JPH04197655A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is applicable to reduced amount cards used in telephones, ticket vending machines, etc., ID cards of financial institutions, employee identification cards, etc. The present invention relates to a recording device for processing repeatedly used recording media such as certificates and securities.

(Prior art) Conventionally, with deductible cards, i.e. private cards, used in telephones, ticket vending machines, etc., in the case of large amounts that cannot be limited to the number of times they can be used, printing is not possible even if there is a balance. Update records (printing) of balances, etc. are not adopted for reasons such as running out of area and making it unusable, or because it is difficult to print small characters. Therefore, the remaining amount to be used (or the number of usable degrees) is roughly notified by punching a hole or the like. For this reason, there was a problem that it was impossible to know the usage history and accurate balance.

In response, a card has been proposed in which a recording layer is provided on one side of the card that can reversibly cause a change in color or a change in light transmittance by heat (Japanese Patent Application No. 1983-
136357). The configuration of this card is shown in FIG. The card 1 has a printing layer 3 on the top of a base material 2 made of plastic or the like, and a reversible recording layer (variable display layer) 5 made of a magnetic recording layer 4 and a thermosensitive material on the bottom (back side). There is. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when the reversible recording layer 5 is in a transparent state and its temperature is increased from T1 to T2, the reversible recording layer 5 changes from a transparent state to a cloudy state, and when the temperature reaches T1. Even after returning, it remains cloudy. Then, the temperature of the reversible recording layer 5 is changed from T1 to T
When the temperature is increased beyond 2 to T3 and then returned to T1, the cloudy state changes to a transparent state, and the transparent state is maintained as it is. This change is repeatable. A display changing device for displaying and erasing information on a display body having such a thermoreversible recording layer has been proposed (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei 2-19568).

This device is equipped with an erasing means for thermally erasing the display's display and a printing means for thermally printing.As a specific example, the display on the thermoreversible recording layer of a floppy disk cartridge can be erased using a heater head (erasing means). ), and display writing is performed using a moving thermal head (printing means). Furthermore, an apparatus for erasing and recording information on an information recording card having a thermoreversible recording layer using a heat roller (erasing means) and a thermal head (printing means) has been disclosed (Utility Model Application Publication No. 2-3876). Public bulletin)
.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in the conventional recording/erasing method or device of a card that can be repeatedly recorded/erased, recording means and erasing means are provided respectively, so the problem is that the device becomes large. be. In addition, since the recording means and erasing means are provided along the card conveyance path, the direction in which the card can be set on the conveyance path is limited, and to avoid this, the device such as a card direction changing mechanism becomes complicated. There is a problem. Furthermore, since the recording/erasing of the display section is performed at a reduced speed relative to the card transport speed of other parts, the length occupied by the recording means and erasing means determines the card processing time. There is a problem in that a structure in which a recording means and an erasing means are sequentially provided cannot meet the demand for faster card processing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that can directly rewrite a recorded image formed on a recording section of a recording medium.

[Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a recording medium having a recording section that repeatedly records and erases a visible image using energy applied thereto. A reading means for reading stored information, an applying means for applying energy to record or erase a visible image in a recording section, and an erasure determination for determining erasure of a visible image based on information read by the reading means. (Function) The recording device of the present invention re-records a new visible image on the visible image already formed on the recording portion of the recording medium, and determines the recording state. It is something to do.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the position of the recording apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the main parts of a card processing device according to the present invention. This device uses a deductible amount card to visually record usage history data such as the date of use and remaining amount on the card display each time it is used.
When there is no more blank space on the display section, the visible image that has been formed is erased and new data is recorded. Reference numeral 10 denotes a magnetic card having a display section that does not undergo visible state changes by controlling the applied thermal energy, and its configuration is shown in FIG.

