WO2000062249A2

WO2000062249A2 - Dual smart/optical card

Info

Publication number: WO2000062249A2
Application number: PCT/BE2000/000023
Authority: WO
Inventors: Robin Stock
Original assignee: Gms-Softmed Sc
Priority date: 1999-04-07
Filing date: 2000-03-10
Publication date: 2000-10-19
Also published as: AU3137600A; WO2000062249A3

Abstract

An optical/smartcard disc and method of using and forming the disc are provided which are compatible with a disc reader having a centrally located spindle and a seating ring for supporting and rotating a compact disc positioned thereon. The optical disc according to an embodiment of the invention preferably has at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54 mm and a length of about 86 mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon. A second metallic layer is formed on at least portions of the first plastic layer, and a third protective layer is formed on at least the second layer for protecting the metallic layer. An opening extends through the first, second, third, and fourth layers in a medial portion thereof. A card interface seat is preferably integrally formed in at least the first layer for seating the card onto a loading tray of a disc reader so as to interface with only portions of the seating ring of the disc reader and to read digital data stored thereon from the optical/smartcard disk. A layer including the microprocessor. The integration of a full software engine giving transparent and direct connection worldwide without any need to install any software on the host machine.

Description

Dual smart/optical credit size card with microprocessor and an integrated software engine giving instant and worldwide access to the internet and related services without installation of any software and method therefore.

DESCRIPTION

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to novelty marketing and internet communications and connexion, e-commerce and banking. The dual smart and/or optical card with and/without microprocessor integrated produced in polycarbonate/acrylic or PVC is a double layer card and comprises an optical data device and/or a microprocessor layer which performs smart card functions. The invention also relates to transaction and payment cards, including credit cards, bank cards, debit cards, telephone calling cards and the like, and more particularly to a transaction card or payment card which can be activated to have an alternative or secondary use as a credit card by adding a credit feature. The card provides a user with a primary use as an optical card that can be red on any type of CD-DVD compatible reader and which can be further activated to have a secondary use as a credit card by the use of an integrated microprocessor (chips) that can be red on any traditional and compatible smartcard reader. The activation of the card as an optical card enables transfer and storage of digital information. The card allows the user to access local digital information and the integrated software connect them directly and transparently to any type of network but more specifically TCPIP networks as internet. Those features allows the user to purchase goods and services from one specific vendor on and offline and to establish a relationship with that vendor for the goods or services rendered while enjoying reward benefits based on those purchases. Activation of the credit feature of the card allows the customer to interact with any merchant that accepts traditional credit cards such as VISA. RTM . , MAST E RCARD. RTM . , AM ER ICAN

EXPRESS.RTM., or DISCOVER. RTM.Today, credit card usage is virtually a part of a customer's daily life because customers recognize the many advantages of obtaining credit cards. For example, credit cards are safer to carry than money, and they can help a customer to establish a good credit rating. Additionally, they can serve as a source of convenience should the customer need to make an unexpected purchase for which they may not have the cash immediately available. As a result of this growing trend, the credit card industry is a booming and profitable industry; thus, customers are constantly inundated with many different credit card offers. For example, customers are offered department store credit cards, gasoline product cards (oil companies), telephone calling cards, VISA.RTM. credit cards, MASTERCARD.RTM. credit cards, AMERICAN EXPRESS. RTM. credit cards, debit cards, and/or the like. One of the most appealing features of a credit card purchase is that it allows customers to buy now and pay later. Another advantage is that transaction cards permit customers to establish direct relationship with specific types of business, for example, a telephone calling card or a gasoline product payment card. With a gasoline product card, a cardholder has the convenience of purchasing gasoline products from a specific oil company, without conducting a cash transaction, and receiving one itemized bill at the end of the billing period. The itemized billing statement is beneficial for providing businesses or entrepreneurs with a detail summary, at the end of the month or year, of the amount of gasoline which was purchased during the time period. The itemized billing statements an easy method to calculate business-related mileage driven during the time period. Another enticement of credit card usage is that some credit card issuers offer to their customers "reward points or reward offers" as an incentive to increase the amount of the customer's purchases or to increase the frequency in which the customer transacts purchases with their credit card. On the internet e- commerce will and is already using credit card systems. The combination of a optical/smartcard device and an integrated software allows the user a direct connexion and transparent connexion to any type of network thanks to an integrated dialup system and database containing the ISP coordinates. The integrated browser is fully compatible with most internet standards and file systems ( HTML, XML, DHTML, JAVSCRIPT, JAVA.TM, CORBA, VRML, FLASH.TM, The integrated software engine is build using advanced standards and techniques giving cross platform portability and interoperability.The card can include any combination of pictures, animation, speeches, video clips or any appropriate information and present them to your targeted audience in an interactive effective manner. Extreme Long Shelf Life, Water Proof, Pocket Size, Large

