Patent ID: 8823497

Claim:
A passive secure data card, comprising: a card; an antenna tuned to receive an external RF reader signal; a passive power module coupled to the antenna, said passive power module converting power drawn exclusively from the external RF reader signal to supply one or more voltages to a biometric sensor and at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) chip; said biometric sensor configured to sense a biometric input from a card user and generate a biometric input signal, said biometric input and biometric input signal providing distinctive and measurable characteristics to identify individual card users; and said at least one RFID chip comprising an RF transmitter and one or more processors and memory units configured to implement a communication module that stores information and a biometric module that stores biometric parameters representative of user-initialized biometric inputs, and in response to biometric input from the biometric sensor compares the biometric input signal to the stored biometric parameters and, upon determination of a match authenticates and authorizes that card user and activates the communication module, which in turn reads and sends the information to the RF transmitter to transmit an RF data signal via the antenna, wherein said communication module, although power is available from the external RF reader signal, will not active and transmit the information until activated by the biometric module.