The card 10 includes a magnetic recording layer 12 which is a storage section for storing magnetic information on one side of a base material 11, and a shielding layer 1 such as a metal thin film layer.
3. It is obtained by sequentially laminating a recording layer 14 and a protective layer 15, which are made of a recording material having the characteristics shown in FIG. 9, and which reversibly exhibit two states, transparent and cloudy. The display section 16 includes a shielding layer 13, a recording layer 14, and a protective layer 15. Formation of a visible image is performed by making the recording layer 14 transparent and selectively making the recording layer 14 cloudy with the shielding layer 13 as the base color, and erasing is done by making the cloudy image transparent. Ru. The recording layer used here becomes transparent at about 0° C. to about 80° C., and its cloudiness becomes saturated at about 90° C. or higher. The upper limit of the heating temperature is determined by the heat resistance of the protective layer or recording layer.

The temperature for this card was approximately 130°C. Reference numeral 20 indicates a card slot; 21 indicates a card transport path that is composed of known transport rollers (not shown), etc., and is capable of transporting cards in both left and right directions; and 22 indicates security-related data such as card authenticity and validity period. , use history data such as remaining amount on card 10
a read head for reading magnetic information from the magnetic recording layer of the 2
3 is a write head for updating and writing magnetic information in the magnetic recording layer of the card 10; 24 is a writing head for recording the date of use, remaining amount, etc. as a visible image on the display section of the card 10, or erasing unnecessary visible images; This is a thermal head heat recording means which is an energy imparting means. 25 is a read head for reading magnetic information from the magnetic recording layer of the card 10 in order to check written and updated data; 26 is the authenticity of the card;
A stopper 27 is a cart outlet for stopping the card if there is any doubt about the validity period or other security issues.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the control system of the card processing device shown in FIG. 1. 30 is a main control unit that controls the entire device; 31 is a thermal recording control unit that controls driving of the thermal head; 32 is a read control unit that controls reading of magnetic information by the read head 22; and 33 is a magnetic information writing unit by the write head 23. 34 is a read control unit that controls magnetic information reading by the reading head 25; 35 is a transport mechanism control unit that controls a motor connected to the transport roller of the card transport path via a drive system; Determining card validity by checking security-related data;
This is a determination unit that determines display area margins and the like. Reference numeral 37 denotes a remaining amount calculation unit that calculates the available remaining amount of the card. Each block is connected to the main control section 40 by a data bus 38. The main control unit 30 is connected to an external terminal (not shown) as necessary and can display, input and output necessary data.

Next, the card processing operation in this device will be explained. A user inserts a card 10 into a card slot 20. The inserted card is transported along the transport path 21 by transport rollers, etc., and the reading head 22 checks the authenticity of the card.
Read security-related data such as validity period, usage history data such as usage amount, remaining amount, etc. The usage history data is sent to the remaining amount calculation section 37 via the main control section 30, and the available remaining amount is calculated based on the usage amount. The calculation result data and other read data are processed by the determination unit 36. If there is a problem with the card, the stopper 26 is operated to stop the cart, the motor operation that drives the transport roller is reversed under the control of the transport mechanism control unit 35, and the card is ejected to a separate tray (not shown). do. If the card is valid, the next write head 23 updates and writes the usage history data in the magnetic recording layer. In the thermal head heat recording means 24, when it is determined that there is no blank space on the display section (not shown) of the card 10 based on the usage history data already read by the determination section 36, the main control section 30 performs thermal recording control. Under the control given to the section 31 for forming a visible image and erasing the formed visible image, a new visible image is recorded in the oldest visible image section in the margin section by the recording operation described below. .

