CODED DOCUMENT AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY READING SAME

• US 3,676,644 A
• Filed: 03/05/1970
• Issued: 07/11/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ira S. Greene
• Original Assignee: Angelo Vaccaro, Harold F.E. Dixon
• Inventors: Vaccaro, Angelo, Dixon, Harold F. E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilbur, Maynard R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kilgore, Robert M.
• Application Number:
  US05/016,858
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: 340/174.1H,146.3Z,146.3RR,149A 235/61.12,61.11D,61.11E 250/219I
• US Class Current: 235/449
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0163 by means of additional timing marks on the record-carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/08 by means detecting the change of an electrostatic or magnetic field, e.g. by detecting change of capacitance between electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/901 Concealed data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/904 Credit card

Abstract

A document such as a credit card formed with magnetizable indicia in the form of short and long individual bars intermingled according to a code to produce, when read by a system having a magnetic reading head, an electrical representation of the indicia to enable automatic identification of the card. The document can be passed beneath the reading head over a wide range of speeds thereby enabling the use of an inexpensive reading system. When the document is a plural layer credit card, the code is formed on an inner surface of the card to prevent erosion and alteration of the code.

Claims

1. An automatic identifying system for a credit card comprising the combination of a credit card and an automatic reading system therefor, said card including an intermediate sheet and top and bottom covering sheets coextensive therewith and secured to planar surfaces of the intermediate sheet, magnetic particles positioned on one surface of the intermediate sheet and disposed to form a code consisting of long and short bars with the bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and having spaces between the bars whereby each bar when passed beneath a magnetic reading head means produces a voltage wave having a leading edge voltage spike and a trailing edge voltage spike with the leading edge spike for the long bar being sensibly different from the leading edge spike for the short bar and in which said system includes magnetic reading head means, card transport means for moving the card relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide the voltage wave, a shift register having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing the indicia, said shift register having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one state for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the shift register to effect incrementing of the shift register, and means for reading out the states of the stages of the shift register upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia.

2. An automatic reading system for providing an electrical representation of indicia formed on a document in which each indicia is identified by a code consisting of a set number of aligned bars with there being long bars and short bars and with the two bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and in which the bars are formed of magnetic particles comprising a magnetic reading head means, document transport means for moving the document relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide a voltage wave which includes a leading edge voltage spike and a subsequent trailing edge voltage spike for each bar with the short bar leading edge spikes being different from the long bar leading edge spikes, storage means having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing each indicia, said storage means having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one state for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the storage means to effect incrementing thereof and means for reading out the states of the stages of the storage means upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia, in which the document has an edge, in which the bars are parallelly aligned and positioned to form a row parallel to the edge, in which the document transport means has a guide changeable with the edge in which the reading means is located with respect to the guide to overlie the row as the edge engages the guide and in which the document transport means includes a shuttle mounted for movement in alignment with the guide, means for urging the shuttle to a normal position on one side of the reading means and manually operable means for displacing the shuttle away from its normal position to the other side of the reading means whereby said shuttle may engage the document and move it from its displaced position to its normal position to cause the document to pass beneath the reading means.

3. An automatic reading system for providing an electrical representation of indicia formed on a document in which each indicia is identified by a code consisting of a set number of aligned bars with there being long bars and short bars and with the two bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and in which the bars are formed of magnetic particles comprising a magnetic reading head means, document transport means for moving the document relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide a voltage wave which includes a leading edge voltage spike and a subsequent trailing edge voltage spike for each bar with the short bar leading edge spikes being different from the long bar leAding edge spikes, storage means having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing each indicia, said storage means having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one state for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the storage means to effect incrementing thereof and means for reading out the states of the stages of the storage means upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia in which the system includes record means for storing an electrical reproduction of the character read, means for operating the record means while the coded information on the document is being read and means for subsequently utilizing the record means in the system to produce the electrical representation of the coded information and in which the record means includes a length of magnetizable tape and a recording head and in which the operating means moves the tape relative to the recording head simultaneously with the movement of the document beneath the reading head means.

4. The invention as defined in claim 3 in which document transport means includes a movable member for moving the document, in which the operating means includes a movable member for moving the tape and in which there are means interconnecting the movable members to cause them to move in unison.

5. The invention as defined in claim 4 in which the movable member of the document transport means moves between a normal position and a manually displaced position with the positions being on opposite sides of the reading means and in which the interconnecting means includes one-way means for operating both movable members in unison when the document transport means movable member is only moving from the manually displaced position to the normal position.

