personnel to obtain building permits comprising a computer programmed to perform the following steps:

a. applying or causing to be applied to a granting agency that is not directly affiliated with the facility or facilities;

b. submitting or causing to be submitted required information to the agency;

c. allowing or causing to be allowed the agency to verify the submitted information;

d. receiving or causing to be received a token from the agency, said token containing data concerning the contractor;

e. submitting or causing to be submitted the token for authorization to building personnel associated with the facility or facilities;

f. causing a terminal to read the data from the token.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the contractor submits required information to the agency over the internet.

16. The device of claim 14 wherein the contractor submits required information to the agency in person.

17. The device of claim 14 wherein the submitted information includes biometric data.

18. The device of claim 14 wherein the token is a card.

19. The device of claim 18 wherein the card is a smart card containing a chip that can be queried electronically.

20. The device of claim 14 wherein the terminal is taken from the group consisting of:

a kiosk having a card reader, a swipe attachment, a bar code reader, a magnetic stripe reader; and

a device capable of interactively querying a smart card chip.

21. A method for government building departments to grant a permit to a contractor to work on a specific project at a specific building location, wherein the contractor possesses a token containing machine readable information about the contractor, said method comprising:

a. causing the information from the token to be extracted from the token by a device capable of extracting said information;

b. automatically entering the information extracted from the token into a programmed interface that allows computer software to process the information;

c. causing the software to validate the information;

d. manually entering data concerning the specific project and building location into a device that interfaces with the software;

e. causing a permit to be issued to the contractor based upon the information extracted from the token and the manually entered data.

22. The device of claim 21 wherein the token is a card.

23. The device of claim 22 wherein the card is a smart card containing a chip that can be queried electronically.