Storage Capacity Enhancing Corporate Image and Product Show. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Over the years the CD industry has developed many type of shape CD which are cutted out of 120 millimeter ("mm") traditional round CD as both a novelty item and a collectors item. As time goes by, the value of many of these cards which have printed indicia thereon has increased so that the shape CD industry has grown significantly over the years and many trading cards have substantially increased in value. As technology has changed, however, various types of shape CD cards and methods of storing and communicating data have been developed.

The concept of associating card devices which store and communicate information to a user with indicia or an image thereon has been known for many years. Examples of such devices can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,691 ,312 by Petersen titled "Tape Recording Apparatus And System Having A Very Thin Cassette," U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,853 by Yokokawa titled "Dual-Function Information-Carrying Sheet Device," U.S. Pat. No. 5,411 ,259 by Pearson et al. titled "Video Sports Game System Using Trading Cards," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,035 by Bauer titled "Talking Entertainment Card." These prior card devices, however, either used older methods of storing and communicating information such as cassettes or used integrated circuit technology. Accordingly, these prior methods can be expensive and complex to manufacture even in large volumes and neither understood nor appreciated the benefits, capabilities, design, or construction of optical digital data storage devices, and more particularly optical compact discs. Only recently has the technology and concepts related to the use of optical digital data storage devices really increased and been accepted in the market so that the relative price of optical digital data storage media has decreased dramatically. Conventional compact discs, for example, are conventionally fabricated in either 80 millimeter ("mm") or 120 mm sizes and are formed of generally rigid plastic discs. As understood by those skilled in the art, the discs are often formed by the use of a mold-based replication system using injection molding techniques. Each compact disc includes a series of either circular or spiral data tracks which are illuminated and read by a source of coherent light such as a laser. In producing these compact discs, data is optically mastered from data files and positive copies of the data are made. Die stampers are produced from electroplated shims, and discs are molded from the negative images on the die stampers. The discs are then individually metalized, and a lacquer coating is applied to each disc. The layer of rigid plastic positioned between each data track and the source of coherent light provides structural rigidity, protects the data tracks, and also functions as a single integral lens element to refract and focus the coherent light beam onto a selected data track. A disc label is also printed, and the disc inserted into a clam shell or other package for shipment to customers. 5

Recently, however, other thin film digital data storage medium and methods of manufacturing digital data storage media have been developed. An example of this thin film digital data storage medium and related methods can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,296 by

10 Smith et al. titled "Optically Readable Thin Film Digital Data Storage

Medium." These recently developed trading cards, however, require extensive and new manufacturing investments, require a special adaptor to make the trading cards compatible with compact disc playing systems, and can be inhibited by marketing and

__.- manufacturing constraints, including the additional special adaptor, which can make this recently developed technology less commercially feasible.

The injection technology used allows to shape a traditional CD into the shape of a name card and turn it into a dynamic marketing tool. 20 Instead of trimming a CD with a laser beam or the heavy pressing machines into sharp-edged shapes which is the actual type of production. The molding offers a high precision product avoiding high pitch whistling sound.

25 Internet connection and communication goes through installation of heavy software on the computer with the risk of introducing virus and unwanted information on the local disk. Most browser are still incompatible with each other and dialup systems are proprietary to local ISP's. There is no proper worldwide roaming system guarantying a safe connection to the user in any part of the world.

3" Today you still have to walk around with your mobile and have a local access in each country. You need also to install each time new configuration and several type of files request the download of specific plugins. The integrated software with browser and email system includes a dialup system with a database that is updated and

35 offers a virtual roaming system. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

,. With the foregoing in mind, the present invention provides an optical compact disc and methods of using a compact disc which are readily compatible with existing disc readers and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The present invention also advantageously provides an optical compact disc and method of forming a cd card that stores and communicates digital information to a user of a disc reader in a β manner that is relatively easy to manufacture in conjunction with known optical compact disc manufacturing techniques and thereby does not require extensive additional molding and tooling costs. The present invention further provides an optical compact disc which does not require a separate special adapter for compatibility with Q existing disc readers. The same is true for the Chips layer part which is easy to produce and is also fully compatible with market standards. The integrated software handles the connection between both layers and the network.

