Patent Publication Number: US-2007098965-A1

Title: Personal authentication card having a visual checking security and a method of manufacting the same

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      This invention relates to a personal authentication card having a visual checking security and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security and a method of manufacturing the personal authentication card whereby only a printed output portion of the face image of the personal authentication card is made of a transparent material, the face image is outputted by a sublimation heat transcript printing, the same size image as the face image is engraved by an open-working from the back side to make the face image cloudy, and a visual checking both from the front and back sides and a right or wrong judgment of image can be carried out correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      2. Description of the Prior Art  
      There have been proposed various personal authentication cards, each having a visual checking security (for example, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. WO 31797/1995, 215288/1998, 03406/1999, 120295/1999, 348150/2000, 101305/2001, 312725/2002, 145477/2004 and 99915/2005).  
      A security of the conventional credit card is usually examined by checking a signature in the signature column on a back side of the credit card with the signature of the bearer of the credit card or a registered password number of the bearer of the credit card is examined by checking the inputted password number in the host computer through a magnetic tape or a built-in type IC chip (either contact or non-contact type).  
      According to the conventional personal authentication card such as a member&#39;s card and an employee ID card, a face image photograph is outputted in a vinyl chloride sheet (hereinafter referred to as a PVC sheet) by a sublimation heat transcript printing, a contact type IC chip is built in the PVC sheet or both of them are either used separately or jointly in order to carry out a right or wrong judgment of the personal authentication card.  
      In accordance with the conventional credit card, it is rather difficult to prevent forgery of the card either by exchanging or transferring a signature column and also controlling a wrong use of the card by calculating a password.  
      In addition, a face image of the personal authentication card such as a member&#39;s card and an employee ID card can be made or forged easily by a printer so that it is necessary to provide a terminal reader for reading information encoded in a non-contact type IC chip in order to carry out a right or wrong judgment. However, it cannot be denied that such a right or wrong judgment by artificially visual checking is always correct.  
      Accordingly, the conventional personal authentication cards are very weak for forgery so that it has been necessary for a credit company to compensate by the insurance the damage caused by alteration or forgery and also to slash a credit amount in order to compensate the amount of damage as low as possible.  
      However, exploitation of leakage of the data by an artificial mistake or hacker of a registered password of a card company cannot be compensated by the card company so that various kinds of security are examined as a problem to be concerned with trust of the card company.  
      In addition, it is common in the conventional personal authentication card that most of an individual photograph of the face image are outputted by a sublime transcription printing into a vinyl chloride card or by entering a non-contact type IC chip into a PVC sheet.  
      A security for the ordinary personal authentication card has various problems. For example, it is rather easy to output and print an individual photograph of the face image of another suspicious person by a sublime heat transcript printer. Moreover, in case the face image of a suspicious person is printed into the personal authentication card, which is held by the suspicious person by himself, it is impossible to judge him as the suspicious person directly.  
      If a reader-terminal for reading a non-contact type IC chip is not provided at the point questioning a suspicious person, it is difficult to make a right or wrong judgment that he is a suspicious person immediately. Because the work for questioning a suspicious person is divided into specialized labors, there is a limit for questioning these suspicious persons.  
      It is generally the present conditions that do a personal identity through a reader terminal of a non-contact type IC chip at an entrance of a given site. A memory capacity of a used non-built in type IC chip is a thing of 1 k. byte degree of the CPU so that the inputted information such as a personal identity, an employee number, a full name or a personal identification number is not complicated.  
      As described in the foregoing paragraph, an individual photograph of the face image is outputted by a sublime transcription printing into a vinyl chloride sheet by entering a non-contact type IC chip into a PVC sheet, which is used for a right or wrong judgment of the personal authentication card.  
      There is another card using material excluding a PVC sheet which is hardly forged, but it is rather difficult to output a photograph of a face image for an individual identity so that it is necessary to make a processing, thus increasing a production cost.  
      Most of the personal authentication cards are ordinarily and generally made of a PVC sheet or a PVC sheet having a built-in non-contact type IC chip, into which a face image of a person is outputted by a sublime transcription printing.  
      These personal authentication cards, however, have the following disadvantages. For example, it is inevitable to avoid erroneous outputting and printing of another person as far as a sublime transcription printer is used.  
      When these problems are settled, a card which is the same as the formal card is easily and ironically forged.  
      In order to solve the problems, it is easy to use a built-in non-contact type IC chip having more than a 500 k. byte and to use a contact type IC chip together with a magnetic tape for improving a security, but it has a disadvantage that it is expensive and a field of outputting and printing a face image for a personal identification card is limited.  
      The personal authentication card having a built-in non-contact type IC chip includes another disadvantage that an antenna is likely to be easily cut by an outer shock in the used frequency range.  
      As mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, there has been proposed the personal authentication card made of the material other than the PVC sheet which is hardly forged, but it is difficult to make a visual check and a print output of the face image of a bearer of the card at a low cost.  
