FR2768532A1 - CHIP CARD WITH ELECTRONICALLY ACTIVE LOGOS - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to smart cards having logos on their surface which are linked to electronic sensors. The function / application of the smart card depends on the touch of the respective logo made by the user of the smart card.

Description

1i 2768532 By international standards ISO 7816 (international standard

  for cards equipped with contacts) and ISO 10536, ISO 14443 (international standard for contactless cards), chip cards are known which contain, in the plastic material of which they are made, chips equipped with a memory. In particular, ISO 7816-4 describes how different card applications are allocated to different memory areas of

the microchip.

  A card user can use a card depending on the data and / or programs in the electronic memory. Thus, one and the same card can be used for example as a payment card for bank A or for the establishment of credit cards B. This results in a selection problem for the card user. The appropriate application (bank use or credit card use) of the card must be determined. Each application uses certain specific data in the card (for example the bank reference stored in a card or the identification of a credit card establishment). We could also use a card for different car parks or as a traffic ticket. In all these cases, the card user must decide which of the many stored applications

must be activated.

  The main object of the present invention is to provide a smart card which gives access to various uses depending on the manual intervention of a user of the card. According to the invention, it is possible to actuate this or that function of a smart card depending on the part of its surface which is touched by the user of the card. Various graphic symbols L1 to Ln, hereinafter called "logos", which are visible to the user of the card and symbolize various uses and applications of the card, are written on the surface of the card. Said logos are found respectively inside geometrically well-defined surface elements F1 to Fn, which are designed in the form of electronic sensors Ci to Cn and / or

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  are connected to electronic sensors. A user of the card actuates the electronic sensor Cx by touching with his hand respectively the surface element Fx among the surface elements F1 to Fn. The sensor Cx sends an electronically usable signal Ix to the chip housed in the plastic of the card. The chip can activate different programs and / or memories P1 to

  Pn as a function of the respective electronic signals Il to In.

  The smart card executes following the emission of the signal Ix from the surface Fx the function and / or the application Ax which is symbolized by the logo Lx visible in the element of

surface Fx.

  According to an additional characteristic of the invention, said smart card is capable of operating without contact, the energy required for the electronic operation of the chip being transmitted in the contactless card by transfer of electromagnetic energy from a card terminal to the smart card, the smart card performing during contactless electronic operation, in the vicinity of a terminal, the same Ax function and / or application which is

  operated by manual contact with the logo.

  According to another additional characteristic of the invention, said smart card emits, when the surface Fx is touched, an acoustic and / or visible signal perceptible to the user of the card, this signal confirming to the user l actuation of the

Ax function / application chosen.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, said smart card comprises an electrical energy accumulator, the actuation of the function and / or of the application Ax being able to take place inside the

  card without external energy input.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, said smart card has an electronic display geometrically distinct from the surface elements F1 to Fn, and different displayed symbols S1 to Sn are associated respectively with the functions and / or applications A1 to An. It can also be provided that said display can display a symbol Sx corresponding to a

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  Ax application, while no logo associated with this Ax application has been registered on the surface of the card. The smart card can also be arranged so that said display can display symbols transmitted to it by a terminal with which said card performs a

  certain function and / or certain program.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, a first geometric part of the surface of said smart card is free from surface elements F1 to Fn, and a second part contains surface elements F1 to Fn, only said second part of the surface of the smart card leading to the choice by contact of a

function and / or application Ax.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, at least part of the surface of the smart card is produced in the form of a display layer which can be sensitized electronically by contact, and symbols Si to Sn may appear on said display, the functions and / or applications Ai to An being respectively activated in the chip when the user

touches one of the symbols Si to Sn.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, actuatable surface elements F1 to Fn are present on both sides of said smart card. In addition, it can be provided that, in order to be able to activate one of the functions Ai to An, the user must touch

  simultaneously two opposite surfaces.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, said card always starts with a certain function and / or application Ay fixed in the case where either the user is touching several surface elements F1 to Fn simultaneously, or he is not touching any of the elements of

surface F1 to Fn.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, the contacts of said card are also used as sensor elements to emit an Ix signal, by exploiting the variation in resistance which occurs when the user brushes against the contacts with his skin and / or capacitive influences caused by electrostatic charge

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of the user.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, said card fulfills an electronic function

  and physical with the contact of the surface Fx.

