JPH04182148A - card 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 [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a recording device that records information on a recording medium in which information is recorded or erased by applied energy.

(Prior art) Conventionally, with the deductible card used in telephones, ticket vending machines, etc., the 5-Susushi Boots Bate card has a large amount that cannot be used for a limited number of times, even if there is a balance. However, updating records (printing) of balances, etc. are not adopted due to reasons such as the printing area running out and making it unusable, or the difficulty of printing small characters. Therefore, efforts have been made to roughly notify the remaining amount of use (or the number of usable degrees) 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 to this, a recording device has been invented that writes and erases information using a recording medium that has a reversible recording layer on which information can be written and erased.

For example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 19568/1999 discloses that a flexible disk cartridge is equipped with a printing means for thermally printing information on a recording medium and an erasing means for thermally erasing the printed information. This configuration is disclosed.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in a conventional print recording and erasing device for a recording medium in which printing and erasing of information can be repeated, the information is erased and then the information is printed and recorded. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a print recording means and an erasing means, respectively, and there is a problem that the apparatus cannot be miniaturized. In addition, the printing and erasing of information on the recording medium may be performed by other processes, for example, if a magnetic recording layer is provided, the information recorded on the magnetic recording layer may be read or written. Since the processing time is relatively long, the processing time occupied by the recording means and the erasing means determines the processing time of the recording medium. There is a problem in that the configuration in which each means is provided cannot meet the demands for high-speed processing of recording media.

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 reduce the size of the device itself and can process recording media at high speed. do.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the first invention, information is visually recorded by applying the first energy, A first energy applying means that applies a first energy to a portable recording medium whose visible information is erased by applying the energy, and a second energy applying means that applies a second energy to the portable recording medium. The second invention is characterized by comprising an energy applying means and a control means for selectively controlling the first energy applying means and the second energy applying means to the recording medium. Applying first and second energy to a portable recording medium in which information is recorded in a visible manner by applying energy, and visually visible information is erased by applying a second energy. It is characterized by comprising an energy applying means and a control means for controlling the energy applying means to selectively apply the first energy and the second energy that the energy applying means applies to the recording medium to the recording medium. .

(Function) The recording device of the present invention applies recording energy to a recording medium on which visible information is recorded by applying recording energy, and from which visible information is erased by applying erasing energy. and erasing energy are selectively applied at inter-path times by the same means.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a card processing device to which the recording device of the present invention is applied, and is equipped with energy imparting means for recording and erasing visible information on a portable recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a card). It is something that The card 10 is transported by a card transporting means (not shown), and information such as the authenticity of the card and history data recorded on a magnetic recording layer provided on the card 10 is read by a reading magnetic heald 11. Next, the write magnetic head 12 writes data for the new use into the magnetic recording layer.

Furthermore, a thermal head heat recorder is an energy applying means that applies recording and erasing energy to the display section of the card 10 to record visible information on the display section and erase the recorded visible information. By means 13,
Recording and erasing of visible information on the display section is performed in accordance with visible information on the display section that is stored in the magnetic recording layer. Next, the information stored in the magnetic recording layer is read by the reading magnetic head 14, and after the magnetic recording information is confirmed, it is outputted to the discharge port 16. When there is a problem with the authenticity of the card 10, the stopper 15 operates,
The card 10 is stopped and returned to the slot 17.

The image forming and erasing operations on the display section of the card 10 are performed in a second manner.
This will be explained using FIGS. 5 to 5. The display section 20, whose layer structure is shown in FIG. 4, is a part of the card 10 that has a recording layer 28 that reversibly changes between two states, transparent and cloudy, depending on the historical temperature. 21 is a heating element array which is a part of the thermal head, 22 is previously written information (image), and 23 is the currently written image.

A card 10 having a display section 20 has a magnetic recording layer 26 on one side of a base material 25, a black shielding layer 27 such as a metal thin film layer, a recording layer 28 that reversibly changes between two states of transparent and cloudy,
It is obtained by sequentially laminating protective layers 29. Here, the recording layer 28
As shown in FIG. 5, when changing from the room temperature state T1 to the first temperature T2, the transparent state changes to a cloudy state, and when changing from the room temperature state T1 to the second temperature T3, the state becomes cloudy. It consists of a recording material that has the property of changing from a transparent state to a transparent state. Recording of the visible image on the display unit 20 (
formation), the recording layer 28 is formed with the shielding layer 27 as the base color.
Erasing is performed by selectively making the image cloudy, and erasing is performed by exposing the base color of the shielding layer 27 by making the cloudy image transparent. The recording layer 28 used here is selected from materials that become transparent at about 0° C. to about 80° C. and whose 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. In this card 10, the temperature was about 130°C. Heating element row 2
1 are provided in one-to-one correspondence with one dot of the image, and are arranged in a line in a direction transverse to the advancing direction of the display unit 20 or the non-transferring direction of the card 10 (indicated by an arrow in the figure). Consists of multiple heating elements. A sufficient number of heating elements are provided to record the width of the display section 20 (in the transverse direction mentioned above). Fixed thermal head heating element row 2
1 while conveying the card 10 in the direction of the arrow.
By selectively generating heat from the heating element 1 using the recording method according to the present invention, it was possible to realize so-called override recording in which the previously recorded image 22 is erased at the same time as a new image 23 is written. Solid circles indicate recording pixels,
The broken-line circles indicate erased recorded pixels.

