Credit card containing electronic circuit
First Claim
1. An article adapted to be carried on the person of an individual and containing concealed identifying information, comprisingan insulating substrate provided with visible indicia,an electronic serial memory storing an identifying binary value imbedded in said substrate, said serial memory including a counter, a decoder responsive to the output of said counter, and a plurality of bit-storage circuits each storing a 1 or a 0 information bit and being responsive sequentially to the output of said decoder, andelectrical terminals on at least one surface of said substrate connected to said memory for the application of an energizing current from an external power source to the memory.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An article such as a plastic credit card contains concealed identifying information. The information is in the form of a series of binary information bits and it is stored in an electronic serial memory. The memory is on an integrated circuit chip imbedded in the credit card with electrical connections to two terminals on opposite surfaces of the card. The stored information bits are read out from the credit card by an apparatus which supplies current to the terminals to energize readout from the serial memory. The information bits read out are in the form of sequential variations in the current flowing to the credit card which are detected and accumulated in a shift register for utilization by a display device or a computer.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An article adapted to be carried on the person of an individual and containing concealed identifying information, comprising
an insulating substrate provided with visible indicia, an electronic serial memory storing an identifying binary value imbedded in said substrate, said serial memory including a counter, a decoder responsive to the output of said counter, and a plurality of bit-storage circuits each storing a 1 or a 0 information bit and being responsive sequentially to the output of said decoder, and electrical terminals on at least one surface of said substrate connected to said memory for the application of an energizing current from an external power source to the memory.
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12. A system useful for personal identification and credit purposes, comprising
an article adapted to be carried by an individual and comprising an insulating substrate containing two surface terminals connected to an imbedded electronic serial memory storing an identifying binary value, said electronic serial memory including an address counter responsive to a clock pulse wave, a decoder responsive to the address counter, and transistor bit-storage circuits connected to said terminals and responsive sequentially to the output of the decoder, and means to read out the binary value from the serial memory comprising means to supply an electric current through said surface terminals to energize said memory, and means to detect said stored information as changes in said electric current.
Specification