Patent ID: 6910627

Claim:
A system for multiple purpose smart cards, the system including: a card reader into which said smart card is insertable, said card reader having a pressure sensitive membrane through which at least textual information on a surface of an inserted smart card is visible, said textual information facilitating non-computer based information transfer to achieve a first pre-defined purpose; said smart card which is adapted for both non-computer based and computer-based information transfer, the smart card comprising: said textual information; an electronic memory; and data stored in the electronic memory enabling other information supplemental to the textual information to be presented, dependent upon pressure directed to the inserted smart card and exerted on said pressure sensitive membrane of the card reader; said system further comprising: presentation means communicating with said card reader for presenting the other information; and a keypad overlay, positionable above said membrane of said card reader, and when so positioned activating an alternate set of computer interpretable functions corresponding to a layout of selectable indicia or icons presented on said overlay, wherein operation of the selectable indicia presented on said overlay is dependent upon pressure which is exerted on a selected indicium of said overlay being transferred to the pressure sensitive membrane, wherein said additional information facilitates computer-based information transfer to achieve a second purpose; and the first pre-defined purpose is facilitated based upon the textual information without reference to the additional information.