      A security for leakage of the data of a credit card such as a monetary problem, entry permission of a person having an entry certificate, a premium gift and special services is in proportion to a security level of the price as well as trust of the company so that it is necessary to give another security in accordance with the condition.  
     SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION  
      A principal object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security which comprises a set of an upper transparent card support layer and a lower transparent card support layer which are integrally put together to form a synthetic resin sheet, into which a non-contact type IC chip and a rectangular antenna being sandwiched at a position to locate near one end position horizontally and also at a middle position between the top and bottom of the upper and lower transparent card support layers, each layer having a given area and a thickness, a gradating printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as that of the upper transparent card support layer, said gradating ordinary printing layer being integrally put on the upper transparent card support layer, said gradating ordinary printing layer having a photograph image printing portion printed by a sublimation heat transcript printing at a position of the ordinary printing layer, which does not interfere with the IC chip and the antenna, an ordinary printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as the printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as the lower transparent card support layer, said ordinary printing layer having a mat portion to locate at the photograph image printing portion, a black printing layer having a given area and a thickness, said black printing layer being provided integrally on the ordinary printing layer whereby only a printed output portion of a personal photograph of a face image of the personal authentication card is made of a transparent material, the face image is outputted by a sublimation heat transcript printing, the same size image as the face image is engraved by an open-working from the back side to make the face image cloudy, and a visual checking both from the front and back sides, and a right or wrong judgment of image can be carried out correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      Another object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security which comprises a set of an upper transparent card support layer and a lower transparent card support which are integrally put together to form a synthetic resin sheet, into which a non-contact type IC chip and a rectangular antenna being sandwiched at a position to locate near one end position horizontally and also at a middle position between the top and bottom of the upper and lower transparent card support layers, each layer having a given area and a thickness, a gradating printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as that of the upper transparent card support layer, said gradating ordinary printing layer being integrally put on the upper transparent card support layer, said gradating ordinary printing layer having a photograph image printing portion printed by a sublimation heat transcript printing at a position of the ordinary printing layer, which does not interfere with the IC chip and the antenna, an ordinary printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as the printing layer having a given thickness and the same area as the lower transparent card support layer, said ordinary printing layer having a mat portion to locate at the photograph image printing portion, a black printing layer having a given area and a thickness, said black printing layer being provided integrally on the ordinary printing layer, a woven pattern hologram gradating layer having a given area and a thickness, said woven pattern hologram gradating layer being provided integrally on the ordinary printing layer whereby only a printed output portion of a personal photograph of a face image of the personal authentication card is made of a transparent material, the face image is outputted by a sublimation heat transcript printing, the same size image as the face image is engraved by an open-working from the back side to make the face image cloudy, and a visual checking both from the front and back sides and a right or wrong judgment of image can be carried out correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      Another object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security whereby only a printed output portion of a face image of the personal authentication card is made of a transparent material, the face image is outputted by a sublimation heat transcript printing, the same size image as the face image is engraved by an open-working from the back side to make the face image cloudy, and a visual checking both from the front and backsides and a right or wrong judgment of the image can be carried out correctly, easily and without ambiguity.  
      Another object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security whereby in addition to the ordinary function of the personal authentication card, a visual checking both from the front and backsides of the card can be made correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      Another object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security whereby, differently from the conventional personal authentication card, in which a personal signature has been autographed in a signature column (name panel), no reading attenuation through wearing of the signature is caused so as to enable to set up a long life of the personal authentication card.  
      Another object of this invention is to provide a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security whereby in place of a personal signature, which has been autographed in a signature column (name panel), is mechanically engraved from the visualized data to make an image so that an artificial forgery of the image can be avoided in order to increase a security of the personal authentication card.  
      Still another object of this invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security, which comprises a step of making synthetic resin card, putting an IC chip and an antenna into the synthetic resin card, making only a portion for outputting and printing a photograph of a face mage transparent, outputting the photograph of the face mage by a sublimation heat transcript printing, engraving a reverse image which is the same as the front face image from the back side of the transparent portion of the face image by an open-working whereby a visual checking both from the front and back sides and a right or wrong judgment of image of a personal authentication card can be carried out correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      These and other advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description thereof when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a front view of an embodiment of a personal authentication card of this invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of the personal authentication card taken on a line  11 - 11  in  FIG. 1 , wherein a set of an upper and lower transparent card support layers are integrally put together to sandwich an IC chip and an antenna, a gradating ordinary printing layer is integrally put on the upper transparent card support layer and a lower ordinary printing layer is integrally put on the lower transparent card support layer, and a black printing layer is integrally put on the ordinary printing layer.  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of the personal authentication card shown in  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 4  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of the personal authentication card shown in  FIG. 2 , in which a hologram layer is integrally put on the black printing layer.  
       FIG. 5  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of the personal authentication card shown in  FIG. 4 , in which a visualized image is engraved on the black printing layer and on the hologram layer of the personal authentication card.  