The image forming and erasing operations on the display section of the card will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. Reference numeral 16 indicates a display section of a card (not shown) whose configuration is shown in FIG. This is a row of heating elements. 41 is an image that has already been written, and 42 is an image that is currently being written. The heating element row 40 is provided in one-to-one correspondence with one dot of the image, and is composed of a plurality of heating elements arranged in a row in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the display section 16 (indicated by an arrow). . The heating element is the width of the display section 16 (
sufficient numbers are provided to record the transversal directions mentioned above). While the card is conveyed in the direction of the arrow under the heating element array 40 of the fixed thermal head, the heating elements of the heating element array 40 are selectively made to generate heat using the drive method described below, thereby writing a new image 42. At the same time, so-called override recording was realized in which the previously recorded image 22 was erased. The solid-line circles indicate recorded pixels, and the broken-line circles indicate erased recorded pixels. The driving of the heating element during recording and erasing will be explained with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows a pixel image (referred to as an existing image) that has already been recorded in the transport direction (sub-scanning direction) of one heating element (referred to as the noted heating element) in the heating element row 40, and a pixel image (referred to as an existing image) of one heating element in the heating element array 40 (referred to as the noted heating element). Print data given in chronological order, energizing pulses that drive the heating element based on the printing data, the temperature of the card recording layer that has risen due to the heat generated by the heating element, and newly recorded pixel images (referred to as printed images) are schematic diagrams. It shows. Print data, energizing pulses, recording layer temperature, and printed images are shown in chronological order. In addition, the solid line circles in the existing image and the printed image indicate mark pixels (pixels recorded as cloudy), and the broken lines indicate space pixels (transparent pixels). The beginning of the print data is mark data. An energizing pulse t1 is applied to the heating element that generates thermal energy that brings the card recording layer to a predetermined clouding temperature, and the temperature of the recording layer of the display section at the position corresponding to the heating element changes until the recording layer becomes cloudy. The temperature T1 that produces
reach. The power is turned off and the recording layer temperature becomes room temperature, but cloudy pixels are formed on the display section. In this case, the existing image is also a cloudy image, and the cloudy image is newly reproduced. The card is advanced by one pixel (in the direction of the arrow) and the next line is recorded. The next print data is space data. In the conventional recording system, the heating element is not driven in the case of space data, or in the recording system of the present invention, the heating element is driven and generates heat even in the case of space data. An energizing pulse t2 is applied to the heating element to generate thermal energy that brings the cart recording layer to a predetermined transparent temperature, and the temperature of the recording layer of the display section at the position corresponding to the heating element changes to The temperature reaches T2 at which oxidation occurs. Energization O
It becomes FF, and the recording layer temperature becomes room temperature or the recording layer in the heated portion becomes transparent and becomes the base color.

A cloudy image was formed in the second part, but it was erased by applying the clearing temperature. The third print data is mark data. Electrical pulse 1 is applied to the heating element. is applied to form a cloudy image. Thereafter, in the same manner, the recording layer is heated to T1 for print data and to T2 for space data. As described above, since the recording method according to the present invention performs a transparent operation in the case of space data, it is possible to erase a previously recorded cloudy image. That is, when rewriting the image on the display surface of the card, a new image can be directly recorded on the low rotation image without erasing the existing image in advance, so-called override recording.

When it is determined that there is a margin in the display section, only visible image recording is performed in the margin section of the display section under the visible image formation control given from the main control section 30 to the thermal recording control section 31. In this case, in the case of dot data, an energizing pulse t1 is applied which generates thermal energy to bring the recording layer to a cloudy temperature, as described above. However, in the case of space data, the heating element is not energized as in the conventional thermal head drive. After writing on the display section, the updated data is read from the magnetic recording layer by the read head 25, and the updated data is confirmed. Finally, the card comes out through the outlet 27 and is returned to the user.

Another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. In this embodiment, a semiconductor laser writing means is used in place of the thermal head thermal recording means shown in FIG. 1, and an apparatus for forming and erasing a cloudy image on the display section of a card is schematically shown. Reference numeral 10 is a card having the structure shown in FIG. 2, and has a display section (not shown) that becomes cloudy and transparent when heated.

50 is a semiconductor laser, 51 is a collimating lens, 52 is a thin linear lens, 53 is a polygon mirror, 54
is an fθ lens, and 55 is a shinlinrical lens.

These structures constitute the laser beam irradiation means 56. A laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser is modulated according to print data, and is deflected by the rotation of a polygon mirror to scan the display surface of the card point-by-point.

The light irradiated onto the display surface undergoes light-to-thermal conversion on the display surface, generating heat corresponding to the amount of irradiated light. In this device, while feeding the card 10 in the direction of arrow A, the semiconductor laser is driven in accordance with the print data under the predetermined semiconductor laser driving conditions to make the recording layer cloudy or transparent. Similarly, it was possible to directly rewrite an existing image with a new image without deleting it first. The recording operation of this example will be explained using FIG. The upper part of FIG. 7 shows the print data, the middle part shows the driving pulse of the semiconductor laser, and the lower part shows the formed print image.

