JPH05266274A - Information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide an information recording medium capable of determining the authenticity of the information recording medium even if the identification information such as the issuer and the year of issue is recorded. The present invention relates to an information recording medium 1 having an information recording section 2 made of a diffraction grating, in which a part of the information recording section made of the diffraction grating is destroyed or hidden, and the information recording section is destroyed or hidden. It has a 2nd information recording part which records at least information. In addition,
The second information recording portion is made of, for example, magnetic recording 4 and embossed recording 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording medium capable of being optically read and capable of recording identification information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been a bar code as a generally optically read information recording medium. However, the bar code information is formed by forming a bar by means of printing or the like and reading the light between the bar and the space between them. It is common to convert the difference in reflectance of the above into a digital signal and read it.

However, the conventional bar code is formed on paper, plastic or the like by printing or the like, and the printing color is black or white in order to cause a difference in reflectance with respect to radiated light. On the other hand, the reading device has made it easy to recognize, but there is a problem that copying is extremely easy due to a method such as copying, and only information with low confidentiality such as the price of an article and an identification code is recorded.

On the other hand, as a new optical information recording medium,
There has been proposed one that uses a diffraction grating as an information pattern (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-211096). The information recording medium changes the spatial frequency of the diffraction grating, changes the direction of the diffraction grating, or
A large amount of transfer foils or transfer stickers with fixed data in the form of a combination of both are produced and transferred or pasted onto paper, plastic, etc. to form an information recording section.
The reproduction of the information is performed by making laser light incident on the information recording portion at a predetermined angle and detecting where the laser light is reflected.

Since this technology makes it difficult to copy (counterfeit) the information recording section and allows the information to be reproduced by a machine, it is possible to use a picture or a sticker on the surface of the card, which has been used in the field of credit cards. It is about to be put to practical use as a new authenticity determination that replaces the visual authenticity determination of a hologram on which characters are formed.

[0006]

As described above, the above information recording medium is expected to be used in various fields, and in recent years, the functions required for them are becoming higher.

One of them is to record identification information such as an issuer and an issuing year in an information recording section (diffraction grating) capable of mechanically reproducing information. However, in order to manufacture the information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating, an embossing method is usually used in which a press plate on which a diffraction grating is formed is created, and the press plate is heated and pressed against resin to form an emboss, and a light reflection layer is provided. It is possible to mass-produce by using the duplication method that has been used, or the duplication method that uses the Lippmann hologram method of recording the image of the original plate on the photosensitive material using laser light, and the cost per information recording medium using the same is low. Although it is cheap, conversely, in the case of small-scale production, the press plate making cost and the original plate making cost are high, so the cost per information recording medium using it is very high.

Further, if different information is recorded for each information recording medium, then it becomes difficult to determine the authenticity of the information recording medium.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an information recording medium having an information recording section composed of a diffraction grating, wherein a part of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is destroyed or Provided is an information recording medium having a second information recording section which records at least information about an information recording section which is hidden and is destroyed or hidden.

It should be noted that the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is destroyed by heat, the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is hidden by a pattern that absorbs infrared rays, and the second information recording section is magnetically recorded. What is done, second
It also includes that the information recording portion is embossed.

[0011]

In the information recording medium according to the present invention, the identification information can be recorded by destroying or concealing a part of the information recording portion composed of the diffraction grating. It is difficult to determine the authenticity when the information of the information recording section including the diffraction grating is different for each information recording medium, but it has a second information recording section for recording at least the information about the destroyed or concealed information recording section. Therefore, by comparing the information recorded in the two information recording units, the authenticity can be determined even if the information recording unit (diffraction grating) records identification information such as the issuer and the year of issue. Becomes

The information on the information recording section, which is recorded in the second information recording section and is composed of a destroyed or hidden diffraction grating, is not particularly limited in the present invention, but for example, diffraction from the diffraction grating is used. It may be information such as what kind of waveform is obtained when light is digitally converted, what part of the information recording part is destroyed or hidden, and how many places the information recording part is destroyed or hidden. .. Furthermore, in order to provide security, information about the destroyed or hidden information recording section may be encrypted and recorded in the second information recording section.

The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings based on embodiments. FIG. 1 shows the information recording medium (1) of the present invention.
And assumes a card made of vinyl chloride having a thickness of 0.76 mm.

(2) is an information recording section consisting of a diffraction grating, and its size is about 1 mm in width and 10 mm in length.
The spatial frequency of the diffraction grating used is several hundreds to several hundreds of lines / mm.

The information recording section (2) consisting of a diffraction grating uses a transfer foil consisting of a diffraction grating shown in FIG. 2 in a hot stamp transfer machine to make a certain area of the diffraction grating on a card made of vinyl chloride. It is provided and then formed by means described later.

(3) is an embossed character, which is usually engraved with a customer number, name, etc. and printed on a slip by an imprinter. Normal OCR (Optical Character Recognitio
n) Characters are used for optical reading, sales and customer information management. In the invention according to claim 5, at least information about the destroyed or hidden information recording portion is recorded.