A mixed data card system allows the user to carry a single card 5 which may be modified at will to be in effect a clone for any one of the user's provider data cards, while allowing the existing industry infrastructure for data card transactions to remain unchanged. The card carries only data for one provider at a time, eliminating the problems inherent with carrying data for multiple providers on a 0 single data card.

A mixed data card system comprises a user card and a portable data management device. The user card includes a first memory for storing data issued by a service provider. This could be a optical layer. The user card also includes a second memory for storing, a set 5 of data unique to the user. This could be a a microelectronic chip. The second memory is spaced apart and totally separate from the first memory so as to make it impossible to be read with the first memory. The data set unique to the user may include any indicia desired for identification of the user consistent with the level of 0 security needed. For instance, for a high level of security the indicia could include the name of the user and a number randomly (venerated by the device and copied onto the second memory each time the user card is inserted into the device. Q The data management device has an apparatus for automatically activating the device upon insertion of the user card or a provider's card into a slot in the device with the user card inserted into the data management device and the device activated, the device reads the 1 unique user data set on the second memory. The device compares the unique user data on the second memory with information stored in the device's memory.

More particularly, the card and method of using and forming the compact disc layer are provided which are compatible with a disc _ reader having a centrally located spindle and a seating ring for supporting and rotating a compact disc positioned thereon. The card according to a first embodiment of the present invention preferably has at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54mm up to 56 mm and a length of about 86 mm and includes the microprocessor it is also having a pattern of digital data encoded

10 thereon. A second layer if formed on at least portions of the first plastic layer. The encoded digital data of the major elevational portion of the first layer is formed within a circular data zone and preferably does not cover, i.e., less than, the entire surface area of the major elevational portion of the first layer. The circular data zone has a first

*_* inner circular periphery having a radius of at least 15 mm and a second outer circular periphery having a radius of less than 80mm. The circular data zone is preferably capable of storing between 40-60 Megabytes of information or data therein in some compact disc formats, e.g., audio or CD-ROM, or 600-700 Megabytes in other compact disc formats, e.g., DVD. A first non-metallic zone surrounds

20 and extends outwardly a predetermined distance from the medial opening, and a second non-metallic zone extends inwardly from the rectangular outer perimeter of the trading card optical compact disc a predetermined distance. ( sputtering) An opening extends through the first and second layers in a medial

25 portion thereof. The card interface seating means is preferably integrally formed in at least the first layer for seating the card onto a loading tray of a disc reader so as to interface with only portions of the seating ring and not other portions of the seating ring of the disc reader and to read digital data stored thereon from the card optical layer.

30 According to the present invention, the card seating means is preferably provided by the at least a first plastic(polycarbonate) layer which has a major elevational portion having a first predetermined height and a minor elevational portion having a second predetermined height. The major elevational portion has the encoded

35 digital data thereon, and the minor elevational portion is preferably devoid of the encoded digital data. For alignment, balancing, and compatibility purposes, the major elevational portion is advantageously formed in a medial portion of the card and has first and second pairs of spaced-apart outer side peripheries defining

.Q outer boundaries of the major elevational portion. Each of the first pair of space-apart outer side peripheries arcuately extend between each of the second pair of space-apart outer side peripheries. Each of the 1 second pair of space-apart outer side peripheries extend generally linearly between each of the first pair of spaced-apart outer peripheries. Each of the arcuateiy-extending first pair of spaced-apart outer side peripheries of the major elevational portion are centered about an axis extending through the medial opening and generally _ perpendicular to the linearly-extending second pair of space-apart outer side peripheries.

By the provision of the card interface seating means, the card of the present invention advantageously allows a user thereof to readily position the disc into a conventional disc reader with any separate special attachments, adapters, or fasteners. The positioning of and

10 construction of the trading interface seating means also enables the disc to balance and rotate effectively within a conventional disc reader. The outer side peripheries elevation guarantees also that the card will run in the new generation of high speed readers up to X40 and X50.

