Personal identification system

A personal identification system capable of using the information of a combination of certain questions and answers to said questions as the information to connect a card to its original owner, capable of displaying said questions at the time of card input and letting a card user enter answers to said questions displayed, and capable of making the use of said card effective upon coincidence between said answers entered and answers selected and registered in advance by an original owner of said card and of invalidating the use of said card upon uncoincidence between said answers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a personal identification system which can 
be utilized for a bank transaction processing system or an entrance and 
exit gate control system. 
Only one magnetic card such as cash card (this will be called "card" 
hereinafter) is issued to a single user. However, the ordinary bank 
transaction processing system does not matter who is using a particular 
card and, thus, there is a danger of a fraudulent use of a card if the 
card is lost or copied. 
Therefore, conventionally, a cryptographic number known only by the 
original owner of a card was predetermined, and the personal collation was 
made at the time of use of the card on the basis of an input of the 
cryptographic number by the user. 
However, according to this kind of the identification system, there is such 
a problem that the owner of a card must be memorize a particular number 
(cryptographic number). In addition, there is another problem that the 
number of digits of a cryptographic number increases as the number of 
cards issued becomes larger, so that it becomes more difficult to memorize 
a cryptographic number. These problem are created because the combination 
of digits in a numeral is relatively complicated as information and it is 
not easy to memorize a numeral because of its inherent character. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The basic object of the present invention is to provide a personal 
identification system capable of sufficiently preserving the secrecy by 
using a combination of both the certain questions and answers as 
information connecting a card to its original user without adding digits 
to the conventional cryptographic numbers or without using the 
conventional cryptographic numbers, and also capable of easily determining 
by the collation whether an user of the card is the original owner or not. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a personal 
identification system capable of offering a more accurate checking 
function by allowing the card owner to select certain questions and 
answers from a question file prepared in advance for the registration. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a personal 
identification system capable of preventing the fraudulent use of the card 
by a person other than the original owner by arbitrarily changing the 
order of the registered questions so as to prevent a particular question 
corresponding to an answer, the number of which was already known by the 
other person, from being known. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a personal 
identification system having a highly accurate checking function by 
selecting at random certain questions out of all questions registered, by 
displaying them, by comparing the answer data made for the questions, and 
by determining "collation OK" only when a predetermined number of answers 
have coincided in succession. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a personal 
identification system capable of preserving the high secrecy by 
establishing particular questions selected out of plural questions and by 
determining "collation OK" only when the answers to the particular 
questions have coincided with the answers to the ordinary questions. 
Other and further objects of the present invention will become obvious upon 
an understanding of the illustrative embodiments about to be described or 
will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantage not 
referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of 
the invention in practice.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention can be summarized as follows: 
A combination of both particular questions and their answers is used as 
information connecting a card to an original owner of the card, said 
questions are displayed at the time of input of said card and an user of 
said card is asked to make answers to said displayed questions, and the 
use of said card is made effective only when said answers entered have 
coincided with answers selected by the original owner and registered in 
advance and is invalidated when both of them do not coincide with each 
other. 
The number and kinds of questions to be used for the checking described 
above may be determined as desired. Also, any desired number of multiple 
choices of answers may be used for a particular question. However, the 
desired kinds of questions are those which will ask the characteristics 
peculiar to the original owner of a card. For example, the following 
questions and multiple choices of answer are desired: 
(A) Which of the following ranges do you have for your height? 
(1) Less than 150 cm 
(2) Greater than 150 cm but smaller than 155 cm 
(3) Greater than 156 cm but smaller than 160 cm 
(4) Greater than 160 cm but smaller than 165 cm 
(5) Greater than 165 cm but smaller than 170 cm 
(6) Greater than 170 cm but smaller than 175 cm 
(7) Greater than 170 cm 
(B) Which of the following hobbies do you have? 
(1) Reading books 
(2) Sports 
(3) Going to movie shows 
(4) Do-it-yourself 
(5) Making collections of things 
(6) Flower arrangement 
(7) Tea ceremony 
(8) Calligraphy 
(9) Others 
(C) Which of the following numbers of members do you have in your family? 
(1) 1 person 
(2) 2 persons 
(3) 3 persons 
(4) 4 persons 
(5) 5 persons 
(6) 6 persons 
(7) 7 persons 
(8) 8 to 10 persons 
(9) More than 10 persons 
If a combination of questions and corresponding answers listed above is 
used as the information for connecting a card to its original owner, the 
original owner of the card is easily able to memorize the answers even if 
the number of questions increases. 
Now, the first embodiment of the system of the present invention will be 
explained by making reference to the drawings. 
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a bank transaction processing system employing 
a system embodying the present invention. 
This system is a stand-alone system and operates in offline mode. A 
computer 1 (this will be called "CPU" hereinafter) as an example of 
controller is connected with buses to a memory 2, a buffer register 3, a 
keyboard 4, a cash dispenser 5 and a display unit 6 (this will be called 
"CRT 6" hereinafter). Also, a card reader 7 and a buffer register 3 are 
connected together with buses, and data is exchanged between the card 
reader 7 and CPU 1 through the buffer register 3. In addition, CPU 1 
receives the detection signal of a card input through a wire 21 from the 
card reader 7 and sends an alarm signal to an alarm device 8. 