  According to yet another additional characteristic of the invention, part of the chip or of the support of the chip further comprises a sensor, and the sensor can be actuated by a user of the card, a determined function / application Ax of the card smart being

  executed following actuation of the sensor.

  Other benefits, purposes and features of the

  present invention will emerge from the description below

  of various embodiments of the invention presented to

  As an example, said description is based on

  attached figures, in which: FIG. 1 represents a series of surfaces F1 to Fn which form an apparent part of the smart card according to the invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of a smart card according to invention, showing the surfaces F1 to Fn as well as a display area, and FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a smart card according to the invention, showing various internal organs

  as well as two surface elements Fx and Fy.

  FIGS. 2 and 3 show a smart card comprising a body 1 and carrying on its surface elements F1 to Fn, inside which logos LI are respectively found

to Ln (not shown).

  The surface elements F1 to Fn are designed in the form of electronic sensors C1 to Cn and / or are connected from an electrical and functional point of view to electronic sensors. With regard to these electronic sensors, they may be switching elements, which react for example to pressure. Such switches

  are known for example in the form of piezo crystals

  electric. There are also switches, in which the resistance of the skin of the finger which touches a certain surface is used to vary the resistance of passage between two points of this surface, this

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  which can be used to trigger an operation

of commutation.

  FIG. 3 shows such a switching element for the surface Fx. The number 4 identifies the chip of the chip card, and the number 6 identifies a source of energy which powers the chip 4. The number 3 identifies a sensor (for example a field effect transistor). This sensor 3 is connected by the conductors 5 and 7 to the surface elements Fx and Fy at two different locations 9 and 8. A galvanic separation 10 is placed between the surface elements Fx and Fy. When the points 9 and 8 of the surfaces Fx and Fy are electrically connected to each other by contact, the resistance between the points 8 and 9 is lowered (by comparison with the resistance of the air in the absence of contact). There are also known sensitive switches, which can contribute a well defined resistance between points 8 and 9, which eliminates the galvanic separation 10. In this case, the resistance defined between points 8 and 9 is also modified following contact of the skin, in the form

  resistance in parallel between 8 and 9.

  However, one can also use other mechanical switching elements known to the specialist, which establish or cut an electrical connection in the event of pressure. By exerting pressure on the surface of the card, it is possible to cause a bending, as a result of which the points in space are moved relative to each other, which causes separation of the contact or else a contact bond . However, materials are also known which have exploitable properties causing their resistance to change in the event of bending. It is also possible to use magnetic layers, which are displaced by pressure exerted on the surface of the card and act on electronic switching elements (for example by Hall effect). The specialist in the field of screens also knows surfaces which are widely spread

in the form of touch screens.

  As the surface elements F1 to Fn are connected to different sensors CI to Cn, a user of the card can activate an electric sensor Cx by touching the element

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  surface Fx. The sensor Cx can send an electronically usable Ix signal to the chip which is inserted into the plastic material of the card. The card chip can activate, depending on the incoming electronic signals Il to In, various programs, program parts and / or memories or memory parts (applications Ai to An). These different programs and memory contents can

  activate the different applications of a smart card.

  Thus, a program P1 can represent, for example, payment by a banking establishment, and a program P2, payment by a credit card establishment. Since the user has produced the signal Ix from the surface Fx, the smart card will execute the function and / or the application Ax, which is symbolized by the logo Lx on the

map area.

  The device described above assumes that the chip 4 is supplied with energy in order to be able to perform its function. With a card which is supplied with energy and data by contact connections, this is the case only when the card is connected to a terminal at least in the contact zone. Such a contact card could only be inserted with a part in the slot of a terminal, since the non-inserted part must be accessible

for contact with the surface Fx.

  The operation is different in the case of contactless cards. Contactless cards can be activated when they are held near a terminal, which transmits electromagnetically enough energy to be able to activate the chip in the card. When a certain surface Fx is touched by the user of the card in the case of a contactless card, the corresponding function and / or application Ax is executed by the card during the transmission of electromagnetic energy. Contactless cards represent a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, given that the card must be held anyway by the user during its operation near a terminal. The user can then touch the card exactly on the surface Fx which corresponds to the mode of

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  desired operation (Ax application).

