Individual discrimination card

Claim 2

An individual discrimination card which is arranged to memorize erroneous inputs of a secret code data from external equipment and render the card useless when the total of successive erroneous inputs of code data exceeds a predetermined number, characterized by: memory means (34) for memorizing data which indicates the total of successive erroneous inputs of the secret code data, said erroneous input data comprising first data and second data; and judging means (32) for judging whether or not entered code data is an erroneous input, and for causing said memory means (34) to memorize first data when the entered code data is erroneous and to rewrite first data in said memory means (34) to second data when the entered code data is legitimate.

Claim 3

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 1, further comprising: a connection unit (30) for receiving at least the code data from the external equipment and supplying it to said judging means (32).

Claim 4

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, in which said judging means (32) rewrites all of the first data in said memory means (34) to the second data when the entered code data is legitimate.

Claim 5

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 1 or 3, in which said judging means (32) is constructed to, when the entered code data is erroneous, memorize the total data on erroneous inputs at a portion of said memory means (34) that has not so far been used for memory, in such a manner that the bit number used for memory so far does not exceed twice the cumulative total of erroneous inputs.

Claim 6

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4 in which the first and the second data on the number of erroneous inputs are represented by 2-bit patterns, where the first data is a pattern in which a bit in unused two bits is rewritten, while the second data is a pattern in which the bit in the first data, that has not been rewritten, is rewritten.

Claim 7

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 5, in which said memory means (34) comprises a memory wherein it is impossible to rewrite a bit that was rewritten once for a second time.

Claim 8

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 6, in which the memory comprises at least a secret code region for memorizing the secret code data that is proper to the user, a data region for memorizing the data that is necessary for information exchange with the external equipment, and an erroneous input recording region for memorizing information of the erroneous inputs of the secret code data that have taken place in this card in the past.

Claim 9

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7 in which the judging means comprises a microprocessor (32).

Claim 10

Individual discrimination card equipment for a card as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8 characterized by: a main body of a terminal equipment consisting of microcomputers, a color display(14), a printer (16), a floppy disk unit (18), a keyboard (20), a 2-channel communication control unit (22), and a card reader/ writer (28), one part of the communication control unit (22), being connected to a communication circuit via an on-line interface controller (24), while the other part is connected to the card reader/writer (28) via an interface control circuit (26).

Claim 11

An individual discrimination card which is constructed so as to memorize erroneous inputs of a secret code data from external equipment and render the card useless when the total of successive erroneous inputs of the secret code data exceeds a predetermined number, characterized by: memory means (34) for memorizing the data which indicates the total of erroneous inputs of the secret code data; judging means (32) for judging whether or not the secret code data is an erroneous input, as well as for detecting, when the secret code data is found to be an erroneous input, the total of successive erroneous inputs and the cumulative total of erroneous inputs, in such a manner that the data on the total of the erroneous inputs memorized in a portion of said memory means which has not been used for memory so far does not exceed twice the cumulative total of erroneous inputs.

Claim 12

An individual discrimination card which is constructed so as to memorize erroneous inputs of a secret code data from external equipment and render the card useless when the total of successive erroneous inputs of the secret code data exceeds a predetermined number, characterized by: memory means (34) for memorizing the data which indicates the total of erroneous inputs of the secret code data; judging means (32) for judging whether or not the secret code data is an erroneous input, as well as for detecting, when the secret code data is found to be an erroneous input, the total of successive erroneous inputs and the cumulative total of erroneous inputs, in such a manner that the data on the total of the erroneous inputs memorized in a portion of said memory means which has not been used for memory so far does not exceed twice the cumulative total of erroneous inputs.

Claim 13

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 10, in which the data on the total of erroneous inputs includes first data and second data, and said judging means (32) judges whether or not the secret code data is an erroneous input, to memorize in said memory means (34) first data when the secret code data is an erroneous input, and to rewrite first data in said memory means (34) to second data when the secret code data is a legitimate one.

Claim 14

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 11, further comprising: a connection unit (30) for receiving at least the code data from the external equipment and for supplying it to said judging means (32).

Claim 15

An individual discrimination card as claimed in Claim 11 or 12, in which said judging means (32) rewrites all of the first data in said memory means to the second data when the secret code data is legitimate.

Claim 16

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 10 to 13, in which said judging means causes, when the secret code data is an erroneous input, the total data on erroneous inputs to be memorized at a portion of the memory unit (34) that has not been used for memory, in such a manner that the bit number used for memory so far does not exceed twice the cumulative total of erroneous inputs.

Claim 17

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 11 to 13, in which the first and the second data on the total of erroneous inputs are represented by 2-bit patterns, where the first data is a pattern in which one of the two unused bits is rewritten, while the second data is a pattern in which the bit in the first data, that has not been rewritten, is rewritten.

Claim 18

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 10 to 15, in which the memory means (34) comprises a memory which makes it impossible to rewrite a bit that was rewritten once for a second time.

Claim 19

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 10 to 16, in which the memory (34) comprises at least a secret code region for memorizing secret code data that is proper to the user, a data region for memorizing the data that is necessary for information exchange with external equipment, and an erroneous input recording region for memorizing information. pertained to the erroneous inputs of the secret code data that have taken place in this card in the past.

Claim 20

An individual discrimination card as claimed in any one of Claims 10 to 17, in which said judging means comprises a microprocessor (32).

Claim 21

Individual discrimination card equipment for a card as claimed in any one of Claims 10 to 18, characterized by: a main body of a terminal equipment consisting of microcomputers, a color display (14), a printer (16), a floppy disk unit (18), a keyboard (20), a 2-channel communication control unit (22), and a card reader/writer (28), one part of the communication control unit being connected to a communication circuit via an on-line interface controller (24), while the other part being connected to the card reader/writer (28) via an interface control circuit (26).