FIG. 2 shows a partial map of the memory 2. Also, FIG. 3 is a flowchart 
showing the operation of CPU 1. Now, the control procedure of this system 
will be described below by making reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. 
If a card input is detected in the step n1 (step n1 will be merely called 
"n1" hereinafter), the card is in n2. On this card, an account number, a 
cryptographic number, questions and answers (3 kinds) and a balance of 
deposit are magnetically recorded. The read card information is then 
scramble-decoded in n3, and the information decoded is written in the 
region MA of memory 2. The region MA comprises region MA1 for storing the 
account number, region MA2 for storing the cryptographic number, region 
MA3 for storing the number of the first question, region MA4 for storing 
the answer to the first question, region MA5 for storing the number of the 
second question, region MA6 for storing the answer to the second question, 
region MA7 for storing the number of the third question, region MA8 for 
storing the answer to the third question, and region MA9 for storing the 
balance of deposit. If the execution of n3 is necessary, this means that 
the right card information has been scrambled and stored on the card. In 
n4, an indication instructing "entry of cryptographic number" is displayed 
on CRT 6. However, in this embodiment, the cryptographic number is also 
utilized for checking the use of card. But it is not always required to 
use the cryptographic number. If this number is going to be used, it is 
desired to reduce the number of digits for easier memorizing. In this 
steps n5 and n6, a numeral with predetermined number of digits entered 
from the keyboard 4 is written in the region MB. In n7, the coincidence of 
the stored data in the region MB with the stored data in the region MA2 
(cryptographic number registered in the card) is checked. If they coincide 
with each other, the cryptographic number deemed to be entered correctly 
and the operation advances to n8. 
In n8 through n16, the answers to the questions are checked. Firstly in n8, 
the contents of region MA3 is used as an index, and the question content 
data (consisting of the questions and multiple choices of answer) 
corresponding to the index are read out of the question file and 
displayed. In this example, since the content of the region MA3 is the 
question No. 3, the content corresponding to region MQ3 is displayed. In 
this case, the question file has been prepared in advance and stored in 
the memory 2. In subsequent n9, the data of answers entered from the 
keyboard 4 is written in the region MB. In n10, the answer stored in 
region MB is compared to the answer in region MA4 (registered answer). If 
these two answers coincide with each other, the subsequent check is 
performed. The display of the subsequent question and the checking of its 
answer are performed in n11 through n13. The method of this checking is 
the same as that of n8 through n10. That is, in n11, the subsequent 
question and the choices of answer are displayed, an answer entered for 
the question and stored in the region MA is compared to the answer in the 
region MA6, and their coincidence is checked. In the same manner, an 
answer to the third question is checked in n14 through n16. Though three 
questions are used in this example, the questions are not limited to 
three. At the time of questioning to the card and registration of the 
answers, a predetermined number of questions (three in this example) will 
be selected out of all questions in the question file. 
If the answers coincide with each other in n16, the paying processing for 
the requested amount is started. However, if any one of answers to the 
questions will not coincide, the operation advances from n10, n13 or n16 
to n30 and the alarm device 8 is activated. Also, even if the 
cryptographic number does not coincide in n7, the operation advances to 
n30 and the alarm device 8 is activated. In this way, if an answer to a 
question is found to be different from the registered answer, the use of 
the card can be invalidated. After the operation of the alarm device 8, a 
teller will meet the fraudulent card user, and the rest button of the 
machine is depressed (n31). When the operation signal of the reset button 
is detected, the operation advances to the n26. 
Now, the procedure after n17 will be described below. In n17, "entry of 
amount" is instructed. In n18 and n19, the amount entered from the 
keyboard 4 is set in the region MB. In n20, whether the amount of entry is 
lower than the balance (stored in MA9) is checked and if, the amount is 
smaller than the balance the balance in the region MA 9 is written (n21). 
If the amount exceeds the balance, then "shortage of funds" is displayed 
(n22). When the amount is smaller than the balance, the payment of the 
entered amount stored in the region MB is instructed to the cash dispenser 
in n23. 
Upon completion of the payment, writing to the card and the card return 
processing are performed. In n24, the data of MA is scrambled and set in 
buffer 3. At this stage, the balance is the only data which has been 
changed after the card input. In n25, the scrambled data is transferred to 
the card reader 7. Then, upon completion of rewriting of the card, this 
card will be returned (n26). When the card is pulled out (n27), a display 
requesting "card insertion" is made (N28) and the next card input is 
waited. 
Through the procedure described above, the checking of a card can be 
performed at the time of its use. 
In the embodiment stated above, both the questions and answers are 
registered in the card itself. However, it is not always necessary to 
register the information concerning the card checking at its use on the 
card itself. If the system has a large-capacity memory, the information 
can be registered in the memory in the form of card information record 
file. 
FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of bank transaction processing system as the 
second embodiment of the system of the present invention. And the features 
of this system are that the personal data (card information including the 
information for checking card at its use) is stored in the memory of 
master equipment, and the data exchange between the master equipment and 
the subsidiary equipment having the functions of terminal unit is 
performed using the communication line. 