(4) is a magnetic stripe, the issuer,
The customer ID and the like are recorded. In the invention according to claim 4, at least information about the destroyed or hidden information recording portion is recorded.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a transfer foil (10) used for producing the information recording medium of the present invention. On the support film (11) which is a base material, a peelable protective layer (12),
Diffraction grating formation layer (13) by embossing, light reflection layer (1
4) and the adhesive layer (15) are sequentially laminated.

As the support film (11), a resin film such as polyester or polycarbonate can be used. Next, a peelable protective layer (12) is formed. As the resin, for example, acrylic resin, a mixture of acrylic resin and vinyl resin, etc. is made into a paint, and bar coating, blade coating, air knife coating, gravure coating, roll coating A resin layer having a thickness of about 1 to 2 μm is formed by applying a known coating method such as a solvent coating method such as a screen printing method or the like and drying.

Next, the diffraction grating forming layer (1
3) is formed. For example, an acrylic resin, a urethane resin, a cellulose acetate resin, a nitrocellulose resin or the like is made into a paint, and the resin layer is formed by the same coating method as above. The thickness is preferably 0.5 to 2 μm, and a nickel-made press plate having a diffraction grating formed thereon is heated and pressed against this resin layer to form a diffraction grating forming layer.

Next, a light reflection layer (14) is formed on the diffraction grating forming layer (13). This light reflection layer is a layer for reflecting an incident light beam for optical reading, and is made of a metal such as Al or Sn or an optical disk. It can be formed by a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method, an ion plating method or the like using a Te-based or Se-based inorganic compound or a cyanine-based, phthalocyanine-based, or naphthalocyanine-based organic compound used in an optical card. The thickness is preferably 300 to 1000Å.

The adhesive layer (15) is mainly composed of acrylic resin, vinyl resin, etc., and has a thickness of 0.5 to 2 μm by the above-mentioned coating method.

As another method for forming an information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating on an information recording medium, diffraction obtained by a method other than the embossing method such as a Lippmann hologram in which a diffraction grating is formed using a photosensitive material. A grid may be attached.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the information recording section (2) comprising the diffraction grating of the information recording medium of the present invention. (20) is a portion where the diffraction grating is provided, and (21) is a portion where the diffraction grating is destroyed or hidden.

Destruction of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is performed by applying a semiconductor laser capable of outputting near-infrared wavelength to the reflective layer at high output to destroy a part of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating, or by thermal destruction. The light-reflecting layer is thermally destroyed by scanning with an energy of several mJ / dot using a head.

The concealment of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is carried out by printing an infrared absorbing pigment on a part of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating, a printing method such as planographic printing, intaglio printing, relief printing, stencil printing, an ink jet method, or the above-mentioned method. It is made by forming a transfer foil having a pigment as a heat-sensitive transfer layer and providing it in a pattern by a method such as transfer.

Information can be read from the above-mentioned information recording medium by the optical mechanical reading device shown in FIGS. Reference numeral (8) is a reading sensor, which comprises a light source (23) and a sensor (22) for receiving diffracted light.

The irradiation light (6) from the light source (23) hits the information recording section (5) formed of the diffraction grating of the information recording medium, becomes the diffracted light (7), and receives the diffracted light (2).
Light is received in 2).

Here, if the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is not destroyed or concealed, a waveform having a shape as shown in FIG. 6 can be obtained. However, as shown in FIG. 3, a part of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is obtained. When is destroyed or hidden, a waveform having a shape as shown in FIG. 7 is obtained. By performing various processes on this waveform, the identification information can be read.

The identification information recorded in the information recording section formed of a diffraction grating is at least information related to the destroyed or concealed information recording section formed of the embossed recording (characters) or magnetic recording (magnetic stripe) described above. By comparing the information with the information in the second information recording section, it is possible to read the identification information and determine the authenticity of the information recording medium.

[0031]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below with reference to examples. In addition,
The present invention is not limited by the layer constitution and materials described in the examples.

Example 1 First, a transfer foil for forming an information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating is manufactured.

An acrylic resin was made into a paint on a polyester film which was a support film, applied by a gravure coating method, and then cured to form a peelable protective layer. Further, an acrylic resin was made into a coating material, applied by a gravure coating method, and then cured to form a diffraction grating forming layer. The thickness of the diffraction grating forming layer was 1 μm.

Next, a nickel press plate having a diffraction grating formed thereon was heated and pressed against this resin layer to form a diffraction grating forming layer. The spatial frequency of the diffraction grating is 700 line / mm, and the irradiation light from directly above is diffracted in the direction of 45 ° with respect to the vertical direction.

Next, a thin film made of a naphthalocyanine-based organic compound was formed on the diffraction grating forming layer by a vacuum deposition method to form a light reflecting layer.

Finally, a transfer foil was obtained by applying a coating material containing a vinyl-based resin as a main component by a gravure coating method and then curing it to form an adhesive layer.