Next, the recording operation of the recording apparatus of the present invention will be explained using FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows one heating element (
A pixel image previously recorded in the transport direction (hereinafter referred to as the sub-scanning direction) of the heating element of interest (hereinafter referred to as the sub-scanning direction), print data given to the heating element of interest in chronological order, and printing An energizing pulse that drives a heating element based on data;
It schematically shows the temperature of the card recording layer, which has risen due to heat generation from the heating element, and a newly recorded pixel image (referred to as a printed image). Print data, energizing pulses, recording layer temperature, and print images are shown in chronological order, and are assumed to change in the direction of arrow a. Furthermore, solid line circles in the existing image and printed image indicate mark pixels (pixels recorded as cloudy), and dotted line circles indicate space pixels (transparent pixels). The beginning of the print data is mark data. An energizing pulse t1 is applied to the heating element to generate thermal energy that raises the temperature to a predetermined temperature at which the recording layer 28 of the card 10 becomes cloudy, and the recording layer 28 of the display section at the position corresponding to the heating element becomes cloudy. A first temperature T2 is reached at which oxidation occurs. After the recording layer 28 reaches the first temperature T2, the power is turned off and the temperature of the recording layer 28 returns to the room temperature T1, but cloudy pixels are formed on the display section. In this case, the existing image is a cloudy image, but the cloudy image is newly reproduced on top of the existing image. The card 10 is transported by one pixel (in the direction of the arrow),
Record the next line. The next print data is space data. In the conventional recording system, the heating element is not driven in the case of space data, but in the recording system of the present invention, the heating element is driven and generates heat even in the case of space data. Card 10 required in advance for heating elements
An energizing pulse t2 is applied that generates thermal energy to bring the recording layer 28 to a second temperature T3 that makes the recording layer 28 transparent. A second temperature T3 is reached at which oxidation occurs. When the recording layer 28 reaches the second temperature T3, the current is turned off and the recording layer temperature becomes room temperature, but the heated portion of the recording layer becomes transparent and the underlying color is exposed. A cloudy image was formed in this area, or it was erased by applying the clearing temperature. The third print data is mark data.

A current pulse t1 is applied to the heating element, and a cloudy image is formed. Similarly, the recording layer 28 is raised to the first temperature T2 when the print data to be recorded is mark data, and to the second temperature T3 when the print data is space data.

As described above, in the recording device of the present invention, the information to be recorded (
If the print data (print data) is space data, the same energy applying means performs the transparency operation as well as the mark data recording operation, so that the previously recorded cloudy image can be erased together with the mark data recording operation. .

That is, when rewriting the image on the display surface of the card 10, it is possible to perform so-called override recording, in which the existing image is erased and a new image is directly recorded on the surface image, without erasing the existing image in advance. Therefore, it is possible to downsize the device and significantly shorten the image rewriting time.

Next, regarding other embodiments of the present invention, FIGS.
This will be explained with reference to the figures. A recording apparatus according to this embodiment is shown in FIG. FIG. 6 schematically shows a recording device that uses a semiconductor laser 30 as a writing means instead of the thermal head thermal recording means 13 in FIG. 1 to form and erase a cloudy image on the display section of the card 10. It is something.

The card 10 has the same structure as shown in FIG. 1, and has a display section that becomes cloudy and transparent due to heat. The recording device includes a semiconductor laser 30, a collimating lens 31, a symmetrical lens 32, a polygon mirror 33, and an fθ
It has a lens 34, a thin linear lens 35, and the like. These structures constitute the laser beam means 36. The laser beam emitted from the semiconductor laser 30 is modulated according to print data, and is deflected by the rotation of the polygon mirror 33, and scans the display surface of the card 10 point by point. The light irradiated onto the display surface undergoes light-thermal conversion on the display surface, generating heat corresponding to the amount of irradiated light.

