IC card for accumulating degree of interest and system for accumulating degree of interest using such card

• US 6,283,377 B1
• Filed: 02/04/1998
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ROHM Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: ROHM Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Takuma, Toshinori
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THIEN MINH
• Application Number:
  US09/018,335
• Time in Patent Office: 1,308 Days
• Field of Search: 235/492, 235/380, 235/381, 705/22, 705/27, 705/14, 705/10, 705/11
• US Class Current: 235/492
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/077 Constructional details, e.g. mounting of circuits in the carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07703 the interface being visual

Abstract

An IC card capable of accumulating the degree of shoppers'"'"' interest in a commodity is provided. For this purpose, the IC card has a front surface provided with a display for displaying information of the commodity. The displayed contrast thereof can be changed continuously or progressively in stages by shopper'"'"'s touch to a sensor. The characters of the display are normally light, and therefore the shopper must touch the sensor to increase the contrast of the display in order to obtain more information of the commodity he/she is interested in. As a result, the shopper touches the sensor of the IC card attached to the commodity he/she is interested in. The number of times shoppers touch the commodity is counted by a counter, so that the degree of shoppers'"'"' interest in the commodity can be grasped quantitatively.

Claims

1. An IC card attached to a commodity for accumulating the degree of shoppers'"'"' interest in the commodity, comprising:

a display unit for displaying prescribed commodity information, capable of changing a displayed contrast;

a sensor for sensing a touch of the shopper and, if the touch is sensed, changing the displayed contrast of said display unit; and

a counter for counting the number of times said sensor is touched;

wherein the degree of shoppers'"'"' interest is accumulated as the number of times the shoppers touch said sensor.

2. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transmission/reception unit for communicating with the outside world;

a storage unit for storing prescribed data; and

a control unit for controlling such operations;

wherein contents of said storage and control units are changed based on a change signal received by said transmission/reception unit so as to change the use of said IC card.

3. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 2, wherein said control unit is formed by a reconfigurable FPGA, and said storage unit is formed by any one of a flash memory, a ferroelectric memory, and an SRAM.

4. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 2, wherein said change signal is transmitted through either wireless or wired communication.

5. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 2, wherein antenna wire is provided around a side surface of a body.

6. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 2, wherein a capacitor is provided at a rear surface of a body for supplying electric power during operation consuming a large amount of power.

7. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 1, wherein the degree of interest accumulated by the IC card is collected by a local control device provided at each sales area.

8. The IC card for accumulating the degree of interest according to claim 7, wherein data concerning the degree of interest accumulated by the IC card is fed back to a supplier of the commodity.