In-line quality assurance

• US 9,275,259 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Entrust Corp.
• Original Assignee: Entrust Datacard Corporation (Entrust Corp.)
• Inventors: Wooldridge, Cory, Robertson, Michael, Cummings, Joan, Bodmer, Stu, Nichols, Dean, Conroy, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAIL, ALLYSON NEEL
• Application Number:
  US14/068,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20140117084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/475, 235/487, 705/41
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F02K 1/82 Jet pipe walls, e.g. liners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 5/00 Methods or arrangements for verifying the correctness of markings on a record carrier; Column detection devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0004 Hybrid readers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0013 by galvanic contacts, e.g. card connectors for ISO-7816 compliant smart cards or memory cards, e.g. SD card readers connectors in general H01R13/00; connectors for SIM cards used in mobile phones or the like H04B1/3816
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/084 sensing magnetic material by relative movement detecting flux changes without altering its magnetised state
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/993 Evaluation of the quality of the acquired pattern

Abstract

Systems and methods for verifying character(s) on a personalized document, and electronically verifying a magnetic stripe and a smartcard chip of the personalized document, are provided. A quality assurance station is located downstream of personalization stations of a document personalization system. The quality assurance station can provide automated, in-line verification and quality assurance for personalized documents. The quality assurance station integrates a vision verification sub-station, a magnetic stripe sub-station, and a smartcard sub-station.

Claims

1. A plastic card personalization system, comprising:

a quality assurance station configured to perform a verification process on the plastic card after the plastic card has been personalized, the quality assurance station including;

a vision verification sub-station for verifying one or more characters on a surface of the plastic card;

a magnetic stripe sub-station that verifies data stored on a magnetic stripe of the plastic card; and

a smartcard sub-station for electronically verifying a smartcard chip of the plastic card and/or verifying data stored on the smartcard chip;

the vision verification sub-station is located upstream of the smartcard sub-station.

2. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, wherein the vision verification sub-station is located upstream of the magnetic stripe sub-station.

3. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, wherein the vision verification sub-station directly captures an image of the surface of the plastic card.

4. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, wherein the characters include at least one of an embossed character, a symbol, a Braille character, an indented character, a printed character, and a laser produced character.

5. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, further comprising one or more personalization stations configured to personalize the plastic card and one or more additional stations configured to further process the plastic card, wherein the quality assurance station is located downstream of the personalization stations and upstream of at least one of the additional stations.

6. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, wherein the magnetic stripe sub-station is configured to read the magnetic stripe to electronically verify data stored on the magnetic stripe.

7. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, wherein the smartcard sub-station is configured to determine whether the smartcard chip operates correctly and read the smartcard chip to electronically verify data stored on the smartcard chip.

8. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, further comprising a reject hopper.

9. The plastic card personalization system of claim 1, further comprising a processor connected to the vision verification sub-station, the magnetic stripe sub-station, and the smartcard sub-station;

and the processor is configured to compare at least some of the character data from the vision verification sub-station, data from the magnetic stripe, and data from the smartcard chip.

10. A quality assurance station configured to perform a verification process on a personalized plastic card after the plastic card has been personalized, the quality assurance station comprising:

a vision verification sub-station for verifying one or more characters on a surface of the plastic card;

a magnetic stripe sub-station that verifies data stored on a magnetic stripe of the plastic card; and

a smartcard sub-station for electronically verifying a smartcard chip of the plastic card and/or verifying data stored on the smartcard chip;

the vision verification sub-station is located upstream of the smartcard sub-station.

11. The quality assurance station of claim 10, wherein the vision verification sub-station is located upstream of the magnetic stripe sub-station.

12. The quality assurance station of claim 10, wherein the vision verification sub-station directly captures an image of the surface of the personalized plastic card.

13. The quality assurance station of claim 10, wherein the characters include at least one of an embossed character, a symbol, a Braille character, an indented character, a printed character, and a laser produced character.

14. The quality assurance station of claim 10, wherein the magnetic stripe sub-station is configured to read the magnetic stripe to electronically verify data stored on the magnetic stripe.

15. The quality assurance station of claim 10, wherein the smartcard sub-station is configured to determine whether the smartcard chip operates correctly and read the smartcard chip to electronically verify data stored on the smartcard chip.

16. The quality assurance station of claim 10, further comprising a processor connected to the vision verification sub-station, the magnetic stripe sub-station, and the smartcard sub-station;

and the processor is configured to compare at least some of the character data from the vision verification sub-station, data from the magnetic stripe, and data from the smartcard chip.

17. A method of performing a verification process on a personalized plastic card and inspect quality of the personalized plastic card, comprising:

directly or indirectly capturing an image of one or more characters on a surface of the personalized plastic card, followed by processing the captured image to verify the characters; and

electronically verifying;

data stored on a magnetic stripe of the plastic card; and

a smartcard chip on the plastic card and/or data stored on the smartcard chip;

wherein capturing the image occurs prior to electronically verifying the smartcard chip and/or data stored on the smart card chip.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein verifying the smartcard chip includes determining whether the smartcard chip operates correctly, and if the smartcard chip operates correctly, reading the smartcard chip to verify data stored on the smartcard chip.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein verifying the data stored on the magnetic stripe comprises reading the magnetic stripe to verify the data stored on the magnetic stripe.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising using a computer processor to compare at least some of the characters with data from the magnetic stripe and/or data from the smartcard chip.