WO2002101671A2

WO2002101671A2 - Cd-rom transaction card

Info

Publication number: WO2002101671A2
Application number: PCT/EP2002/006446
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nelson Gutierrez
Original assignee: Tenfield S.A.
Priority date: 2001-06-13
Filing date: 2002-06-12
Publication date: 2002-12-19
Also published as: WO2002101671A3; UY26770A1; AU2002320852A1; AR036051A1

Abstract

A physical carrier like that of a CD, in a shape and a size similar to that of a common credit card. A card that, with a specific software recorded in it, enables its connection to the Internet through certain portals, allowing the user to participate in draws or other benefits. The Field-Card is authorized to be used by inserting a previously printed code which is hidden and is made visible by scraping, and/or by having a microprocessor which acts accordingly.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

"FIELDCARD"

This application for Letters Patent refers to the FIELDCARD, which consists of a physical carrier of the CD type. Such carrier has also printed on said CD a code and/or a microprocessor . -

State of the Art

Nowadays, there are various types of cards, which are well known on the market. By using these cards all kinds of transactions can be performed, such as: making phone calls on a public telephone, withdrawing money from an automatic cash dispenser, accumulating points with a purchase and later exchanging these points for various prizes; paying for the use of minutes of cell phone calls, parking lots and many other transactions which are all impossible to enumerate now.-

The technology used for these card types varies. It extends from magnetic tape cards or cards with a hidden code, which may be seen by scraping the area where the code has been printed, to cards using a microprocessor. -

The way of operating these cards differs whether cards with a magnetic tape or a hidden code are used, or cards with a microprocessor are used.- For the first types of cards some external procedure will be used. A procedure that works on identifying the user and authorizing the service, that is to say, such cards are based on a processing system "on line", wherein all transactions are made through a central server. On the other hand, and referring to the other card types, the microprocessor is an element which is able to process information by itself, and thus the card itself is able to work on identifying the user much more safely and also to carry out procedures which will achieve various results according to the data inserted, and it may be safely said that it is a system "off line".

We are interested in a particular card type, through which it may be possible to purchase the use of a certain amount of minutes of telephone communications, whether by a regular phone or by a cell phone. For this transaction two types of cards are used, the first one with a microprocessor and the second one with a hidden code.

The Compact Disc (CD-ROM) and a special type of CD-ROM in a card form, are also known on the market. This CD- ROM in a card form is quite used, through a Personal Computer (PC), especially to make a presentation by a company or in events. The CDs allow the user to store software that when inserted in a PC may carry out different types of processing. Novelty :

Nowadays, using the Internet has become quite popular in all our life areas, for investigation, fun, communication, publicity, etc. There are various ways of connecting to the Internet web, but it is always necessary to hire the connection service from a provider. One of the most common ways of connecting to the Internet is through a modem and a telephone line, by dialing the phone number of a service provider. In or- der to do so, a contract with the provider of the service must be celebrated beforehand, generally per month for the use of a certain amount of time of connection to the Internet. In this case there is a disadvantage in that a user who does not connect regu- larly to the Internet, must, anyway, pay a monthly charge for the time of connection, and on many occasions the user will not be using all the time he has contracted for.

One way of solving the above mentioned difficulty is to use another kind of connection to the Internet which consists of dialing a specific telephone number of a provider and the time of connection to the web will be charged to the bill of the telephone from which the communication was initiated. This kind of connection has the disadvantage that the user is always forced to use "his" phone in order to make a connection to the Internet, so as not to charge his web connection time to another telephone bill. In several portals on the web, once the connection to the Internet is made, payment must be effected in order to obtain certain services or information. The manner of payment is through a credit card, that is, the user must insert in the web the number of his credit card so that payment of the service he wants may be charged to his account. Although nowadays there are many encrypting information programs which prevent other Internet users from getting access to the credit card number sent, the user is always fearful that his credit card number might be detected by other web users and his account might be arbitrarily used.- In order to be able to solve these difficulties, the FIELDCARD has been devised. This FIELDCARD consists, briefly, of a CD in a card form of the credit card type, which have been standardized in accordance with international standards, and it also has a code or a microprocessor printed on the card itself-

The code printed on the card must be generally printed in a hidden manner. This may be made, for instance, by introducing the FIELDCARD in an envelope which won't allow its content to be seen or by using a well known technique, that of covering the part of the card where the code was impressed with a material which should be removable by scraping. -

The FIELDCARD works as follows: when a user wants to enter Internet he buys a FIELDCARD, which may be sold in any store, just the same way as a public telephone card or a parking card are sold. Should the code be hidden, the next step is to scrape on the spot which has been indicated in order for the code to be visible and to take note of said code, or should the code not be hidden, to take note of said code before inserting the FIELDCARD in the PC. The user then connects the modem of his PC to any available telephone, inserts the FIELDCARD in his PC and initiates the program recorded in the FIELDCARD. The program will be in charge of initiating a connection by dialing a certain telephone number to a server. At some point during the connection, it will be required that the code recorded in the FIELDCARD be entered. Once the code is inserted, the server, through the appropriate soft- ware, will check that said code is valid and also in accordance with the code, the server can authorize a certain connection time to the Internet, or identify the user, as well as to enable the user to obtain services and information at a specific portal. - Another transaction the FIELDCARD carries out is that in which the whole validation code is not printed on the card, but the information printed is only a part of the whole code and the other part should be recorded on the program which the FIELDCARD contains. The FIELDCARD works in a similar manner if instead of having a printed code, it has a microprocessor. In this case, the microprocessor would work on validating the card and together with the server would authorize the connection to be made and the various portal ser- vices obtained. The advantage of this card is that such card might be used not only to connect the user to the Internet but it may also have various uses which are already known, such as for public phones, parking lots, etc-

Claims

C L A I M SI claim as my exclusive property the FIELDCARD, the characteristics of which are as follows:

1. It consists of a CD-ROM with a specific recorded software and it comes in a card form similar to that of a credit card.- On such card a code has further been printed on the surface of the CD which is not to be used.-

2. According to the above claim, and through the appropriate software, to enable the validation of the code, and according to the same, to authorize the use of a specific time of a telephone communication or the identification of a user.-

3. In accordance with the above claim, and through the telephone communication which has been initiated, to enter a server on the Internet and to enable the use of services at a specific portal.

4. According to claim 1, the CD-ROM in a card form in which, instead of printing a code, a microprocessor and its corresponding circuitry are inserted.