  It is advantageous to arrange the chip card so that it emits an acoustic and / or visible signal when the user touches an Fx surface. The signal depends on the execution of the Ax application in the chip of the card, which means that the signal is only emitted when the chip executes the Ax application / function. This ensures that the user knows that the application / function

  Ax is executed by the chip.

  With this in mind, it is also possible, by means of a characteristic signal, to inform the user that the card is ready to operate. When the card is held near a terminal, the first signal sent

  is then used to announce that the card is ready to operate.

  In many cases, a significant improvement in the control of the various activities of the smart card is obtained when an electric energy accumulator is available for a prolonged supply of the card with voltage and current. With the energy accumulator, a card can also work at a time when the card is not plugged into a terminal, but is near a terminal. In the case of an energy source, which supplies the card independently of a card terminal, the Ax function / application can be activated at a time tl, while the smart card performs the corresponding Ax function with a terminal only much later

at a time t2.

  It is also possible to provide on the card an electronic display (designated by the number 2 in FIG. 2), geometrically distinct from the surface elements F1 to Fn and serving to display different symbols Si to Sn. Thus, when the surface element Fx is touched, the function is displayed on the display in the form of an Sx symbol. For example, it may appear on the display, associated with the LI logo, a certain symbol S1 representing a banking transaction. The correspondence between the surface element and the display can also be modified by programming, so that a new symbol can be

  associated with a given surface element.

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  In addition, the number of symbols available to the display device may be greater than that which is housed on the surface of the card. Thus, symbols Sn + l, Sn + 2, and so on, which correspond to the respective applications An + l, An + 2, and so on, no symbol associated with these applications can be displayed on the display. being present on the surface of the card. When an application is activated by a terminal, this display can be used to characterize the application by a symbol. This display can also be used in the event that an application stored on the card does not correspond

  not to that announced and / or proposed by the terminal.

  The smart card can be arranged in such a way that the symbol displayed can be transferred there from a terminal. In this way, signs can be displayed on the card intended to facilitate the use of the card or of the terminal with which the card is in communication. It is thus possible to present a sequence of characters indicating a determined succession of manipulation steps for

the card user.

  In many cases, the application of a smart card can be determined by the choice of the terminal in which the smart card is inserted or close to which it is held. For example, the opening of a barrier in a car park is authorized by the fact that the smart card contains a certain coding which interrogates the barrier terminal in the car park; if the barrier terminal recognizes the corresponding coding in the smart card, the barrier opens, otherwise it remains closed. In this case, the user of a smart card does not have to touch a corresponding surface element Fx. For smart cards suitable for these applications, the surface elements F1 to Fn will therefore only be present on part of the surface of the smart card, the free part being made

  as for known smart cards.

  There are known touch screens whose surface is subdivided into an electronic layer and a geometrically sensitive layer. When you touch certain points on these screens, you execute the function which is displayed by

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  the screen. The same method can be used on a smart card by installing a display layer in part of the surface of the smart card. When this display layer is touched where a certain symbol Sx appears, the Ax function which corresponds

specifically to the symbol Sx.

  The surface elements F1 to Fn can be present on both sides of a smart card. The surface elements on the different faces of the chip card can be assigned different applications AI to An. In particular, provision can be made for the surfaces F1 to Fn to be arranged on both sides of a chip card in such a way that a specific function is executed only in the event of simultaneous contact. Suitably, these surfaces lie exactly opposite one another on top

and the underside.

  It is advantageous to provide that, if several surface elements F1 to Fn are touched at the same time, the smart card will always start in a certain function and / or application Ay. The same function Ay will be executed if none of the surface elements F1 to Fn is touched. In this way, contradictions in the handling of the card are prevented (simultaneous contact of surfaces

marked differently).

  In the case of a mixed chip card, which can work with both contacts and without contact, the contact surfaces can be used as sensor elements. This is made possible by the fact that when two points of contact are touched by human skin, there is, between the two points of contact, a resistance different from the resistance, higher, which is due to air. This variation in resistance can be used to transmit the signal. It is also possible to bring the static charge of a user via the contacts to an electronic circuit which

emits a corresponding signal.

  The physical and electronic functions of the smart card are inherent to it because of its technical properties. A card can be designed as well for a

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  operation according to ISO 10536 only for operation according to standard 14443, and consequently

  operate with different coils and / or frequencies.

