Universal magnetic stripe card

• US 6,715,679 B1
• Filed: 09/08/1999
• Issued: 04/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Infosino, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): FUREMAN, JARED
• Application Number:
  US09/391,844
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/380, 235/382, 235/449, 235/487, 235/492, 235/493, 382/115, 382/116, 382/124, 705/17, 705/18, 705/39, 705/41, 705/44
• US Class Current: 235/449
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/357 Cards having a plurality of specified features
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0886 the card reader being portable for interacting with a POS or ECR in realizing a payment transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

A credit card sized universal card that a user may transform at will into a credit card, ATM card, employee access card, and/or any other conventional magnetic-stripe type card. To prevent the card from being used by anyone other than its owner, a security test may be presented each time the user tries to transform the universal card. The security test may involve, for example, electronically comparing the user'"'"'s fingerprint with the owner'"'"'s fingerprint. A database may be generated containing the fingerprints of the owners of universal cards.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a device that transforms a first card into another card selected from a plurality of cards, and confirming a transaction using one of the plurality of cards, the method comprising the steps of:

storing a first account identification data for a first card to a database;

storing account identification data for a second card and a third card to the database, the database associating the account identification data of the first card with the account identification data of the second and third cards;

storing the account identification data for each of the first card, the second card and the third card into a memory of the device, the memory and the device being separate from the database;

storing a transaction data to the database, the database associating the transaction data with the account identification data of one of the second and third cards; and

verifying a transaction using the transaction data.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of generating a security test, the step of storing being performed depending upon whether the security test is passed.

3. The method of claim 1, further including the step of generating a security test, the step of verifying being performed depending upon whether the security test is passed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the account identification data of the second and third cards into the database includes reading the account identification data from the second and third cards using a magnetic read head.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the transaction data to the database includes sending the account identification data of the second and third cards to the database via at least one of a telephone network and the Internet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the transaction data to the database includes sending the transaction data to the database via at least one of a telephone network and an Internet.