This subsidiary equipament is equipped with a CPU 1, a memory 2, a keyboard 
4, a cash dispenser 5, a CRT 6, a card reader 7, an alarm device 8, a 
buffer register 9 for communication, and a modem 10. Also, the master 
equipment is provided with CPU 11, a large-capacity memory 12, a buffer 
memory 13 and a modem 14. Plural subsidiary equipment can be connected to 
a master equipment, and a subsidiary equipment is connected to a master 
equipment in online mode. 
FIG. 5 shows a partial map of memory 2 of the subsidiary equipment, and 
FIG. 6 shows a buffer memory map of the master equipment. Also, FIG. 7 is 
a flowchart indicating the operation of the CPU 1 of the subsidiary 
equipment, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the CPU 11 
of the master equipment. The control procedure of this system will be 
explained below by making reference to FIG. 5 to FIG. 8. 
In n50 and n51, the processing as same as those of n1 and n2 of FIG. 3 is 
performed. Also, n52 is the same as n4, and n53 is the same as n5. 
However, in this example, since a card not scramble-processed is handled, 
there is no step corresponding to n3. Instead, the data read from the card 
is stored in the region MA in n2. In n53, the checking of the number of 
digits is also performed. As same as the previous embodiment, the checking 
of the cryptographic number is not always necessary. No n52 and n53 are 
necessary when the cryptographic number is not checked. 
Upon completion of the entry of the cryptographic number, the preparation 
for the transmission to the master equipment is performed in n54. This 
preparation is completed when the data of region MA (account No.), data of 
region MB (cryptographic number) and the cryptographic number check 
instruction are set in the buffer register 9. Upon completion of the 
preparation, the transmission is performed in n55 and the response-waiting 
state is made (n55, n56). Naturally, a request-to-send is sent to the 
master equipment at the time of transmission, and the data is transmitted 
after receiving the authorization signal form the master equipment. 
However, this procedure is not illustrated in the figure since it is well 
known. The code given to the subsidiary equipment is also transmitted so 
as to clarify a particular subsidiary equipment from which the data was 
sent to the master equipment, but the illustration of this procedure is is 
omitted in the figure since it is well known. 
When the transmit data from the subsidiary equipment is received (n100 of 
FIG. 8), the master equipment sets the data in the buffer memory 12. At 
this stage, the cryptographic check instruction is set in the region BM4, 
the acount No. in the region BM5, and the cryptographic number in the 
region BM6 respectively, and the regions BM1 to BM3 remain blank. 
In n101, the personal data is read from the memory 12 in conformity with 
the data (account No.) in the region BM5, and is set in the region BM1 to 
3. Since the set data in the region BM4 is the cryptographic check 
instruction data, the operation advances from n102 to n103, the received 
data in region BM6 (cryptographic number) is compared to the memory 
read-out data in the region BM1 (registered cryptographic number), and OK 
data is set if they have coincided, and OUT data is set if they have not 
coincided respectively in the region BM4 (n104, n105). Then, in n106, the 
data in the regions BM4 and BM2 are transmitted to the subsidiary 
equiptment. At this time, either OK data or OUT data is set in the region 
BM4, and the question content data (consisting of both the questions and 
choices of answer) is set in the region BM2. 
When the subsidiary equipment receives the transmit data from the master 
equipment, the operation advances to n57, and the stored data (received 
data) in the buffer register 9 is set in the region MC. 
Then, whether the region MC1 has set OK data or not is checked, and, if the 
OK data is set, checking of answers to the questions is started in the 
steps after n59. 
Each processing of n59 to n61, n62 to n64, and n65 to n67 is the same as 
each processing of n8 to n10, n11 to n13, and n14 to n16. That is, 
question 3 and the choices of the corresponding answer are dispalyed, 
whether the entered answer coincides with the answer in the region MC3 
(registered answer) is checked, and then the same procedure is performed 
for each questions 5 and 1. If the uncoincidence of answers is judged in 
each step of n61, n64 and n67 in the above procedure, then the alarm 
device 8 is activated in n90. Also, when the content of the region MC1 is 
the OUT data in n58 (cryptographic check is OUT), the alarm device 8 is 
activated in n90. After this, the operation advances to n77 through the 
step n91 in which the same processing as that of n31 is performed. 
The checking of card at its use is completed in n67 in a manner as 
described above. 
Upon completion of the checking of card at its use, the operation advances 
to the paying process for the requested amount. The steps n68 to n70 
process the entry of amount with the procedure as same as that of n17 to 
n19. In n71, preparations for the transmission are made for the master 
equipment. The preparations are completed when the contents of region MA 
(account No.), contents of region MB (entered amount of payment 
requested), and payment check instruction are set in the buffer register 
9. After completing the preparations, the transmission is performed in n72 
and the response-waiting state is made (n73). 
After receiving the transmit data from the subsidiary equipment (n100), the 
master equipment sets the transmit data in the buffer memory 12. In this 
stage, the payment check instruction is set in the region BM4, the account 
No. in the region MB5, and the amount of payment requested in the region 
BM6 respectively, but the regions BM1 to BM3 remain blank. 
In n101, the personal data is read again from the memory 12 in conformity 
with the data in the region BM5 (account No.) and is set in the regions 
BM1 to BM3. Since the set data in the region BM4 is the payment check 
instruction data at this stage, the operation advances to n102 and n107. 