M A method of using a card to communicate digitally encoded data to a user of an optical disc reader is also provided according to the present invention. The method preferably includes positioning a card having an opening extending through a medial portion thereof onto a loading tray of a disc reader so that the compact disc interfacingly seats onto only portions of a seating ring and not other portions of the

20 seating ring of the disc reader.

Additionally, methods of forming a card are provided according to the present invention. A method preferably includes molding at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54 mmm up to 56mm and a length of about 86 mm and having a pattern of digital

25 data encoded thereon. The at least a first plastic layer preferably includes a major elevational portion having a first predetermined height and a minor elevational portion having a second predetermined height. The major elevational portion has the encoded digital data thereon and the minor elevational portion is devoid of the encoded digital data. ° Another method of forming a trading card optical disc preferably includes positioning a compact disc having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon onto a medial portion of a surface of a trading card having a width of about 54mm to 56mm and a length of about 86mm, the combination of the two layers having a major elevational

35 portion and a minor elevational portion so that the major elevational portion interfacingly seats the combination onto a loading tray of a disc reader so as to interface with only portions of the seating ring and not other portions of the seating ring of the disc reader and to read digital data stored thereon from the optical layer card. 1 The major elevational portion has the encoded digital data thereon, and the minor elevational portion is preferably devoid of the encoded digital data. The major elevational portion has first and second pairs of spaced-apart outer side peripheries defining outer boundaries of the major elevational portion. Each of the first pair of space-apart outer side peripheries arcuateiy extends between each of the second pair of space-apart outer side peripheries. Each of the second pair of space-apart outer side peripheries extends generally linearly between each of the first pair of spaced-apart outer peripheries. Because the card and associated methods were conceived and developed while keeping in mind the commercial viability and ease

10 of manufacturing, the card is preferably formed using conventional compact disc manufacturing techniques DVD and CD. This, for example, advantageously allows training, tooling, and other associated manufacturing costs to be reduced and advantageously provides incentives for manufacturers to more readily accept the

_<.- technology for manufacturing purposes. In contrast to other known concepts ( cutting) , by providing incentives to make this technology readily manufacturable by existing compact disc manufacturers, the present invention achieves a significant goal in reducing the overall price of the end product to ultimate purchasers and insures a high safety and secure running card. The final finishing touch and the

20 edges are much better than cutted shape CD's. Data can be burned randomly and red again without problems which is by far not the case on cutted shape CD's.

The integrated software called iXpresso a new connection tool is a highly customizable and extensible embedded software engine,

25 providing built in Web support and is fully portable to most industry-standard operating systems and platforms, easy to distribute and simple to use, the concept is a dynamic new communication tool. The engine is suitable for rendering HTML with a full support for JAVA.TM - XML and VRML, FLASH.TM. GIFJPEG,MP3,MPEG1-2,AVI,MOV,QUICKTIME

³⁰ The engine is built using the most advanced software standards and techniques. It uses a programming language, to give cross platform portability and interoperability. The engine fully supports the HTML3.2 and 4.0 standard as ratified by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).

35 Security relies entirely on the software technology. It accepts all downloaded programs and runs them within a security "sandbox". Think of the sandbox as a security fence that surrounds the program and keeps it away from your private data. As long as there are no holes in the fence, you are safe. 1 The engine sandbox works on a permissions model, where all code is considered unsafe, unless specifically allowed system resource access, based on a predefined policy. The policy can be customized for each user or for groups of users through a concept called "protection domains."

The engine offers full strength RSA public key cryptography, DSA, RC4, RC2, Triple-DES, a wide range of cipher (asymmetric and symmetric), hashing, key exchange algorithms. Strong random number generators are supplied with the toolkit. Keys and other data can be saved using standard passphrase based encryption. In additionthe engine supports X.509 certificates, allowing cert requests

10 to be generated, certs to be parsed and verified and CRLs to be retrieved from LDAP directories. Many of the PKCS standards are supported allowing easy secure exchange of data with other products. The low-level API allows fine manipulation of data. The engine can be used for any application including Internet c Communications, File Storage/Retrieval, Digital Signature, Message

Authentication, Secure Login, Data Auditing etc. In addition to standard HTML support and typical browser functionality that you might see in a stand-alone browser, The the engine offers a high degree of customization. Designers can have total control over the look, feel and operation of the engine interface

20 .Besides that, the engine offers specific tools that are customizable,

Internet-aware and extensible.