Print data, energizing pulses, and print images are shown in chronological order. Also, the solid line circles in the printed image are mark pixels (
The dotted circle indicates the space pixel (transparent pixel). In this device, the amount of irradiated light is modulated by the number of energizing pulses and the energizing pulse cycle in the image forming time (printing cycle) T. The thermal head, which is the writing means of the first embodiment, records in line sequential manner, so the size of the resistance heating element of the heating source and the pixel size are almost the same, but the laser beam means, which records dot sequentially, has many In this case, since recording is performed while continuously moving a beam spot smaller than the width in the main scanning direction (beam scanning direction) or the pixel size, the actual pixel size may be uneven within the emission time or printing cycle. In some cases, the recorded pixels may become smaller. In the recording method according to the present invention, when recording space data, an already formed pixel is overridden and this pixel is erased. In order to erase a pixel, the entire recording layer in the formed pixel portion must be heated to the erase temperature. When the semiconductor laser is driven in the first half of the printing cycle as shown in Figure 5, pixels are formed by scanning the beam spot as described above, so the space dot pattern, that is, the erase temperature range size is There is a possibility that the pixel size will be smaller than the required pixel size, and some of the pixels that have already been formed may not be erased. In order to avoid this, in the second embodiment, the energizing pulses are distributed within the printing cycle as shown in FIG. 6 so that the irradiation by the semiconductor laser for space data is averaged over the entire pixel area. It goes without saying that the drive (pulse) conditions for the semiconductor laser corresponding to the mark data and space data of the print data are set so that the recording layer of the card display section becomes cloudy or transparent, respectively. By driving the semiconductor laser under the conditions described above, it is possible to perform so-called override recording, in which a new image is directly recorded on the ventral image without erasing the low-resolution image in advance, as in the first embodiment. .

Instead of the shielding layer 13 of the card shown in FIG. 2, a light-to-heat converting layer with good laser beam absorption efficiency may be used.

In the above embodiments, the cloudy state may be used as an image, or the cloudy state may be used as an initial state and the transparent state may be used as an image. In addition, the recording layer material to which this invention can be applied is not limited to the materials in the examples, but may include recording materials using leuco dye as a coloring source, which provides reversible color tone changes only by controlling thermal energy, or optical energy. It can also be applied to recording materials whose state can be changed reversibly only by controlling .

Recording/erasing means to which this invention can be applied are not limited to the thermal head recording means and laser beam recording means shown in the embodiments, but any energy imparting means that can modulate the output energy can be selected according to the recording layer material. can do.

In the embodiment, a magnetic card is used as the memory card, but an IC card, an optical card, etc. may also be used.

According to this invention, it has become possible to rewrite the image R without erasing the already formed image in advance.

Direct rewriting is possible, so the direction in which the card enters is not limited. Image recording and image erasing can be done using the same method,
This made it possible to downsize and simplify the device. Recording and erasing can now be done pixel by pixel on any part of the display.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to directly rewrite the recorded image formed on the recording section of the recording medium to be recorded.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a card processing device using a thermal head thermal recording means, which is an embodiment of the recording device of the present invention, and FIG.
3 is a block diagram of the control system of the device shown in FIG. 1,
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing recording and erasing of a visible image in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the driving operation of the heating element of the thermal head, and FIG. A conceptual diagram of the device using the beam irradiation means, Fig. 7 is the 6th
Figure 8 is a diagram for explaining the recording operation of the device shown in Figure 8. Figure 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conventional card that can change the state from cloudy to transparent by heat. Figure 9 is a diagram of the card shown in Figure 8. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the state of a recording layer. 10...Memory card, 12...Magnetic recording layer, 1
4... Recording layer, 16... Display section, 22... Reading magnetic head, 24... Thermal head thermal recording means,
36... Judgment unit, 40... Thermal head heating element array, 41... Low rotation image, 42... Rewritten image,
56... Laser beam irradiation means

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A reading means for reading out information stored in the recording section of a recording medium having a recording section that repeatedly records and erases a visible image by applied energy; What is claimed is: 1. A recording device comprising: an application device that applies energy for recording or erasing; and an erasure determination device that determines whether a visible image is erased based on information read by the reading device.