       FIG. 6  is a flow-chart showing a method of manufacturing a personal authentication card of this invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals designate like parts throughout the several views thereof, this invention will be explained with respect to an embodiment.  
     EXAMPLE 1  
      As particularly shown in FIGS.  1 ˜ 3  and  6 , a personal authentication card C comprises a set of an upper transparent card support layer  12   a  and a lower transparent card support layer  12   b  which are integrally put together to form a synthetic resin sheet  10 .  
      A non-contact type IC chip  14  and a rectangular antenna  16  are sandwiched at a position to locate near one end position horizontally and also at a middle position between the top and bottom of the upper and lower transparent card support layers  12   a  and  12   b.    
      As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , it should be noted that the rectangular antenna  16  is sandwiched between the upper and lower transparent card support layers  12   a  and  12   b  to cross the non-contact type IC chip  14  at the left portion of the rectangular antenna  16 , a right portion of which is being extended onto a right position which does not interfere with a face image  20  (to be explained in the following paragraph).  
      In a method of manufacturing a synthetic resin sheet  10 , a set of an upper transparent card support layer  12   a  and a lower transparent card support layer  12   b , each layer having an area of 54 mm×86 mm and a thickness of 200˜450 μm respectively. are integrally put together to sandwich a non-contact type IC chip  14  and a rectangular antenna  16  in order to form a core transparent card support layer  12 .  
      In a step of manufacturing the core transparent card support layer  12 , an image printing such as letters and designs and also a printing for providing a gradation on a region other than the open-worked portion are carried out.  
      More particularly, a vinyl chloride sheet gradating layer  18  having a thickness of 3˜20 μm which includes a photograph image output  18  having a thickness less than 3 μm is integrally put on a region which does not interfere with the non-contact type IC chip  14  and the rectangular antenna  16  in the upper transparent card support layer  12   a  in order to form a transparent card support layer  12 .  
      A personal photograph image  20  is outputted and printed in a photograph image output  18   a  of the vinyl chloride sheet gradating layer  18  by a sublimation heat transcript printing.  
      As shown in  FIG. 4 , an ordinary printing layer  22  having a thickness of 3˜20 μm which includes a mat layer  22   a  having a thickness 5˜20 μm is integrally put on the lower transparent support layer  12   b  to locate the mat layer  22   a  having a thickness less than 3 μm at the photograph image output  18   a  of the vinyl chloride sheet gradating layer  18 .  
      Referring to an embodiment shown in, a black printing layer  24  having a thickness of 5˜15 μm is integrally put on the ordinary printing layer  22  at a position which does not interfere with the mat layer  22  of the ordinary printing layer  22 .  
     EXAMPLE 2  
      An improved embodiment of  FIG. 2  is shown in  FIG. 3 , wherein a given personal identity signature image and an open-worked image are engraved on the ordinary black printing layer  22  and the black printing layer  24 .  
     EXAMPLE 3  
       FIG. 4  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of the personal authentication card shown in  FIG. 2 , wherein a given pattern hologram layer  26  (for example, a hologram foil and the like) having a thickness of 5˜15 μm is integrally put on the black printing layer  24  which is shown in the embodiment in  FIG. 3 .  
     EXAMPLE 4  
       FIG. 5  is a schematic enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of the personal authentication card shown in  FIG. 3  wherein a given personal identity signature image and an open-worked image are engraved on the ordinary black printing layer  22 , the black printing layer  24 . and the pattern hologram layer  26  as well.  
     EXAMPLE 5  
      Referring to  FIG. 6 , a method of manufacturing a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security is shown. An upper transparent card support layer  12   a  and a lower transparent card support layer  12   b  are integrally put together to form a synthetic resin sheet  10 .  
      As already shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , it should be noted that the rectangular antenna  16  is sandwiched between the upper and lower transparent card support layers  12   a  and  12   b  to cross the non-contact type IC chip  14  at the left portion of the rectangular antenna  16 , a right portion of which is being extended onto a right position which does not interfere with the IC chip  14  and the rectangular antenna  16 .  
      In place of a personal signature, which has been autographed in a signature column (name panel), a direct signature for identification in the signature column (name panel) is visualized in a step of making an image, in the same step of an open-working from the back side or in an independent step, and the visualized data is mechanically engraved so that an artificial forgery, rewriting or recovery of the image can be avoided in order to increase a security of the personal authentication card.  
      The mechanically engraved signature can be discriminated clearly even if it is numerically embossed thereon so that a personal authentication card having a high visual checking security and no restriction of location for the signature column can be manufactured correctly, easily and at a low cost.  
      A reverse image which is the same as the front face image from the back engraving a reverse image which is the same as the front face image from the back side of the transparent portion of the face image by an open-working whereby a visual checking both from the front and back sides and a right or wrong judgment of image of a personal.  
      Although this invention has been fully described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, unless otherwise such changes and modifications depart from the scope of this invention, they should be construed as being included therein.