And when the data is confirmed to be the payment check instruction data in 
n107, the operation advances to n108. In n108, whether the contents 
(balance) of the region BM3 is larger than the contents of region BM6 
(data of amount of payment requested sent from the subsidiary equipment) 
is checked. If larger, OK data is set and, if not larger, the data of 
shortage of funds is set respectively in the region BM4 of the buffer 
memory 13 (n109, n110). In n111, the balance is rewritten, that is, the 
amount obtained after deducting the amount of payment requested from the 
original balance is set in the region BM3. Also, in n112, by making 
reference to the stored data (account No.) in the region BM5, the stored 
data in the regions BM1 to BM3 is stored in the predetermined region in 
the memory 12 (card information record file). By the execution of the step 
n112, the personal data is updated. Upon completion of the above 
procedure, the stored data in the region BM4 (OK data or data of shortage 
of funds) is transmitted to the subsidiary equipment. 
Since the subsidiary equipment is in the receive-waiting state in n73 until 
the processing in the master equipment stated above is completed, the 
operation advances to n74 when the transmission from the master equipment 
is performed in n113. In this step, the received data is set in the region 
MC1. This data is checked in n75, and the operation advances to n76 if it 
is OK data and to n77 if it is the data of shortage of funds. In n76, the 
data of amount of payment requested, which is the stored data in the 
region MB in this stage, is transferred to the cash dispenser and the 
execution of the payment is commanded. In the checking in n75, if the 
received data is judged to be the data of shortage of funds, no payment is 
executed and the shortage of funds is displayed (n76). After the procedure 
stated above, the card is returned in n77, the card pulled out is 
confirmed (n78), a display instructing "card insertion" is made (n79), and 
then a subsequent card entry is waited. As described above, even in the 
system having the personal data recorded in the information record file of 
the master equipment, the checking of card at its use can be performed in 
the online mode. 
Therefore, this embodiment of the system of the present invention is able 
to easily check whether the use of card is by its original owner or not 
and, thus, is able to provide a very practical card use system which does 
not give any burden to the card owner. 
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of bank transaction processing system indicating 
the third embodiment of a system embodying the present invention. 
This system is an online system in which the master equipment is connected 
to the subsidiary equipment with the communication line. 
A computer 1 (this will be called CPU 1 hereinafter) as an example of 
controller of the subsidiary equipment is connected to a memory 2, a first 
buffer register 3, a keyboard 4, a cash dispenser 5, a display unit 6 
(this will be called CRT 6 hereinafter), and a second buffer register 9 
with buses. Also, a card reader 7 is connected to the buffer register 3 
with buses, and the data exchanged between the card reader 7 and the CPU 1 
through the buffer register 8. In addition, CPU 1 receives the detection 
signal of a card input from the card reader 7 through a wire 15, and also 
sends an alarm signal to an alarm device 8 through a wire 16. 
The master equipment has a computer 11 (this will be called "CPU 11" 
hereinafter) as an example of controller for the master equipment, a 
memory 12 for storing the balance data and so forth, and a buffer memory 
13. This master equipment and said subsidiary equipment are connected by a 
communication line 17 through modems 10 and 14, and the subsidiary 
equipment is able to operate in the online mode. 
FIG. 10 shows a partial map of the memory 2, and FIG. 11 shows a partial 
map of the buffer memory 13. Also, FIG. 12 through FIG. 14 show the 
control flowchart of the system. Now, the control procedure of this system 
will be described hereinafter by making reference to FIG. 10, FIG. 11 and 
FIG. 12 through FIG. 14. 
FIGS. 12 and 13 show control flowchart indicating the operation of CPU 1 of 
the subsidiary equipment. 
When a card input is detected in the step n1 (step n1 will be called merely 
n1 hereinafter), the card reading is performed in n2. Only the account 
number is recorded on the card at the time of its issue. Therefore, if the 
information read in n2 is only the account number, this means that this 
card is being used for the first time. The first use of the card is judged 
in n3. And if the first use is detected, the operation advances to n40 of 
the flowchart shown in FIG. 5. 
In the control procedure shown in FIG. 13, the card information 
registration is performed for the card. In this embodiment, the card 
information consists of the questions and answers to the questions, and 
the cryptographic number. However, it is not always required to include 
the cryptographic number, and the card information may include only the 
questions and the answers to the questions. 
In the first step n40 for registering the card information, the information 
read (account No.) is set in the region MA. This region MA comprizes the 
regions MA1 to MA8. These regions MA1 to MA8 are used for storing the 
account number, cryptographic number, first question number, answer to the 
first question, second question number, answer to the second question, 
third question number, and answer to the third question in the order 
listed. Then, s display instructing "entry of cryptographic number" is 
made n41, and the cryptographic number entered in n42 and n43 is set in 
the region MA2. When the cryptographic number is set in the region MA2, a 
display instruction "entry of question No." is made in n44, and the 
question No. entered in n45 and n46 is set in the region MA3. In n47, the 
question content data (questions and choices of answers) is read out for 
display from the region MQ for storing file of questions and choices of 
answer (question file) by making refernce to the data (first question No.) 
set in the region MA3. Then, in n48, the data (selected answer) entered by 
an user (card owner) is set in the region MA4. In the steps n44 to n48 
stated above, the setting of the first question and corresponding answer 
are completed. In the same manner, the second question and corresponding 
answer are set in n49 to n53, and the third question and corresponding 
answer are set in n54 through n58. Also, said file is stored in the region 
MQ in advance, and the question No. entered in n45, n50 and n55 can be 
freely selected from the file by the user. Also, though three questions, 
are entered in this embodiment, any number of question can be employed as 
long as the number is smaller than the number of questions predetermined 
in said file. 
