JPS6310502B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a card discrimination device in a magnetic card reader.

The two most commonly known magnetic cards are those based on the NTT standard and those based on the ISO standard. Figure 1 shows
It indicates magnetic card 1 of NTT standard,
One track can be recorded on the magnetic stripe 3 formed on the front side of the card.
FIG. 2 shows an ISO standard magnetic card 2, in which three tracks can be recorded on a magnetic stripe 4 formed on the back side of the card. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, one side of the card 5 has an NTT standard magnetic stripe 3.
There is also a common type card in which an ISO standard magnetic stripe 4 is formed on the other side of the card 5.

On the other hand, NTT
It is desirable to have a device that can handle both standard cards and ISO standard cards, but in conventional magnetic card readers, the arrangement of the detection head is that for NTT standard cards is for NTT standard cards, and for ISO standard cards is for ISO standard cards. Even if two detection heads corresponding to both standards were installed, it would not be possible to distinguish between NTT and ISO standard magnetic cards.

The purpose of the present invention is to use a first standard magnetic card having one track as a first standard magnetic card, and a second standard magnetic card having multiple tracks as a second standard magnetic card.
As a standard magnetic card, it can also be used as a standard magnetic card.
The object of the present invention is to provide a card discriminating device for a magnetic card reader that can clearly identify standard shared magnetic cards as shared magnetic cards.

The card discriminating device for a magnetic card reader of the present invention is characterized by a first standard magnetic card having one track, and a plurality of tracks, at least two of which are one track of a first standard magnetic card. The second
A card discriminating device for a magnetic card reader that can be used in common with standard magnetic cards, wherein magnetic heads for at least two channels are provided on both sides of the card path, and the magnetic heads on both sides are compatible with the first standard. The card and the second standard card are arranged opposite to each other at overlapping track positions, and the card is discriminated from the output of each magnetic head.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 4, a magnetic card 1 of the NTT standard, which is a magnetic card of the first standard, has a magnetic stripe 3 consisting of one track, and a magnetic stripe 3 of the second standard.
ISO standard magnetic card 2, which is a standard magnetic card
has a magnetic stripe 4 consisting of a first track 6, a second track 7 and a third track 8. Here, when looking at the track position of each card, using one side edge 11 of the first standard card 1 as a reference plane and one side edge 12 of the second standard card 2 as a reference plane,
The track of the card 1 of the first standard is provided at a position overlapping the two tracks 6 and 7 of the card 2 of the second standard. Therefore, in the present invention, cards are discriminated based on the relationship between the tracks of cards of these two standards.

In FIG. 5, a card gate section 14 is provided on the front side of the magnetic card reader main body 13, and a circuit section 15 is provided on one side of the main body 13. As shown in FIG. A card insertion slot 19 is provided in the card gate section 14.
is provided. As shown in detail in FIGS. 6 and 7, the card gate section 14 has magnetic heads 1 for card detection above and below the card passage.
6 and 17 are arranged to face each other across the card path. The lower magnetic head 17 is fixed to the gate part 14, while the upper magnetic head 16 is provided so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and is pushed from above by the head holding member 18 to open the card insertion slot 19. It is designed so that it can come into close and sliding contact with the magnetic stripe of the card inserted from above, and the card can be brought into close contact with the lower magnetic head by the pressing force of the head holding member 18. . A shutter for opening and closing the card passage is provided between the card detection magnetic heads 16, 17 and the card reader body 13, but it is not shown. This shutter is connected to a solenoid, which is a driving member, for example, and is normally biased by a spring in the direction of blocking the card passage.When the magnetic heads 16 and 17 detect a card inserted from the insertion slot 19, the solenoid is activated. The shutter opens and the card can be inserted further inside than the shutter. When the card is further inserted in this manner, the drive motor is started, and the card is fed into the interior by the feed roller like a conventional general card reader, and a predetermined operation is performed. It is assumed that the reading/writing heads on the card reader main body 13 side are also arranged above and below across the card path.

As shown in Figure 7, the upper head 1
6 is formed into two channels, channel A and channel B, and the lower head 17 is also formed into two channels, channel C and channel D. The gap of channel A of the upper head 16 is set to the first track if an NTT standard card is inserted correctly, and to the first track 6 if an ISO standard card is inserted upside down. The channel B gap of the opposing upper head 16 will be in one track if an NTT standard card is inserted correctly.
When an ISO standard card is inserted with its front and back reversed, the second track 7 faces each other. On the other hand, if an NTT standard card is inserted upside down, the gap in channel C of the lower head 17 will be
If the standard card is inserted correctly, the first
Each of the lower heads 17 faces the tracks 6.
The gap of channel D is opposite to the first track when an NTT standard card is inserted upside down, and to the second track 7 when an ISO standard card is inserted correctly. There is. Additionally, if the inserted card is
In the case of a common type for the standard and ISO standard, the gaps of two channels A and B of the upper head 16 face each other on one track of the NTT standard, and the gap of channel C of the lower head 17 faces the first track 6 of the ISO standard.
The gap of
The gap of the channel D of the lower head 17 is arranged to face the lower head 17. Here, upper head 1
6 is the NTT side detection head, and the lower head 17 is the NTT side detection head.
Set it as the ISO side detection head. It is the second standard
The signals recorded on each track of an ISO standard card are different from each other, and it is possible to determine what standard the inserted card is based on the output signals of each channel of the two heads arranged as described above. It is possible to determine whether the card has been inserted correctly. FIG. 8 shows an example of a signal processing system including such a discrimination circuit.