The architecture of the engine is designed with size, and flexibility in mind and makes it highly suitable for use in small devices where memory is at a premium. The cache management facilities inside the

25 engine aid in keeping the memory usage low in situations where this is important.

The engine is based on a new framework for web content visualization. The new architecture relies on dynamically loadable rendering and scripting modules to provide unprecendent opportunities for presenting dynamic content.

3 A rendering module is responsible for the actual rendering of some content. This is somewhat similar to the traditional plug-ins in the current browsers. Unlike a plug-in a pilot is platform-independent, quite compact and could be loaded dynamically. This in turn makes it similar to an applet. But unlike the applet a pilot has much tighter

35 integration with the underlying browser system to provide a better support for displaying content. So, in short, a pilot can be viewed as a blend between a plug-in and an applet. A scripting module is used to provide a "glue" between various pilots and the framework. Basically a scripter knows how to execute commands in the scripting language it supports. It also allows pilots to expose themselves into the scripting environment without being dependent on a particular scripter. The engine architecture allows to have dynamically loadable scripting modules giving full CSS 2 implementation and support for ECMAScript up to 1.5 even and generic scripter interface for other scripting languages. Full W3C Level 1 DOM support available in ECMAScript and Java. Document Object Model (DOM) for dynamicly changing documents. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

Various formats or data categories, including compact disc audio data, digital video disc ("DVD"), and/or compact disc read-only-memory ("ROM") data can be embossed into and stored on the first layer by techniques known to those skilled in the art.

The optical card, comprising: a body; an optical disk in polycarbonate or acrylic molding compound in credit card format and size and shape which is readable on any CD - DVD compatible reader and; a central sputtering covering only the written data surface and the use of stampers with several zones with different linear velocity Lv and Tp to increase data capacity through the increase of the physical bit density. The radial density can be increased by decreasing the track pitch ( Tp) of the wooble grooves on the substrate taking care of keeping the hard limit for the pickup which is specified in the Red book.

A second layer in blank polycarbonate or acrylic molding compound or PVC comprising a cavity therein with a smart card device including a module with a semiconductor chip implanted permanently in the cavity of the card body, the module having a non- conductive plastic substrate; and micro-encapsulated adhesive means for fixing only the non-conductive plastic substrate of the module to the card body, the adhesive means including micro- capsules containing adhesive and the microprocessor positioned in the body to be used by a cellular telephone, and also to perform any smart card functions and; 1 The Optical/smartcard can take several forms and may be manufactured in either single sided or double sided configurations. A single-side disc is composed of a minimum 0.6 mm thick recording half bonded to a maximum 0.6mm blank half to form one entity. The recording side is a sandwich of multiple layers including

_ a pre-grooved polycarbonate /acrylic compound substrate a dye layer, metal reflector and protective lacquer overcoat. An adhesive layer bonds the two halves together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

10 The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather,

Λ_C these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout, and prime and double prime notation are used to indicate similar elements in alternative embodiments.

20 FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of a trading card optical compact disc according to an embodiment of the present invention. The optical/smart card is preferably compatible with a disc reader which includes a centrally located spindle S and a seating ring R of a loading tray T for supporting and rotating a compact disc ("CD")

25 positioned thereon. The optical/smart card has at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54mm up to 56 mm and a length of about 86mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon, i.e., pits and tracks as understood by those skilled in the art. The plastic of the first layer is preferably a polycarbonate material or other optically transparent embossable plastic material as understood

³⁰ by those skilled in the art ( Acrylic, PVC).

Various formats or data categories, including compact disc audio data, digital video disc ("DVD"), and/or compact disc read-only-memory ("ROM") data can be embossed into and stored on

35 the first layer by techniques known to those skilled in the art. For optical/smart card applications for example, digital data including visual information of photographs, video, textual information such as a person's or team's statistics and biographies, historical information, music, narration, and other data can be stored and recalled at will be

₄₀ a user of a disc reader. 1 As understood by those skilled in the art, these optical/smart card applications, for example, can include sports, music, entertainment, publishing, book, magazine, topical information, or various other types and formats.