Thus, when the card information consisting of the cryptographic number, 
three questions and corresponding answers are set in the region MA, this 
card information is registered on the card. The registration of this card 
information is made in n26 and thereafter. At first, in n26, the contents 
of the region MA are scrambled and set in the buffer register 3. In the 
scramble, the right card information set in the region MA will be in 
appearance turned to other information in accordance with particular rules 
(such as method using the complement of 9). This scramble is performed in 
order to prevent the right card information from being known, for example, 
after the card was stolen. Therefore, this scramble is not always 
required. The data (card information) scrambled and set in the buffer 
register 3 is then transferred to the card reader 7 (having the functions 
of writer) in n27 and then the card information is registered on the card 
already in the card reader. Then, the card returned in n28, the pull-out 
of card is confirmed in n29, "card insertion" is displayed in n30, and 
then use of a next card is waited. 
As stated above, the registration of the card information is performed by 
the card itself. Also, the card information may be registered as the card 
information record file in the memory 2 or memory 12. And, in this case, 
the read-out and registration (write) of the card information are 
performed using the account number as an index. 
Then, the control procedure when a card is going to be used for the second 
time of thereinafter. 
If the card is going to be used for the second time or thereafter, the 
operation advances from n1 to n2, to n3 and to n4. In this case, the card 
information of the account number, cryptographic number, questions and 
answers (3 kinds) are recorded on the card itself. In n4, the card 
information read in n2 is scrambled and decoded, and decoded information 
is written in the region MA of the memory 2. However, n4 is the step 
corresponding to n26, and n4 is not required when omitting n26. In n5, a 
display instructing "entry of the cryptographic number" is made on CRT 6. 
In n6 and n7, a numeral with the predetermined number entered from the 
keyboard 4 is written in the region MB. In n8, the coincidence of the 
stored data in the region MB with the stored data in the region MA2 
(cryptographic number registered in the card) is checked. If they coincide 
with each other, this means that the cryptographic number has been 
properly entered, so that the operation advances to n9. 
In n9 to n17, the answers to the questions are checked. In n9, the contents 
of region MA3 are used as index, and the question content data (consisting 
of questions and choices of answer) corresponding to the index is read out 
of the question file (region MQ) and is displayed. In this example, the 
contents of the region MA3 are the question No. 3 and, thus, the contents 
of the corresponding region MQ2 are displayed. Also, as stated above, the 
question file has been prepared in advance and stored in the region MQ in 
the memory 2. Then, in n10, the data of answer entered from the keyboard 4 
is written in the region MB. In n11, the answer stored in the region MB is 
compared to the answer in the region MA4 (registered answer). If these two 
answers coincide with each other, the next checking is performed. The 
display of the next question and the checking of its answer are performed 
in n12 to n14. The checking method is as same as that of n9 through n11. 
That is, the next question and the choices of answer are displayed in n12, 
and the coincidence of the answer entered for the question and stored in 
the region MB with the answer in the region MA6 is checked. In the same 
manner, the answer to the third question is checked in n15 through n17. 
Also, as described before, though three questions are used in this 
example, the number of questions is not limited to three. At the time of 
registration of the questions and answers on the card, a predetermined 
number of questions (three in this case) will be selected out of all 
questions in this question file. 
In the answers coincide with each other in the checking of n17, the payment 
processing of the amount requested is started in the steps n17 and 
thereafter. However, if any one of answers of said three questions does 
not coincide, the operation advances to n31 from n11, or n14 or n17, 
thereby causing the alarm device 8 to be activated. Also, if the 
cryptographic number will not coincide in n8, the operation advances to 
n30, causing the alarm device 8 to be operated. Therefore, if an answer 
entered for a question differs from the registered answer, the use of the 
card can be invalidated. After the operation of the alarm device 8, a 
teller may meet the fraudulent card user and depresses the reset button of 
the machine (n32). When the operation signal of the reset button is 
detected, the operation advances to n28. 
Now, the procedure after n18 will be described below. In n18, a display 
instruction "entry of the amount" is made. In n19 and n20, the amount of 
payment requested which was entered from the keyboard 4 is set in the 
region MB. The amount of payment requested must be lower than the balance. 
However, since the balance data is stored in the memory 12 of the master 
equipment, the data (amount of payment requested) set in the region MB is 
transmitted together with the payment check instruction and account number 
to the master equipment in n21 in order to check whether the payment can 
be authorized or not. 