In Figure 8, A and B2 of the detection head on the NTT side
The channel detection signals and the detection signals of the C and D2 channels of the ISO side detection head are amplified by amplifiers 21, 22, 23, and 24, respectively, and then input to a discrimination circuit 25. As will be explained in detail later, the determination circuit 25 determines what standard the inserted card is, whether the card has been inserted correctly, etc., and inputs a determination signal to the control circuit 26. . Control circuit 26
The control circuit controls the operations of the shutter 27, card loading device 28, information device 29, etc. based on the discrimination signal from the discrimination circuit 25, and the discrimination signal indicating that a card of a predetermined standard has been correctly inserted is transmitted. When the card is inputted, the shutter 27 is opened and the card retrieval device 28 having a roller or the like is activated to retrieve the card into the reader body. If a determination signal indicating that the card is not inserted correctly even if it is a standard card is input, the shutter is closed and the information device 29 consisting of audio and display means is activated to output predetermined information. It's becoming like that. A system controller 30, which is an external system for the card reader, is connected to the control circuit 26. The system controller 30 receives information signals from the card reader and processes predetermined tasks.

The discriminating circuit 25 described above operates according to the flow shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, the card insertion slot 1 is now
When a card is inserted from 9, recorded data is read for each channel of the upper and lower magnetic heads 16 and 17 in step 1. Based on this read data, it is determined in step 2 whether or not there is an output on channels A and B. If there is no output on channels A and B, the process goes to step 6 and the output is output on channels C and D.
Determine whether there is any output. If it is determined in step 6 that there is no output on channels C and D, it is determined that the card has been inserted by mistake, but if there is output on channels C and D, the process goes to step 7. In step 7, channel C and channel D
If the two outputs do not match, it is determined that the card is an ISO standard card.
If both outputs match, it is determined that the card was inserted by mistake. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 2 that channels A and B have output, the process goes to step 3, and outputs output to channels A and B.
Determine whether the outputs match. Step 3
If the outputs of channels A and B do not match, it is determined that the card was inserted by mistake, and if both outputs match, go to step 4 and determine whether there is an output on channels C and D. . If there is no output on both channels C and D in step 4, it is determined that the inserted card is an NTT standard card, and if there is output on both channels C and D, the process goes to step 5 and both channels C, D are output. Determine whether the outputs of D match. Both outputs C in step 5
When and D match, it is determined that the card has been inserted by mistake, and when both outputs do not match, it is determined that the inserted card is a common type of NTT standard and ISO standard.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, magnetic heads for two channels are provided above and below the card path, and these magnetic heads are arranged opposite to each other at overlapping track positions of the NTT standard card and the ISO standard card. Since the cards are arranged in parallel, it is possible to determine the standard of the card based on the output signal of each channel of each magnetic head, and it is also possible to determine whether or not the card has been inserted correctly.

Although the detection magnetic heads for two channels are integrally formed in the illustrated example, they may be formed individually for each channel and two of them may be placed on both sides of the card path. Further, the number of channels of the upper and lower magnetic heads may be plural, and is not necessarily limited to two channels each. In the illustrated example, the lower magnetic head is fixed, but both the upper and lower magnetic heads may be movable.

According to the present invention, magnetic heads for at least two channels are provided on both sides of the card path, and these magnetic heads on both sides are arranged to face each other at overlapping track positions of the first standard card and the second standard card. Therefore, the output of each channel of the magnetic head will differ depending on the standard of the inserted card, and the standard of the card can be determined based on the output of each channel of the magnetic head. It is also possible to determine whether the Further, even if the card uses both the first standard and the second standard, it can be determined without error.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a first standard magnetic card with some parts omitted, Fig. 2 is a bottom view showing an example of a second standard magnetic card with some parts omitted, and Fig. 3 is a top view showing an example of a first standard magnetic card with some parts omitted. A side view partially omitting an example of a common type card for the standard and the second standard.
A plan view showing an enlarged part of a standard card and comparing the magnetic stripes of the two, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of an embodiment of the device of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a card gate section of the same embodiment. Figure 7 is an enlarged front view of the magnetic head portion of the card gate section, Figure 8 is a front view of the card gate section.
The figure is a block diagram showing an example of a signal processing system used in the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the discrimination circuit in the same signal processing system. 1... First standard magnetic card, 2... Second standard magnetic card, 3, 4... Magnetic stripe, 5...
...Common magnetic card, 6, 7, 8...Truck,
14...Card gate section, 16, 17...Magnetic head, 19...Card insertion slot, 25...Discrimination circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first standard magnetic card having one track, and a second standard magnetic card having multiple tracks, at least two of which are located at a position overlapping one track of the first standard magnetic card. A card discriminating device for a magnetic card reader that can be used in common with a card, wherein magnetic heads for at least two channels are provided on both sides of a card path, and the magnetic heads on both sides are used for the first standard card and the first standard card. A card discriminating device for a magnetic card reader, characterized in that cards of two standards are disposed facing each other at overlapping track positions, and the cards are discriminated from the output of each magnetic head.