In this recording device, while conveying the card 10 in the direction of the arrow A, the semiconductor laser 3o is controlled according to the print data based on the driving conditions of the semiconductor laser 3o necessary to make the recording layer 28 cloudy or transparent, which has been preset. racer 30
By driving the , it was possible to directly rewrite the existing image with a new image without erasing the existing image in advance, as in the first embodiment.

Next, the recording operation of this embodiment will be explained using FIG. The upper part of Fig. 7 shows the printing data, and the middle part shows the semiconductor laser 3.
0 drive pulse, and the lower row shows the formed printed image. Print data, energizing pulses, and print images are shown in chronological order and change in the direction indicated by the arrow. Furthermore, the solid line circles in the printed image indicate mark pixels (pixels recorded as cloudy), and the broken line circles indicate space pixels (transparent pixels). In this recording apparatus, 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. In the thermal head thermal recording means 13, which is the writing means of the first embodiment, the size of the resistance heating element of the heat source and the pixel size are almost the same because the recording is performed line sequentially, but in the laser beam means recording dot sequentially, the size of the pixel is almost the same. In this case, since the beam spot smaller than the width in the main scanning direction (beam scanning direction) or the pixel size is recorded while continuously moving, it is actually recorded that the emission time is uneven within the printing cycle. Pixels may be smaller than the intended pixel size. In the recording method of the present invention, when recording space data, the pixel that has already been formed is overridden and the 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. However, if the semiconductor laser 30 is driven in the first half of the printing period, as in the case of the energizing pulse shown in FIG. Since the pattern, that is, the erasing temperature range size is smaller than the required pixel size, there is a risk that some of the pixels that have already been formed may not be able to be erased. Therefore,
In order to avoid this phenomenon, 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 30 during space data is averaged over the entire pixel area. It is combined in such a way that

The drive (pulse) conditions for the semiconductor laser 30 corresponding to the mark data and space data of the print data are set so that the recording layer 28 of the card display section becomes cloudy or transparent, respectively. Needless to say.

By driving the semiconductor laser 3o under the conditions described above, a new image is directly recorded on the bevel image without erasing the bevel image in advance, as in the first embodiment.
So-called override recording is possible. Further, at this time, a light-to-heat conversion layer having good laser beam absorption efficiency may be used instead of the shielding layer 27 of the cart 10 shown in FIG. 4.

In the above embodiments, a cloudy state is used as an image, but a cloudy state may be used as an initial state and a 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 that can undergo reversible state changes only by controlling.

Further, the recording and erasing means that can be applied to the recording apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the thermal head recording means and the laser beam recording means shown in the embodiments, but any energy imparting means that can modulate the output energy can be used. For example, it can be freely selected according to the recording layer material.

Furthermore, although this embodiment has been described using a recording medium in which a magnetic card as a portable storage medium is combined with a recording material whose visible state changes reversibly, IC
It is also possible to use it in combination with cards, optical cards, etc.

As explained above, according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to rewrite an image without erasing an already formed image in advance. The fact that direct rewriting is possible and that there is only one image recording means and one image erasing means also has the effect that the card entry direction or conveyance direction can be freely set. Furthermore, since image recording and image erasing are performed by the same means, the apparatus can be made smaller and simpler. Furthermore, since the recording and erasing of images are performed by the same means, the processing time required for recording and erasing image information is the same as the processing time necessary for recording image information or the processing time necessary for erasing image information. Since they can be made the same, the processing time required for recording and erasing image information can be significantly reduced.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the recording device of the present invention, the device can be made smaller and the processing time can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a card processing device to which the recording device of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the recording operation of the recording device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is similar to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the cross-sectional structure of a card used in the recording device of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the recording layer of the card shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram for explaining another embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is for explaining the recording operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 6. This is a diagram. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Recording medium, 13.36... Energy giving means, 20... Display part, 26... Magnetic recording layer, 28...
・Thermoreversible recording layer

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) The first energy is applied to a portable recording medium in which information is visually recorded by applying a first energy, and the visible information is erased by applying a second energy. a first energy applying means for applying energy; a second energy applying means for applying the second energy; and the first energy applying means and the second energy applying means for applying the energy to the recording medium. What is claimed is: 1. A recording device comprising: control means for selectively controlling. (2) A portable recording medium in which information is visually recorded by applying the first energy and visually visible information is erased by applying the second energy. an energy applying means for applying a second energy; and control so that the energy applying means selectively applies the first energy and the second energy to the recording medium. A recording device characterized by comprising a control means.