In FIG. 14, master equipment, after receiving the transmit data from the 
subsidiary equipment, sets the received data in the region BM1 to BM3 
(n60). At this stage, the payment check instruction has been set in the 
message region of the region BM1, the account number of the card has been 
set in region BM2, and the amount of payment requested previously set in 
region MB at n19 has been set in the region BM3 respectively. Then, the 
message of the region BM1 is checked in n61 and, if the message is the 
payment check instruction, the operation advances to n62. But if the 
message is other than the payment check instruction, the operation 
advances to n70. In n62, the balance data is read out of the memory 12 by 
making reference to the account number set in the region BM2, and is set 
in the region BM4. In n63, the balance set in the region BM4 is compared 
to the amount of payment requested already set in the region BM3 and, 
except the case where the former is smaller than the latter, the OK 
message for authorizing the payment is set in the region BM1 (n64). In n65 
and n66, the balance data is rewritten. In n65, the amount data obtained 
after deducting the amount of the payment requested from the previous 
balance is set in the region BM4. Then, in n66, by making reference to the 
account number of the region BM2, the data (new balance) in the region BM4 
is written in the balance data storing area in the memory 12. Upon 
completion of the above processing, the message in the region BM or the OK 
message is transmitted to the subsidiary equipment. 
On the other hand, if the data (balance) in the region BM4 is smaller than 
the data (amount of payment requested) in the region BM 3 in n63, that is, 
if the amount of payment requested exceeds the balance, the operation 
advances to n68 and the message of shortage of funds is set in the region 
BM1. In this case, the operation advances to n67 without rewriting the 
balance data and then the message of shortage of funds set in the region 
BM1 is transmitted to the subsidiary equipment. 
When the processing in the master equipment is completed and OK message or 
message of shortage of funds is transmitted to the subsidiary equipment, 
the subsidiary equipment receives that message in n22. Then, the message 
is decoded in n28 and, if it is OK message, the operation advances to n24 
but, if it is message of shortage of funds, the operation advances to n25. 
In the former case, that is, in the case of OK message, set data (amount 
of payment requested) of the region MB is transferred to the cash 
dispenser 5 in n24, and the payment of the amount of payment requested 
already set in the region MB is commanded to the cash dispenser 5. Upon 
completion of the payment, the writing in the card and the card returning 
process are performed. This processing is performed by the procedure in 
the steps n26 and thereafter. That is, the data in the region MA is 
scrambled and set in the buffer register 8 in n26, and the contents of the 
buffer register are transferred to the card reader 7 in n27 and recorded 
on the card. At this stage, the data which may have been possibly changed 
after the time of card input is only the balance data. Therefore, if the 
message received from the master equipment in n22 is OK message, the 
amount obtained after deducting the amount of payment requested from the 
previous balance will be recorded as a new balance. Upon completion of n27 
and recording to the card, the card is returned in n28, the pull-out of 
card is confirmed in n29, "card instruction" is displayed in n30, and a 
next card input is waited. 
On the other hand, if the received data is judged to be a message of 
shortage of balance in n23, the operation advances to n25, and "shortage 
of balance" is displayed without operating the cash dispenser 5. Then, the 
card return processing in the steps n28 and thereafter is executed and the 
operation is completed. Therefore, in this case, no writing to the card is 
performed and the card is returned as it is. 
In the above procedure, both the checking of the card at its use and the 
payment of the requested amount can be performed if the card has been 
found to be acceptable. 
Also, in this embodiment, only the registration of questions and answers 
can be made at the use of the card for the first time. However, if the 
procedure from n27 to n18 is taken, then a payment of deposit can be 
performed while the card is being inserted. Also, in the above 
description, described was the system which stores in the master equipment 
the balance data corresponding to the account number after making an 
online connection through a communication line between the subsidiary 
equipment and master equipment. However, if the balance data is stored in 
the subsidiary equipment or in the card itself, then the present invention 
may be applied also to an offline system in which the subsidiary equipment 
is separated from the master equipment. 
As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, 
at least part of the card information comprizes the questions and answers 
to these questions, and the questions and answers to be registered will be 
selected by the card owner from the question file prepared in advance. 
Thus, many various combinations of the questions and answers can be made, 
and the card owners will be able to easily memorize the answers even 
though the number of registered answers is increased, so that a very 
practical card use system with a high accuracy in checking card at its use 
can be provided without giving any burden to the card owner. 
FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a bank transaction processing sytem having 
the system of the fourth embodiment of the present invention. In this 
figure, a card reader 1 reads the registered information from a card 
inserted to a card inlet of the card reader and enters the information in 
CPU 4 (central processing unit). The card, which is read by the card 
reader 1, stores customer's account No., three registered question Nos. 
and answer Nos., and balance of deposit. Also, in this figure, indicated 
are a keyboard 3 for entering by the key operation the data in CPU 2 by a 
customer, a cash dispenser 4 for releasing a required amount of bills 
after receiving a command from CPU 2, a CRT display unit 5 for displaying 
the sentences of questions and answers, an alarm unit 6 for generating 
alarm when an uncoincidence occurs during the collation, and a teller's 
operating unit 7 having keys for performing the predetermined processing 
after turning off an alarm that was generated from the alarm unit 6. A 
memory 8 has the question sentence store region Q, store region C for 
storing the registered information read from a card, and other store 
regions. Naturally, the memory 8 is freely able to read/write the data 
coupled to the CPU 2. CPU 2 executes the various kinds of processing 
operations in accordance with its built-in program. The control of the 
personal collation processing at the time of cash payment is performed in 
accordance with the flowchart shown in FIG. 16. 