A conventional compact disc reader, for example, can include a loading tray T having a centrally located spindle S and a seating ring R for supporting and rotating a compact disc having planar upperand lower surfaces and embedded data tracks consisting of the encoded digital data. A compact disc reader also has a digital data reading system which includes a source of light positioned for generating a light beam to illuminate the data tracks. A light beam is reflected

10 from the data tracks and is modulated by the encoded digital data. A digital reading system of the compact disc reader receives and converts a corresponding electrical signal for processing the read data, e.g., by a microprocessor-based decoding system. Preferably, as illustrated in FIGS.3, a metallic layer is formed on at

_<•- least portions of the first plastic layer, e.g., portions of or the entire major elevational portion of the first plastic layer (see coupe Cc Fig 3). The metallic layer preferably includes an aluminum material, such as conventionally used with forming optical compact discs, silver material, gold material, or other reflective metal material. The second layer preferably provides a reflective surface for the light

20 beam after it passes through the first optically transparent plastic layer when attempting to read the digitally encoded data from the disc .

As best shown in FIGS. 3, the thickness of the combination of the first and second layers is similar to a DVD production and format,

25 which preferably uses a digital video data format is also preferably less than about 1.2 mm. This embodiment, as understood by those skilled in the art, preferably has at least two plastic layers each which are less than 0.6mm or which form a composite layer and defines a major elevational portion as illustrated in the other embodiments. A method of forming a optical/smartcard according to the present " invention preferably includes molding at least one plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54mm to 56mm and a length of about 86mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon. Prior to this molding step, however, and as understood by those skilled in the art, data for the disc is optically, e.g., preferably by laser techniques,

35 mastered from data files or other software programs. 1 The master is then electroplated with a metal material, e.g., silver, and prepped for replicating positive mold copies or shims. Die stampers are produced from the electro-plated shims. The plastic layer is then formed by injection molding from a negative image on a die stamper. Alternatively, as understood by those skilled in the art,

_ two plastic layers can be formed as illustrated in FIG. 3 for DVD formats. The plastic layer referably includes a major elevational portion having a first pedetermined height and a minor elevational portion having a second predetermined height. The microprocessor is included in the second layer.

10 Although the invention has been described with particular reference to preferred embodiments which are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from its spirit and scope. Thus variations and modifications

Λ of the present invention can be effected within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some of the features, advantages, and benefits of the present invention having been stated, others will become apparent as the description proceeds when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a bottom plan view of an optical/smartcard disc.

1.1 is the sputtered data surface

1.2 is the layer with the 80mm ring

Fig. 2 is a side left and right view of 2 layers for CD version

2Λ is the ring holding the CD in the reader

Fig.3 is a side front and back view of the 2 layers for DVD with Simm card integrated

3.1 is the layer containing the microprocessor ( simm card)

3.2 is the holder for the microchips

3.3 is the layer containing the data

Fig.4 is a side front and back view of the 2 layers for DVD with Antenna micro-processor integrated

4.1 is the layerprotecting the antenna( simm card)

4.2 is the antenna

4.3 is the layer containing the data

Fig.5 is a top view of the 2 layers for DVD with Simm card integrated

5.1 is the microchips holder

5.2 is the data holder which is sputtered

Claims

1 1. A dual smartcard and optical layered card comprising:

1 An optical layer comprising: a body;

5 an optical disk in polycarbonate or acrylic molding compound in credit card size and shape which is readable in any CD-DVD compatible reader. an a centrally located spindle and a recess in a loading tray thereof 10 defining a seating ring for supporting and rotating an optical disc positioned thereon, at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54mm up to 56 mm and a length of about 86 mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon;

15 a second metallic layer formed on at least portions of the first plastic layer; (sputtering) covering only the written data surface a third protective layer formed on at least the second layer for 20 protecting the metallic layer; an opening extending through the first, second and third layers in a medial portion thereof; and

2 2. An optical disc as defined in claim 1 , wherein said card seating means comprises at least said first plastic layer including a major elevational portion having a first predetermined height and a minor elevational portion having a second predetermined height, the major elevational portion having the encoded digital data thereon and the minor elevational portion being devoid of the encoded digital data.

