Patent ID: 7690580

Claim:
An active stripe card compatible with a magnetic stripe card reader that is configured to read statically implemented magnetic stripe cards, said active stripe card being configured to exchange data with said magnetic stripe card reader, comprising: a card base; a dynamically reconfigurable data interface disposed on said card base, said dynamically reconfigurable data interface having at least a set of dynamically reconfigurable data bearing portions that includes at least a first dynamically reconfigurable data bearing portion; reconfiguration controller circuitry coupled to said set of dynamically reconfigurable data bearing portions; control logic circuitry coupled to said reconfiguration controller circuitry, said control logic circuitry being configured to provide a first data pattern to said reconfiguration controller circuitry to cause a second data pattern that includes at least a portion of the information contained in said first data pattern to be manifested on said dynamically reconfigurable data interface, thereby rendering said second data pattern to be readable by said magnetic stripe card reader, wherein at least one of said first data pattern and said second data pattern represents a time-varying serial data stream, wherein each data value in said time-varying serial data stream is a function of time; and a swipe direction detector coupled with said control logic circuitry, wherein each of said first data pattern and said second data pattern changes responsive to a swipe direction of said active card with respect to said card reader, said swipe direction ascertained via said swipe direction detector.