Financial card with a per-transaction user definable magnetic strip portion

• US 8,439,274 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2009
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Richard H. Chenot
• Original Assignee: Richard H. Chenot
• Inventors: Chenot, Richard H
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAIL, ALLYSON NEEL
• Application Number:
  US12/613,729
• Publication Number:
  US 20110006122A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 235/487, 235/492, 235/493
• US Class Current: 235/493
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06187 with magnetically detectable marking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3572 Multiple accounts on card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/10 together with a coded signal , e.g. in the form of personal identification information, like personal identification number [PIN] or biometric data

Abstract

A financial card having a body with a front surface and a back surface and a primary account number associated with a primary account of a user of the financial card, the card including a magnetic strip positioned on the back surface configured for magnetic encoding including the primary account number. The magnetic strip includes a user definable portion for providing a selectable discretionary encoding thereto. The card also includes a user interface having at least one user input device positioned on the body of the financial card. The user interface is configured for receiving input from the user at a time of use of the financial card selecting a particular account indicator from among a plurality of account indicators each of which is associated with the primary account. The user interface is coupled to the user input device and to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip for providing the selectable discretionary encoding to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip responsive to the selected particular account indicator as received by the user interface at the time of use by the user.

Claims

1. A financial card having a body with a front surface and a back surface and a primary account number associated with a primary account of a user of the financial card, the card comprising:

a magnetic strip positioned on the back surface magnetically encoding the primary account number, the magnetic strip including a user definable portion for providing a selectable discretionary encoding thereto, the user definable portion having a plurality of selectable magnetic energizing devices positioned behind the magnetic strip, each selectable magnetic energizing device with a single bit of information of the user definable portion and a plurality of bit magnetization controllers having a magnetic energizing output interface electrically coupled to one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices and one or more control input interfaces for receiving an activation control input thereto; and

a user interface having a plurality of user input devices positioned on the body of the financial card, the user interface configured for receiving an input from the user at a time of use of the financial card selecting a particular account indicator from among a plurality of account indicators each of which is associated with the primary account of the financial card for processing of a transaction amount to a particular account associated with the user selected account indicator,

each user input device of the user interface is electrically coupled to at least one of the control input interfaces of one or more of the bit magnetization controllers of the user definable portion of the magnetic strip for providing selectable discretionary activating energy thereto responsive to receiving the input from the user of the particular user input device, and wherein the bit magnetization controller is responsive to receiving the activating energy from the electrically coupled user input device and generating a magnetic energizing energy over the magnetic energizing output interface for encoding a single bit of the user definable portion of the magnetic strip responsive to the selected particular account indicator as received by the user interface.

2. The financial card of claim 1 wherein the magnetic strip includes at least one of track 1 and track 2 of encoded data consistent with ISO standards and wherein the user definable portion of the magnetic defines the user definable portion to include the particular account indicator in the additional data field of at least one of track 1 and track 2.

3. The financial card of claim 1 wherein user input device is a blister button formed on the front surface of the card.

4. The financial card of claim 1 wherein the user input device includes a plurality of buttons, with each button being one of the user input devices, each button being associated with a different one of the plurality of account indicators.

5. The financial card of claim 4 wherein the selectable discretionary encoding includes one or more selectable characters, each of which is encoded with a plurality of definable bits, each of which is associated with one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices positioned proximate to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip wherein each selectable magnetic energizing.

6. The financial card of claim 5 wherein each magnetic energizing output interface of each bit magnetization controller is electrically coupled to one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices of selectively establishing the polarity of the electrically coupled selectable magnetic energizing device.

7. The financial card of claim 6 wherein there are ten buttons and ten associated characters therewith and each character is encoded with five definable bits using five selectable magnetic energizing devices.

8. The financial card of claim 7 wherein the user definable portion includes an adaptable longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) encoding having five LRC bits and wherein each of the ten user input devices is electrically coupled to a different five selectable magnetic energizing devices, each of which is associated with a different one of the five LRC bits, and wherein the different five selectable magnetic energizing devices are positioned proximate to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip for providing the adaptable LRC encoding to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip responsive to the selected particular account indicator as received by the particularly electrically coupled user input device of the user interface at the time of use by the user and to provide a proper LRC encoding to the magnetic strip of the financial card.

9. The financial card of claim 1 wherein the user definable portion includes an adaptable longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) encoding and wherein the user interface electrically couples the user input device to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip by electrically coupling each user input device directly to the five bit magnetization controllers that are then electrically coupled directly to one of the five selectable magnetic energizing devices of the LRC for providing the adaptable LRC encoding to the user definable portion of the magnetic strip responsive to the selected particular account indicator as received by the user interface at the time of use by the user and to provide a proper LRC encoding to the magnetic strip of the financial card.

10. The financial card of claim 1, further comprising a display window positioned on the front side of the body, the display window being configured for displaying indicia indicating the particular account indicator received from the user by the user interface.

11. The financial card of claim 10 wherein the indicia is selected from the group consisting of single bit numerals and descriptive text labels.

12. The financial card of claim 1 wherein each selectable magnetic energizing device is a magnetic coil positioned behind the magnetic strip on the back surface of the body and provides for the magnetic encoding of the single bit of the user definable portion of the magnetic strip as a zero or as a one.

13. The financial card of claim 1 wherein the user definable portion includes a subaccount indicator portion defined as a plurality of subaccount bits for defining a subaccount character and a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) portion defined as a plurality of LRC bits, each of which includes one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices for each bit thereof, each also having a parity bit as one of the plurality of bits.

14. The financial card of claim 13 wherein there are five subaccount bits defined by five selectable magnetic energizing devices and five LRC bits defined by five different magnetic energizing bits.

15. The financial card of claim 14 wherein there are ten user input devices and twenty separate bit magnetization controllers with ten being associated the subaccount bits and ten being associated with the LRC bits, wherein each of the ten user input devices is electrically coupled to five of the bit magnetization controllers of the subaccount bits and five of the bit magnetization controllers of the LRC bits.

16. The financial card of claim 13 wherein each user input device is electrically coupled directly to a plurality of the bit magnetization controllers associated with the subaccount bits and directly to a plurality of the bit magnetization controllers associated with the LRC bits.

17. The financial card of claim 1 wherein each selectable magnetic energizing device as a first input for defining the bit as a zero and a second input for defining the bit as a one, and where there are two bit magnetization controllers for each selectable magnetic energizing device with a first bit magnetization controller being electrically coupled directly to the first input thereof and the second bit magnetization controller being electrically coupled directly to the second input.

18. The financial card of claim 17 wherein each to the two bit magnetization controllers for each selectable magnetic energizing device is electrically coupled directly to two or more of the user input devices.

19. The financial card of claim 17 wherein the user definable portion includes a subaccount indicator portion defined as a plurality of subaccount bits for defining a subaccount character and a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) portion defined as a plurality of LRC bits, each of which includes a different one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices for each bit thereof, wherein each different one of the selectable magnetic energizing devices is electrically coupled directly to a pair of the bit magnetization controllers, and each bit magnetization controller being electrically coupled directly to at least two different user input devices.

20. A financial card having a body with a front surface and a back surface, a magnetic strip, and a primary account number associated with a primary account of a user of the financial card, the card comprising:

means for receiving a particular subaccount indicator from among a plurality of subaccount indicators associated with the primary account at the time of use of the financial card for a financial transaction;

means for determining a value of an adaptable longitudinal redundancy check responsive to the received particular subaccount indicator; and

means for encoding a user definable portion of the magnetic strip to include the received particular subaccount indicator and the value of the adaptable longitudinal redundancy check.