30

3. An optical disc as defined in claim 2, wherein the major elevational portion is formed in a medial portion of the trading card and has first and second pairs of spaced-apart outer side peripheries defining puter boundaries of the the major elevational portion

35

1 4. An optical disc as defined in claim 3, wherein each of the arcuately-extending first pair of spaced-apart outer side peripheries of the major elevational portion are centered about an axis extending through the medial opening and generally perpendicular to the linearly-extending second pair of spaced-apart outer side peripheries.

5

5. An optical disc as defined in claim 3, wherein the encoded digital data of the major elevational portion of said first layer is formed within a circular data zone and comprises less than the entire surface area of the major elevational portion of said first layer.

10 6. An optical disc as defined in claim 5, wherein the circular data zone has a first inner circular periphery having a radius of at least 15 mm and a second outer circular periphery having a radius of less than 80mm.

H_E 7. An optical disc as defined in claim 1 , wherein the plastic of said first layer comprises polycarbonate or acrylic.

8. An optical disc as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a first non-metallic zone surrounding and extending outwardly a predetermined distance from the medial opening and a second

20 non-metallic zone extending inwardly from a rectangular outer perimeter of the trading card optical compact disc a predetermined distance.

9. An optical compact disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the first 25 non-metallic zone includes a stacking ring surrounding the opening for stacking another trading card optical compact disc thereon.

10. An optical disc compatible with a disc reader which includes a centrally located spindle and a seating ring for supporting and rotating a compact disc positioned thereon, the trading card optical

^J compact disc comprising: at least a first polycarbonate rectangular layer having a width of about54 mm to 56mm and a length of about 86mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon, said first polycarbonate layer 35 including a major elevational portion having a first predetermined height and a minor elevational portion having a second predetermined height so that the major elevational portion interfacingly seats the card onto a loading tray of the disc reader so as to interface with only a portion of the seating ring of the disc reader and to read digital data stored thereon from the trading card optical compact disc. 0 a second metallic layer formed on at least portions of the first polycarbonate layer; a third layer formed on at least the second layer wherein the circular data zone has a first inner circular periphery having a radius of at _ least 15 mm and a second outer circular periphery having a radius of less than 80mm. an opening extending through the first, second, and third layers in a medial portion thereof.

10 11. A microchip included in layer 1

12. A method of using a computer system for a real-time customer activation of a multi-feature card having a primary feature and at least one secondary feature, the primary feature functioning as a stored ^ value card feature and the at least one secondary feature functioning as a credit card feature, wherein the system automatically processes a user's activation of the card, said system including a data entry processing center, a workstation, a graphical user interface, and a data storing means; comprising the steps of:

20 a) offering to the user a first activation of the multi-feature card as a primary transaction card having the primary feature; b) receiving the user's request into said system to activate the primary feature of the primary transaction card;

25 c) employing at least one safety feature during the first activation request to determine whether the user is the person whose name is printed on the primary transaction card; and d) offering the user a direct connection and dialup worldwide and ³ without any installation on his hard disk e) offering the user a direct and transparent connection to internet and email services

35 f) integration of a complete embedded and standalone navigation system to surf the network update local information , send email and compatible with most file standards d) offering the customer an option of activating the chips transaction card by:

1) confirming the customer's desire to activate the chip feature;

2) activating the chips feature, if the consumer confirms the first activation;

4) allowing the user to use the multi-feature card as an optical card having only the CD-DVD feature;

10 e) offering to the user a subsequent activation of the multi-feature card that determines the customer's election to add the microprocessor feature onto the card

-J5 f) determining the customer's request to activate any additional use features.

An optical/smartcard disc and method of using and forming the disc are provided which are compatible with a disc reader having a centrally located spindle and a seating ring for supporting and rotating a compact disc positioned thereon. The optical disc according to an embodiment of the invention preferably has at least a first plastic rectangular layer having a width of about 54mm and a length of about 86mm and having a pattern of digital data encoded thereon. A second metallic layer is formed on at least portions of the first plastic layer, and a third protective layer is formed on at least the second layer for protecting the metallic layer. An opening extends through the first, second, third, and fourth layers in a medial portion thereof. A card interface seat is preferably integrally formed in at least the first layer for seating the card onto a loading tray of a disc reader so as to interface with only portions of the seating ring of the disc reader and to read digital data stored thereon from the optical/smartcard disk. A layer including the microprocessor. The integration of a full software engine giving transparent and direct connection worldwide without any need to install any software on the host machine.