6. An automatic reading system for providing an electrical representation of indicia formed on a document in which each indicia is identified by a code consisting of a set number of aligned bars with there being long bars and short bars and with the two bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and in which the bars are formed of magnetic particles comprising a magnetic reading head means, document transport means for moving the document relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide a voltage wave which includes a leading edge voltage spike and a subsequent trailing edge voltage spike for each bar with the short bar leading edge spikes being different from the long bar leading edge spikes, storage means having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing each indicia, said storage means having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one state for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the storage means to effect incrementing thereof and means for reading out the states of the stages of the storage means upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia, in which the system includes record means for storing an electrical reproduction of the character read, means for operating the record means while the coded information on the document is being read, means for subsequently utilizing the record means in the system to produce the electrical representation of the coded information, in which the record means includes aN input in which the input is connected to an output of the magnetic reading head means whereby the electrical representation stored is the voltage wave produced by the coded information, in which there is one magnetic reading head means and in which the record means includes only one record head to thereby record the electrical reproduction on one track on the magnetic tape.

7. The invention as defined in claim 6 in which the input of one record head is connected to record the state of the initial stage of the storage means and in which the other record head is connected to record the clock pulses to the storage means.

8. An automatic reading system for providing an electrical representation of indicia formed on a document in which each indicia is identified by a code consisting of a set number of aligned bars with there being long bars and short bars and with the two bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and in which the bars are formed of magnetic particles comprising a magnetic reading head means, document transport means for moving the document relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide a voltage wave which includes a leading edge voltage spike and a subsequent trailing edge voltage spike for each bar with the short bar leading edge spikes being different from the long bar leading edge spikes, storage means having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing each indicia, said storage means having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one state for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the storage means to effect incrementing thereof and means for reading out the states of the stages of the storage means upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia in which the system includes record means for storing an electrical reproduction of the character read, means for operating the record means while the coded information on the document is being read, means for subsequently utilizing the record means in the system to produce the electrical representation of the coded information in which the record means includes two record heads with each having an independent input and means for connecting each input to a different part of the system to cause recording of the electrical reproduction of the coded information on two separate tracks on the magnetic tape.

9. The invention as defined in claim 8 in which the magnetic reading head means includes two separate reading heads, in which each reading head reads a different portion of the coded information and in which the input of one record head is connected to one reading head and the input of the other record head is connected to the other reading head whereby the electrical reproduction is the voltage wave from each reading head with each record head recording on a separate track on the magnetic tape.

10. An automatic reading system for providing an electrical representation of indicia formed on a document in which each indicia is identified by a code consisting of a set number of aligned bars with there being long bars and short bars and with the two bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and in which the bars are formed of magnetic particles comprising a magnetic reading head means, document transport means for moving the document relative to the head means to cause said bars to move relatively beneath the head means to provide a voltage wave which includes a leading edge voltage spike and a subsequent trailing edge voltage spike for each bar with the short bar leading edge spikes being different from the long bar leading edge spikes, Storage means having a plurality of stages including an initial stage with the number of stages being at least equal to the number of bars representing each indicia, said storage means having means for incrementing its stages upon receipt of a clock pulse, means for directing the leading edge voltage spike of each bar to the initial stage to cause the initial stage to assume one stage for a long bar spike and its other state for a short bar, means for directing the trailing edge voltage spike of every bar as a clock pulse to the storage means to effect incrementing thereof and means for reading out the states of the stages of the storage means upon receipt of a number of trailing edge spikes which corresponds to the number of bars in the code representing the indicia in which the means for reading out the states of the stages includes a counter connected to receive each trailing edge spike and to count each trailing edge spike, in which the counter has a maximum count equal to the number of bars in the code for each indicia and in which there are means for setting the counter to a zero count for each document.

11. A document having magnetically sensible indicia that is readable by an automatic reading system having a magnetic reading head, magnetic particles positioned on one surface of the document and disposed to form a code consisting of long and short bars with the bars being intermingled differently for each indicia and having spaces between the bars whereby each bar when passed beneath a magnetic reading head means produces a voltage wave having a leading edge voltage spike and a trailing edge voltage spike with the leading edge spike for the long bar being sensibly different from the leading edge spike for the short bar in which the document is a credit card having an intermediate sheet and top and bottom covering sheets coextensive therewith and secured to planar surfaces of the intermediate sheet in which the intermediate sheet is formed with a continuous strip of magnetic particles and in which the bars are embossed in the card to physically displace the strip where the bars are formed.