Now, the operation of the personal collation processing of the processing 
system shown in FIG. 15 will be described by making reference to FIG. 16. 
If a customer puts his card in the card inlet of the card reader 1, then 
the card reader 1 reads the data stored in the card and enters the data in 
CPU 2. Then, in step ST (this will be merely called "ST" hereinafter) 1, 
CPU 2 stores the data taken from card reader 1 in the store region C of 
the memory 8. If, for example, the account No., question No. 1 and its 
answer No., question No. 2 and its answer No., and also question No. 3 and 
its answer No. have been stored in the card, then each registered data of 
them is stored respectively in the store regions CQ1, CQ2, CQ3, CA0, CA1, 
CA2 and CA3 of the store region C. For another customer, the different 
account No. and question Nos. will be naturally used. 
When the reading of the registration data from a card is completed, YES is 
judged for "read completed?" of ST2 and then the operation advances to the 
next ST3, thereby transferring the contents of the counter E to the 
initial value store region F. Counter E is a counter for counting a value 
up to 3; three is used because three questions have been selected for the 
collation. The counter E is so cycled as to add 1 to its contents every 
time when the collating operation is performed as described later. If the 
contents of the counter E are 0, for example, then 0 is stored in the 
store region F as initial value prior to the collating operation. Then, 1 
is added to the contents of the counter E in the next ST4. In the above 
example, 1 is added because the contents of the counter E were 0. Then, 
"(E)=3" is judged in ST5. If the contents of the counter E are 3, then the 
operation advances to ST6 after judging YES, the contents of the counter E 
are set to 0, and the operation advances to ST7. If the contents of the 
counter E are not 0, the operation advances to ST7 after the judgement of 
NO. In the above example, since (E)=1, the operation advances from ST5 to 
ST7. In ST7, "(E)=0" is judged. In the case of (E)=1, NO is judged and the 
operation advances to ST11, and "(E)=1" is judged. If YES is judged, the 
operation advances to ST12. In ST12, the sentence of the question 2 
corresponding to question No. 2 stored in the store region CQ2 is read out 
of the memory region Q(Q5) and displayed on the CRT display unit 5. In the 
case of question stated above, "Which of the following hobbies do you 
have? Enter the corresponding answer number" will be displayed and also 
the answer No. is displayed as same as the above example. A customer who 
saw this display and likes sports as hobby, for instance, will enter the 
answer No. 2 with the keyboard 3. And in ST14, "(CA2)=(A)" is judged, 
namely, it is judged whether the answer No. of the question No. 2 stored 
in the store region CA2 coincides with the answer No. stored in the store 
region A. If they coincide with each other, YES is judged and the answer 
collation for the first question is completed, and the operation advances 
to ST18. In ST18, it is judged whether the contents of both the store 
regions E and F coincide with each other. Since (F)=0 and (E)=1 in the 
above example, they do not coincide with each other, so that NO is judged 
and the operation advances to ST4. 
In the operation after ST4, the answer collation of the second question in 
the present collation is started. At first, 1 is added to the counter E in 
ST4. Since (E)=1 in the above example, the contents in the counter E 
become 2. Then, in ST5, Whether "(E)=3" is judged in ST5, "(E)=0" in ST7, 
and "(E)=1" in ST11 sequentially, but NO is judged in all cases and the 
operation advances to ST15. In ST15, the sentence of the question 3 
corresponding to question No. 3 stored in the store region CQ3 is read out 
of the store region CQ3, and the sentence is displayed on the CRT display 
unit 5. A customer who saw this display will enter the answer No. for the 
question with the keyboard 3 in ST16 in the same manner as done for the 
question No. 2 stated above. This answer No. is stored in the store region 
A, and then the the answer No. for the question 3 stored in the store 
region CA3 is compared to the entered answer No. stored in the store 
region A in ST17. If both of them coincide with each other, the answer 
collation of the second question of the present collation will be 
completed, and the operation moves again to ST18. In this case, since 
(E)=2 and (F)=0, "(E)=(F)" is judged to be NO and the operation moves to 
ST4. 
Then, in the operation in ST4 and thereafter, the answer collation of the 
third question of the present collation is performed. In ST4, 1 is added 
to the content (E)=2 of the counter E, causing the contents to be become 
(E)=3. Therefore, In ST5, YES is judged for "(E)=3", and the counter E 
becomes 0 in ST6. Then, in ST7, "(E)=0" is judged to be YES and the 
operation advances to ST8. In ST8, the sentence of question 1 
corresponding to the question No. 1 to be stored in the store region CQ1 
is read out of the store region Q(Q1), and the sentence is displayed on 
the CRT display unit 5. When the customer who saw this display enters the 
answer No. for the question from the keyboard 3, then its answer No. is 
stored in the store region A in ST9. Then, in ST10, the answer No. for the 
question 1 stored in the store region CA1 is compared to the entered 
answer No. stored in the store region A. If both of them coincide with 
each other, YES is judged for ST10, thereby completing the answer 
collation for the third question of the present collation. Then, the 
operation advances to ST18. In this step, since (E)=0 and (F)=0, YES is 
judged for ST18 and the operation advances to ST19. Namely, three 
questions and answers of the present collation have been entered and 
collated, and the collation is determined to be OK when all registered 
answers for three questions coincide with the answers to the questions 
entered from the keyboard 3. 
