Patent ID: 6704715
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: G06Q,H04L,H04M

Abstract:
Method enabling customers of a bank or insurance company to securely and quickly access, using a microphone connected to a communications network, services offered by the bank or insurance company to customers thereof, from a remote location, the method comprising the following steps:providing customers with a card, said card having a length and width substantially the same as a length and width of a credit card, said card being customized by identifiers specific to each card, and to each customer, emitting from said card acoustic DTMF identification signals, said acoustic signals being at least partly encrypted and varying for each operation, when the customer uses said card, counting a number of times C(p,n) that said card has emitted said acoustic signals at a time of a current-operation, and emitting from said card acoustic signals representing the number of times C(p,n) that it has been used, encrypting said acoustic signals into a function S(p,n) as a function of said number of times C(p,n) that said card has emitted said acoustic signals, receiving said acoustic signals with said microphone and transmitting said acoustic signals through said communications network to a computer, processing and electronically comparing said transmitted signals and said customer and card identifiers with the computer, storing in the computer a number of times C(p,m) that said card has been used at a time of a last validated operation, comparing in the computer said number of times C(pn) that said card has been used at the time of the current operation with said number of times C(p,m) that said card has been used at the time of the last validated operation, refusing the current operation if C(p,n) is less than or equal to C(p,m) and continues verifying the current operation if C(p,n) is greater than C(p,m), calculating electronic signals Sâ€²(p,n) as a function of said identifiers and the number of times C(p,n) that said card has been used at the time of the current operation, and compares said signals Sâ€²(p,n) with said signals S(p,n), and if said signals Sâ€²(p,n) conform with said signals S(p,n), connecting the customer to the services offered by the bank or insurance company to their customers.