Repeatedly usable recording medium card and recording medium card processor

• US 5,534,685 A
• Filed: 12/05/1994
• Issued: 07/09/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Ace Denken
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Ace Denken
• Inventors: Muto, Nobuyuki, Takemoto, Takatoshi, Kawashima, Kazunari
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, MICHAEL GUNYOUNG
• Application Number:
  US08/347,456
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 235/381, 235/380, 235/494, 235/479, 235/487, 902/23, 283/901
• US Class Current: 235/487
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/126 by photographic or thermographic registration recording apparatus for measuring instruments G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/901 Concealed data

Abstract

A recording medium card having a card substrate (20a) made of a flexible material, and a recording portion (21) for visually recording necessary items in a part of the card substrate are disclosed. The recording portion (21) has a reusable indication layer, consisting essentially of an organic compound whose crystal aggregates upon application of heat in a first temperature zone and diffuses upon application of heat in a second temperature zone different from the first temperature zone, on which the necessary items can be visually recorded and erased upon application of heat. An area (24a) is formed in a part of the card substrate, for recording information indicating the number of card use times, equivalent to the number of times data has been recorded and erased on the indication layer.

Claims

1. A gaming house system comprising a plurality of gaming machines, a computer for managing the gaming machines, a plurality of recording medium cards for recording output information from the gaming machines, and a recording medium card processor being connected to the computer for managing the recording medium cards for repetitive use of the cards, characterized in that

each of said recording medium cards has:

a card substrate made of a flexible material, a data recording portion for visually recording necessary items on a part of the card substrate, and a number-of-use-times recording portion for recording information indicating the number of card use times, equivalent to the number of times data has been recorded and erased in the data recording portion, on another part of the card substrate, and in that

said recording medium card processor comprises;

means for taking in the recording medium card from outside;

means for erasing contents recorded in the data recording portion of the taken-in recording medium card;

a stacker mechanism for taking in the recording medium card from said erasing means and temporarily storing the card;

means for visually recording new data sent from said computer in the data recording portion of the card taken out from said stacker mechanism;

means for reading the number of card use times from the number-of-use-times recording portion and recording a new number of card use times in the number-of-use-times recording portion; and

means for discharging the card, onto which the new data is written, to the outside.

2. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 1 wherein

said number-of-use-times recording portion has a magnetic recording area and a visible recording area, and wherein

said number-of-card-use-times recording means magnetically records the number of use times in said magnetic recording area and visually records the number of card use times in said visible recording area.

3. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said number-of-card-use-times recording means has a punch mechanism for punching to visually record the number of card use times in a recording area.

4. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 2 further including read means placed between said taking-in means and said erasing means for reading contents of the data recording portion, wherein information read by said read means is sent to said computer.

5. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said visible recording area has a reusable indication layer consisting essentially of an organic compound whose crystal aggregates upon application of heat in a first temperature zone and diffuses upon application of heat in a second temperature zone different from the first temperature zone, on which the necessary items can be visually recorded and erased upon application of heat.

6. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said data recording portion and said visible recording area comprise a reusable indication layer provided in common,

said indication layer consisting essentially of an organic compound whose crystal aggregates upon application of heat in a first temperature zone and diffuses upon application of heat in a second temperature zone different from the first temperature zone, on which the necessary items can be visually recorded and erased upon application of heat.

7. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 6 wherein when a predetermined specific condition for a gaming machine occurs, information indicating the specific condition is recorded visually in said data recording portion.

8. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data recording portion has a reusable indication layer consisting essentially of an organic compound whose crystal aggregates upon application of heat in a first temperature zone and diffuses upon application of heat in a second temperature zone different from the first temperature zone, on which the necessary items can be visually recorded and erased upon application of heat.

9. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 1 wherein when a predetermined specific condition for a gaming machine occurs, information indicating the specific condition is recorded visually in said data recording portion.

10. The gaming house system as claimed in claim 9 wherein

the gaming machine is a pinball machine, and wherein

the information indicating the specific condition of the gaming machine contains at least information indicating occurrence of a hitting stop of the pinball machine.