  When the Fx surface is touched, the card performs a function, and when it is the Fy surface, the card performs another function. Applications can be distinguished from functions by the fact that the former require an external device (a terminal) for their execution. The taking of memory units from the memory of a card to transfer them to the memory of a terminal therefore represents an application. The prerequisite for an application is a specific electronic and physical function, which can be activated from a

surface Fx.

  The chip on a card can contain an integrated sensor, which can be controlled by an action (physical influence such as pressure, heat, or other) on the surface of the card. The sensor can also be placed on the support on which the chip is housed. The chip and the support can be electrically and mechanically connected to form a module. Alternatively, the sensor can be housed on the sheet on which the coils intended for the

  contactless transmission described above.

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Claims (15)

  1. Chip card containing in the plastic material of which it is constituted an electronic chip equipped with a memory, and designed to transmit by contact and / or without contact energy and data, data and / or programs being stored in the memories of the chip, and according to these data and / or programs a varied use of said card by a user, characterized in that different symbols, apparent to the user of the card, are written on the surface of the card in the form of graphic symbols and / or inscriptions called "logos" L1 to Ln, said logos are located respectively inside geometrically well-defined surface elements F1 to Fn, the surface elements F1 to Fn are designed in the form of electronic sensors C1 to Cn and / or are connected to electronic sensors, a user of the card actuates the electronic sensor Cx by touching with his hand re spectrally the surface element Fx among the surface elements F1 to Fn, the sensor Cx sends an electronically usable signal Ix to the chip housed in the plastic material of the card, the chip can activate different programs and / or memories P1 to Pn as a function of the respective electronic signals Il to In, and the smart card performs, following the emission of the signal Ix from the surface Fx, the function and / or the application Ax which is symbolized by the Lx logo visible in the element of surface Fx.   2. Smart card according to claim 1, characterized in that said smart card is capable of operating without contact, and in that the energy required for the electronic operation of the chip is transmitted in the contactless card by transfer d electromagnetic energy from a smart card-to-card terminal, the smart card running during electronic operation without 12 2768532   contact, in the vicinity of a terminal, the same Ax function and / or application which is activated by manual contact of the logo.   3. Chip card according to claim 1, characterized in that it emits, when the surface Fx is touched, an acoustic and / or visible signal perceptible to the user of the card, this signal confirming to the user actuation of the selected Ax function / application. 4. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that it   includes an electrical energy accumulator, the operation of the Ax function and / or application can be done inside the card without input of external energy.   5. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that said   card has an electronic display geometrically distinct from the surface elements F1 to Fn, and in that different displayed symbols Si to Sn are associated   respectively to functions and / or applications AI to An.   6. Chip card according to claim 5, characterized in that said display can display an Sx symbol corresponding to an Ax application, while no logo associated with this Ax application has been written on the surface of said card.   7. Chip card according to claim 5 or claim 6, characterized in that said display can display symbols transmitted to it by a terminal with which said card performs a certain function and / or a certain program.   8. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that a   first geometrical part of the surface of the smart card is free of surface elements F1 to Fn, and in that a second part contains surface elements F1 to Fn, only said second part of the surface of the card to chip leading to the choice by contact of a function and / or Ax application. 13 2768532   9. Smart card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that at least   part of the surface of the smart card is produced in the form of a display layer which can be sensitized electronically by contact, and in that symbols Si to Sn may appear on said display, the functions and / or applications Ai to An being activated respectively in the chip when the user touches one symbols Si to Sn.   10. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that   surface elements F1 to Fn that can be actuated are present on   both sides of said smart card.   11. Chip card according to claim 10, characterized in that, in order to be able to activate one of the functions Ai to An, the user must touch two opposite surfaces simultaneously. 12. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that said   card always starts with a certain function and / or application Ay fixed in case, either the user touches several surface elements F1 to Fn simultaneously, or   does not touch any of the surface elements F1 to Fn.   13. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that it   has contacts that are also used as sensor elements to emit an Ix signal, exploiting the variation in resistance that occurs when the user brushes against skin contact and / or the capacitive influences caused by the electrostatic charge of the 'user. 14. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that the card   performs an electronic and physical function with the contact of the surface Fx.   15. Chip card according to any one of   previous claims, characterized in that part   of the chip or the chip holder further comprises a sensor, and in that the sensor can be actuated by a 14 2768532   card user, a specific Ax function / application of the smart card being executed following actuation of the sensor.