Cards made of vinyl chloride having a thickness of 0.76 mm were prepared, with a magnetic stripe on the surface. An information recording section consisting of a diffraction grating was provided on this card by using a hot stamp transfer machine to heat and press the transfer foil and peel the support film.

In the present embodiment, the identification information "5" is recorded in the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating. A semiconductor laser of 830 nm was applied to a part of the information recording part composed of a diffraction grating to a light reflection layer composed of a naphthalocyanine-based organic compound at 4 mw.
With the output of, the laser beam is scanned vertically on the card to provide a portion (line) in which the diffraction grating has been destroyed, and then the same scanning is performed while moving the card horizontally.
A total of four broken diffraction gratings (five diffraction gratings) were provided.

Next, information was recorded on the magnetic stripe (second information recording portion), and at this time, identification information "5" indicating the number of portions not destroyed was also recorded.

Next, the authenticity of the information recording medium (card) manufactured by the above process is determined. The reading sensor shown in FIG. 4 is arranged at a predetermined position of the magnetic card reader / writer, and the information recording portion including the diffraction grating is filled with irradiation light,
The sensor received the diffracted light and recognized the identification information "5". On the other hand, the head read the information written in the magnetic stripe, which is the second information recording portion, by magnetic recording, and the identification information "5" was recognized from the information.

Therefore, since the information recorded in the information recording section consisting of the diffraction grating and the information recorded in the second information recording section were the same, it was judged that this information recording medium is genuine and the identification information is "5".

[Example 2] After the transfer foil was formed up to the diffraction grating forming layer by the same steps as in Example 1, a thin film made of Al was formed on the diffraction grating forming layer by a vacuum deposition method to form a light reflecting layer. ..

A transfer foil was obtained by applying a paint containing a vinyl-based resin as a main component thereon by a gravure coating method and then curing it to form an adhesive layer.

In the same manner as in Example 1, an information recording section composed of a diffraction grating was provided on the information recording medium.

In the present embodiment, the identification information "5" is recorded in the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating. An ink containing 30% of a carbon pigment having infrared absorptivity is transferred by an ink jet method in order to hide a part of the information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating.

The print head of the ink jet printer was vertically scanned with respect to the card to provide a portion (line) in which the diffraction grating was concealed. Subsequently, the same scanning was performed while moving the card in the horizontal direction, and a total of 4 A portion in which one diffraction grating was hidden (a portion having five diffraction gratings) was provided.

Next, emboss recording (second information recording section) is performed to record information. At this time, the identification information "5" indicating the number of uncovered portions is also at the end of the emboss character string. Recorded.

Next, the authenticity of the information recording medium (card) manufactured by the above process is determined. The information recording part consisting of a diffraction grating is filled with irradiation light, and the diffracted light is received by the sensor.
The identification information "5" was recognized. On the other hand, the information written by the emboss recording as the second information recording unit was read by the OCR device, and the identification information "5" was recognized from the information.

Therefore, since the information recorded in the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating and the information recorded in the second information recording section were the same, it was determined that the information recording medium is genuine and the identification information is "5".

[0050]

As described above, in the information recording medium according to the present invention, the identification information can be recorded by destroying or concealing a part of the information recording portion composed of the diffraction grating.

It should be noted that if the information of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is different for each information recording medium, it becomes difficult to determine the authenticity, but at least the information about the destroyed or hidden information recording section is recorded in the second information recording section. Because it has
By comparing the information recorded in the two information recording units, it is possible to determine the authenticity.

[0052]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of an information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a transfer foil used to manufacture the information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged explanatory diagram of an example of an information recording unit including a diffraction grating of the information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for performing optical mechanical reading of the information recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a sensor section of an apparatus used for reading information from an information recording medium according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which an output of an information recording unit including a diffraction grating is converted into a digital signal before being destroyed or concealed.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which an output of an information recording unit formed of a diffraction grating in which information is recorded by destroying or concealing a part of the diffraction grating is converted into a digital signal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information recording medium 2 Information recording part consisting of a diffraction grating 3 Embossed characters 4 Magnetic stripe 5 Information recording part consisting of a diffraction grating 6 Irradiation light 7 Diffracted light 8 Reading sensor 10 Transfer foil for manufacturing an information recording medium 11 Support film 12 Peeling Protective Layer 13 Diffraction Grating Forming Layer 14 Light Reflecting Layer 15 Adhesive Layer 20 Part with Diffraction Grating 21 Part with Diffraction Grating Damaged or Concealed 22 Sensor Receiving Diffracted Light 23 Light Source

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information recording medium having an information recording section composed of a diffraction grating, wherein a part of the information recording section composed of the diffraction grating is destroyed or concealed, and the information recording section is destroyed or concealed. An information recording medium having a second information recording section for recording at least information. 2. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating is destroyed by heat. 3. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the information recording portion composed of a diffraction grating is hidden by a pattern that absorbs infrared rays. 4. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the second information recording section is magnetic recording. 5. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the second information recording portion is embossed recording.