Three-legacy mode payment card with parametric authentication and data input elements

This Application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/800,821, filed Mar. 15, 2004, by the present inventor, Kerry D. BROWN, and titled PAYMENT CARD WITH PARTIAL DYNAMIC MAGNETIC ACCOUNT DATA AND TIMEOUT. Such was, in turn, a Continuation-In-Part of an Application that is now U.S. Pat. No. 7,044,394, issued May 16, 2006, titled PROGRAMMABLE MAGNETIC DATA STORAGE CARD. These are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a payment card, and more particularly to payment cards with contact/contactless smartcard interfaces, and an internally writeable magnetic data stripe readable by legacy card readers.

2. Description of Related Art

Credit card and debit card use and systems have become ubiquitous throughout the world. Originally, credit cards simply carried raised numbers that were transferred to a carbon copy with a card-swiping machine. The merchant simply accepted any card presented. Spending limits and printed lists of lost/stolen cards were ineffective in preventing fraud and other financial losses. So merchants were required to telephone a transaction authorization center to get pre-approval of the transaction. These pre-approvals were initially required only for purchases above a certain threshold, but as time went on the amounts needing authorization dropped lower and lower. The volume of telephone traffic grew too great, and more automated authorization systems allowed faster, easier, and verified transactions. Magnetic stripes on the backs of these payment cards started to appear and that allowed computers to be used at both ends of the call.

The magnetic data on the stripe on the back of payment cards now contains a standardized format and encoding. The raised letters and numbers on the plastic cards are now rarely used or even read. This then gave rise to “skimming” devices that could be used by some unscrupulous merchant employees to electronically scan and save the information from many customers\' cards. Reproducing an embossed card complete with photos is then rather easy.

Smartcards were first introduced around 1994 with embedded single-chip cryptoprocessors and contact interfaces. These required a new reader that could probe the smartcard\'s contact pad and electronically interrogate the card. Cards could be authenticated this way, but the contact interfaces proved to be troublesome. Such cards have not gained wide acceptance because new readers needed to be installed.

Dual interface smartcards started to appear around 2000. Such supported both contact (e.g., ISO/IEC-7816) and contactless (e.g., ISO/IEC-14443) interfaces, and used two completely independent cryptoprocessors and interfaces. They are therefore relatively expensive, because of the duplication. The independence of the two cryptoprocessors and interfaces meant that each had to be updated individually, the two may not talk to one another.

Typical dual interface smart cards support both contact and Type-A and/or Type-B antenna structures and the corresponding operating frequencies. Type A has a range of about 10 cm, and type B has a range of about 5 cm. Type B supports a higher data rate, but has proven to be the less popular because of the shorter range.

Dual-input smartcard cryptoprocessors started to become available in 2004, e.g., Philips Semiconductors family of 8-bit MIFARE® PROX dual interface smart card controllers. These use one IC with a crypto co-processor that has both contact and contactless interfaces. Updating the data through either interface is effective for both interfaces. The total cost of a smartcard using dual-input devices is much closer to the original single-chip cryptoprocessors with contact interfaces.

The proliferation of magnetic, contact, and contactless technologies is causing chaos, and the huge installed base of magnetic point-of-sale readers in the United States has been inhibiting the transition to smartcards, a USA cost, estimated by American Express in 2002, of approximately $4-14 billion dollars. What is needed is a transitional payment card that can continue to support magnetic reading while also being able to respond to smartcard readers. It further would be advantageous to have a payment card that can self-authenticate its users. Additionally, a card with EMV (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) security features of a smartcard and the transaction communications features compatible with magnetic stripe transaction acceptance systems and processing infrastructure.

Briefly, a payment card embodiment of the present invention comprises electronic components disposed in a plastic card base needed to operate with magnetic reader, contact, and contactless legacy card payment systems. A magnetic stripe with user account data allows card use in traditional point-of-sale magnetic card readers. A dual-input crypto-processor embedded in the card provides for contact/contactless smart card operation. A user input provides for user authentication by the crypto-processor. Internal to the plastic card, and behind the magnetic stripe, a magnetic array includes a number of fixed-position magnetic write heads that allow the user account data to be automatically modified by the crypto-processor and support circuitry.

The above and still further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a payment card embodiment of the present invention;

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