Optical contact loaded magnetic card

• US 9,010,646 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2011
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: COIN, Inc (Reynolds & Reynolds Company)
• Inventors: Brown, Kerry D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mai, Thien T
• Application Number:
  US13/225,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20110320314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.06, 235/380, 235/493, 235/462.01
• US Class Current: 235/492
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06206 the magnetic marking being emulated
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0728 the arrangement being an optical or sound-based communication interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted

Abstract

A magnetic interface card appears to be a payment card conventionally provided with an electromagnetic stripe and magnetic data tracks. A magnetic emissive element is disposed in the magnetic interface card body under the magnetic data tracks that can emit a variety of ISO-7813 track-2 data strings. A photo-sensor is included to receive a series of optically encoded flashes from a personal trusted device (PTD) smartphone screen that securely communicate one-time-use account information and operational parameters from a financial transaction server. The large installed base of legacy point-of-sale magnetic card readers can continue to be used without any hardware or software modifications, and card security is improved by the change to one-time-use access numbers.

Claims

1. An improved payment card system for remotely supporting personal trusted devices (PTD) capable of secure connections and a population of magnetic interface cards each with a card body, an electromagnetic stripe, and a magnetic data track, comprising:

a financial transaction server configured for network connections;

a host program for execution by the financial transaction server for supporting financial transactions between users and merchants;

the improvement comprising;

an application program for execution by each of the PTDs that provides for authentication and secure connections with the financial transaction server over a network and that are configured to output of a series of encoded display screen flashes that embed account security data related to particular users;

a magnetic emissive element disposed in each card body near the magnetic data track that is configured to periodically output track data for legacy point-of-sale payment card readers;

an optical receiver in each magnetic interface card that is configured to accept a series of encoded display screen flashes with account security data embedded in them from the financial transaction server and that can enable the magnetic interface card to output authentic magnetic payment account information;

a processor included in each magnetic interface card that provides for the translation of information provided by the financial transaction server via the optical receiver into formatted data for the magnetic emissive element;

the PTDs configured to receive softcard data over the network from a card issuer or association;

an optical device included in the PTDs and configured to transmit encoded optical flashes;

an audio output device and a smartphone app included in the PTDs and configured to transmit tones for reception by the magnetic interface card which is configured to listen for encoded tones or synthesized voices, and to acknowledge successful data communications, maintenance messages, monitoring data, and battery condition;

the magnetic interface cards configured to periodically associate with the PTDs to exchange encoded data, and configured to receive optically encoded flashes from the PTDs, and to deliver softcard magnetic account data to a merchant point-of-sale (POS) card reader and terminal;

wherein, the magnetic interface cards are further configured to provide audio acknowledgements.

2. The payment card system of claim 1, wherein:

the PTDs include a near field communication transceiver; and

each magnetic interface card includes a near field communication transceiver.

3. The payment card system of claim 2, wherein:

The PTDs'"'"' near field communication transceiver is configured to communicate account and operational data to the magnetic interface cards'"'"' near field communication transceiver.

4. The payment card system of claim 3, wherein:

the PTDs'"'"' near field communication transceiver is configured to establish a two-way link with the magnetic interface cards'"'"' near field communication transceiver.

5. The payment card system of claim 3, wherein:

the PTDs'"'"' near field communication transceiver is configured to authenticate the magnetic interface cards'"'"' near field communication transceiver and the magnetic interface cards'"'"' near field communication transceiver is configured to authenticate the PTDs'"'"' near field communication transceiver.

6. The payment card system of claim 1, wherein:

the network is selected from the group consisting of Wi-Fi networks, 3G networks, and 4G networks.