Then, In ST19, a display of "Enter a desired amount" is made on the CRT 
display unit 5. When the customer who saw this display enters the desired 
amount of withdrawal from the keyboard 3, this amount is stored in the 
requested amount store region B of the memory 8 in ST20. Then, in ST21, 
the result obtained by deducting the requested amount stored in the store 
region B from the balance stored in the store region CB is stored in the 
store region A. Then, in ST22, an judgement is made for "(A).gtoreq.0" 
and, if the balance is larger, the YES is judged and the operation 
advances to ST23, the requested amount in the store region B is sent to 
the cash dispenser 4, and then the payment processing is performed by the 
cash dispenser 4. on the other hand, the stored contents of the store 
region A as new balance are transferred to and stored in the store region 
CB in ST24, and the stored contents such as new balance in the store 
region C are written in the card by the card reader 1 in ST25. After this, 
the card is returned in ST26, and 1 is added to the contents of counter E 
in ST27. This processing is performed to change the start point in the 
cycle for the question No. of the first question to be asked out of three 
questions registered in the card every time when one transaction is 
completed. If (E)=2 occurs in this step, then the question of question NO. 
stored in the store region CQ3 is asked at the time of the next collation. 
Also, if (E)=3 occurs, the questioning will start from the question No. 
stored in the store region CQ1 at the time of next collation. 
The operation is completed when a card insertion display is made for the 
next customer on the CRT display unit 5 in ST28 following ST27. 
In ST22, if (A)&lt;0, that is, the new balance becomes lower than 0, no 
payment processing performed and, instead, the operation advances to ST31, 
the shortage of funds is displayed on the CRT display unit 5, card is 
returned (ST26), 1 is added to the contents of counter E (ST27), and the 
card insertion display is performed for the next customer in ST28, thereby 
completing the operation. 
An judgement of NO is made with the answer registered in ST10 or ST14 or 
ST17 does not coincide with the answer entered, then the operation 
advances to ST29 and an alarm is activated by the alarm device 6. Then, 
the teller who confirmed the alarm performs the predetermined processing 
such as reset at the teller's operating unit (ST30), and then the card 
returning, adding 1 to the counter E, and display of card insertion are 
performed as same as the operation made at the time of said display of the 
shortage of funds. 
As stated above, the embodiment of the system of the present invention is 
able to take out the questions registered by changing as desired the order 
of questions asked from machine during collation and, thus, the order of 
plural questions to be made may vary depending upon the customers or every 
time when the transactions are performed. Hence, even if the Nos. of 
answers became known by other persons accidentially, they are unable to 
know which of the answers will correspond to a particular question asked 
and, thus, any fraudulent use of a card can be prevented. 
Also, as another embodiment of the system of the present invention, a 
system as described below can be considered. 
That is, in the personal identification system of said embodiments, common 
questions are prepared for all customers, answer data for all of these 
questions are registered for each customer, the machine selectes at random 
particular questions out of said all questions and displays them on the 
display unit, the answer data registered for any questions asked is 
repeatedly compared to the answer data entered by a customer in succession 
by changing the questions, and the collation is determined to be OK only 
when the entered answers coincide with the predetermined number of answers 
registered in succession. 
Therefore, if the system is constructed as stated above, the questions 
asked at the time of collation will vary at each time of questioning and, 
thus, the chance of the entered answer Nos. becoming known by other 
persons and the chance of the fraudulent use can be extremely reduced, 
thereby assuring the safe collation processing. 
Also, the system described above can be made in either online or offline 
mode. 
In addition, as another embodiment of the system of the present invention, 
the following system can be considered. 
Namely, the system may comprise a personal information store unit for 
storing plural questions and registering preselected answers to said 
questions for each person, display means for displaying the questions and 
the multiple choices of answer to said questions, first collation means 
for comparing the answers entered by an input device during operation to 
the answers registered in advance by an user, a particular questions 
assignment unit for assigning particular questions out of said plural 
questions, particular question modification means for reassigning said 
questions during each operation for each person, and second collation 
means for comparing anwers enterd by said input device for said particular 
questions during operation to predetermined answers registered in advance, 
thereby allowing to perform the personal collation with said first 
collation means and said second collation means. 
However, according to said collation system, the personal collation is 
performed on the basis of whether the answer entered for the displayed 
question coincides with answer registered in advance and whether the 
answer entered for the particular question coincides with the 
predetermined answer and, thus, this system is able to facilitate the 
cryptographic code (relation between questions and answers) for each 
person and to preserve the higher degree of secrecy of the collation 
information since the particular questions requring the entry of the 
predetermined answers as conditions of collation are changed at the time 
of each operation. 
The number and kinds of questions for performing the personal collation can 
be determined as desired. Also, the number of the multiple choices of 
answer for a question may be determined at discretion. 
In addition, though the examples of embodiments of the system of the 
present invention only to the bank transaction processing system have been 
described above, the embodiments of the present invention is not limited 
only to those described above, and the present invention can be also 
applied to the personal collation for the entrance and exit gate control 
system, credit sales system and so forth using cards.