Portable data carrier

• US 5,514,862 A
• Filed: 05/20/1994
• Issued: 05/07/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T IPM Corp. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Salzano, Doreen L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): FILIPEK, JEFFER
• Application Number:
  US08/246,586
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 235/487, 235/492, 235/493, 283/98, 283/100, 283/107, 283/108, 283/904
• US Class Current: 235/487
• CPC Class Codes: A45C 11/182 Credit card holders
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/005 the record carrier comprising an arrangement to facilitate insertion into a holding device, e.g. an arrangement that makes the record carrier fit into an etui or a casing ticket holders A45C11/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/077 Constructional details, e.g. mounting of circuits in the carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07739 comprising a first part capable of functioning as a record carrier on its own and a second part being only functional as a form factor changing part, e.g. SIM cards type ID 0001, removably attached to a regular smart card form factor

Abstract

A portable data carder assemblage includes smaller and larger plastic cards carrying respective embedded semiconductor chips for transferring data from the miniature card and standard-size card to, respectively, a small personal communicator cellular telephone set and a larger cellular set, the two cards being held in that assemblage by a pliant plastic sheath and a pocket on the sheath into which, respectively, the larger and smaller cards are inserted for safekeeping between uses of the cards. The assemblage may be conveniently transported by being lodged in a card-holding recess in the wallet of the owner of the assemblage. When that owner has only a personal communicator set, the standard-size chip carrying card is replaceable in the assemblage by a standard-size chipless card having therein an aperture into which the small card may be displaced by deformation of the sheath so that the assemblage takes up less room in the wallet.

Claims

1. A portable data carrier assemblage comprising;

a laminar support unit comprising a flat pliable plastic sheath having first and second transversely opposite sides and having longitudinal and lateral extents which are relatively larger and smaller, respectively,

said sheath having an open front end and a back end and a passage therein longitudinally extending between said ends,

a laminar plastic miniature card having longitudinal and lateral extents each smaller than said lateral extent of said unit,

said sheath having a transverse thickness when empty which is less than that of said miniature card,

data conveying means carried by said miniature card for transferring data between said miniature card and first apparatus external thereto when said miniature card is placed in a receptacle space in said apparatus large enough to receive said miniature card but too small to receive said unit,

holder means for retaining said miniature card attached with said unit to be supported thereby and transportable therewith, the assemblage of said unit, miniature card and holder means being longitudinally insertable with a snug fit into a card holding recess in a wallet,

said miniature card being selectably detachable from said unit to permit said miniature card to be inserted in said receptacle space and reattached by said holder means with said unit,

an additional laminar plastic card having longitudinal and lateral extents each greater than either of such extents of such miniature card so as to be a standard-size card,

said standard-size card being removably insertable through said open front end of said sheath into said passage to have a snug fit therein with said sheath,

said standard-size card when fully seated in said passage providing a stiffening member for said support unit to render dimensionally stable said unit as a whole,

said standard-size card having formed therein an aperture extending transversely through such card and disposed in the longitudinal and lateral extents thereof to transversely register with said miniature card when both of said cards are in fully seated position in said assemblage, and

when said cards are so inserted, the perimeter of said aperture is spaced outwardly of said miniature card everywhere around said miniature card so that said miniature card is transversely displaceable at least partly into said aperture by pliant deformation of said sheath.

2. An assemblage according to claim 1 in which said unit and card are each planar, and said holder means is operable to retain said card in aligned juxtaposed relation with said unit.

3. An assemblage according to claim 2 in which said holder means is operable to retain said unit and card relatively positioned so that the area of said card is fully contained within the outline of the area of said unit when both said areas are transversely projected onto the same longitudinal-lateral plane.

4. An assemblage according to claim 1 in which said holder means for said miniature card comprises plastic closure means joined to said sheath on said first side thereof and forming on that side a pocket having an opening therefor and a bottom spaced from said opening, and in which said miniature card is insertable through said opening into said pocket to be seated therein with a snug fit and thereby be attached to said sheath.

5. An assemblage according to claim 4 in which said pocket is disposed on said first side of said sheath to have said opening of said pocket longitudinally spaced both from said pocket bottom and from said front end of said sheath, and in which said miniature card when fully seated in said pocket has an exposed portion which projects outward from said pocket opening, and which is graspable by hand to facilitate manual removal of such card from said pocket.

6. An assemblage according to claim 5 in which said sheath is responsive to flexing thereof to form a dihedral angle having a plane angle which is an obtuse angle on said second side of said sheath, an edge corresponding to a bend line in the sheath extending laterally across said sheath at said opening for said pocket, and two faces corresponding to the portions of said sheath on longitudinally opposite sides of said bend line, and in which, when said sheath is flexed to form said dihedral angle, said exposed portion of said miniature card progressively diverges from said sheath, with increasing distance of such exposed portion from such opening in the direction toward the first end of said sheath, so as to facilitate by such divergence the grasping by hand of said miniature card.

7. An assemblage according to claim 1 in which said standard-size card carries data conveying means for transferring data between such card and second apparatus external to such card when placed in a receptacle space provided in said second apparatus and large enough to accommodate said standard-size card.