Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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MEMO~Y HOLDER FOR CREDIT CARD OR THE LIKE
This invention concerns a holder for a credit card, bank card, charge card or the like.
For the user, credit cards, bank cards, charge cards and the like present the serious
disadvantage of not comprising a visual indication of the amount and the date of the
operations carried out, and of the outstanding balance, so that the user is obliged to
keep an independent record of the operations that he carries out.
Most users, even if they keep such records, which is not always the case, often forget
to record the operations, subsequently making it difficult for them to determine the
exact amount of their expenditures and the balance of their accounL
A proposal has accordingly already been made, for example in US-4 587 409, of a
wallet device of which one flap is designed to accommodate calculating me~ms and the
second is designed to accommodate a number of credit cards. Such a device is
relatively bulky, complex, because designed for several charge cards, but however
without enabling its user to contend with the possibility of forgetting to record the
operations carried out. In another device of the wallet type, as described in AU-46
568, and consequently also relatively bulky, associated with the flap of the wallet
intended to accommodate a credit card are means designed to detect the absence of a
card in the compartment intended to accommodate it, and indicating the means
designed to generate a signal informing the user of this absence. Hence even such a
device fails to solve the problem underlying the present invention. which is that of
providing a lightweight, compact device to accommodate and protect a credit card,
bank card, charge card or the like, of which the sequence of operations carried out can
be recorded, memorized and displayed without any risk of being forgotten by the user.
This problem is solved, in a holder for a credit card, bank card, charge card or the
like, comprising a compartment for accommodating said card, switching means
arranged in said compartment for activation by said card, and warning me.ms activated
by the switching means, by the fact that the holder also comprises calculating means
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equipped with a memory of which the contents remain in memory even when the
calculating means are switched off, arithmetical and/or logic means for carrying out,
via a keyboard, operations of which the results are recorded in said memory, anddisplay means for displaying the contents of the memory, and by the fact that the said
warning means are connected to the calculating means and to the switching means by a
circuit such that the warning means are activated when said card, after having been
remoYed from said compartment, is re-introduced therein, and are turned off by the
input of an operation, via said keyboard, into the memory.
The memory preferably comprises several registers in which the results of the
operations carried out are chronologically recorded, and dated by means of a clock and
a dater associa~ed with the calculating and memory means, the contents of these
registers being callable and displayable via the keyboard.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the memory comprises a first register
in which the initial amount of the account and the date of recording of this amount are
recorded, a second register in which the balance of the account at a second date, also
recorded, is recorded, and a series of registers in which the amounts and dates of the
operations carried out between the first date and the second date are chronologically
recorded.
The advant,lges offered by the invention can be realized immediately. The user is
immediately warned by the warning means, preferably acoustic, when he replaces the
card in its holder, that he must enter the amount of the transaction into the memory of
the calculating means, so that he does not risk forgetting to carry out this operation.
As a variant, the waming means are activated after removal of the card from its holder
and, in such a case, after a certain time interval has elapsed after this removal.
In yet another variant of an embodiment, the warning means are activated either after a
certain time interval has elapsed after the removal of the card from its holder, or when
the card is re-inserted into its holder.
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In a preferred embodiment, the warning means are only turned off when an operation
is effectively entered into the memory of the calculating means (the amount entered
may be zero, for example, if the card has been removed from the holder by mistake).
The switching means consist, very simply, of reed contacts or, as a variant, of a
photocell device.
The user can, at any time, display the contents of the memory and thus learn thebalance of his account. In the preferred embodiment according to which the memory
comprises several registers, the user can successively call the said registers and
display them, so that he thus has a complete record of the operations carried out since
the recording of the initial amount, naturally commensurate with the capacity of the
memory.
In an advantageous embodiment, the memory can only be accessed after a secret code
has been entered.
According to the invention, furthermore, the calculating and memory means are
organized to enable the cancellation of one or more operations recorded in memory,
for e~ample to liberate this memory after checking the operations carried out upon
receipt of a bank statement or the like.
Other characteristics and advantages ot` the invention will appear on a reading of the
t'ollowing description of the preferred embodimenls of the invention, which refer to
the appended drawing in which:
Figure 1 is a plan view of the front of a holder according to the invention for a
first embodiment,
Figure 2 is an end view, from the right, of the holder in Figure 1,
Figure 3 is a plan view of the back of the holder in Figure 1,
Figure 4 is a perspective view of another embodiment,
Figure S is a cross-section along 5-5 of Figure 4,
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Figure Sa is a partial view similar to that of Figure S, but for another condition
of the card,
Figure 6 is a cross-section along 6-6 of Figure 4,
Figure 7 is a circuit diagram.
One should first refer to Figures 1 to 3, which illustrate a first embodiment of a device
according to the invention. In this embodiment, the device 10 of a holder for credit
card, bank card, charge card or the like (not shown) is of a generally rectangular shape
with rounded corners and dimensions very close to those of such a card, i.e. about
85 x 5~ mm. One of the short edges of the holder exhibits an indentation 11
facilitating the insertion and removal of the card into and from the holder, of which the
upper side is formed of a built-in calculator 12. This calculator, as shown in Figure
l, comprises a keyboard 14, a data display screen 16, a date display screen 18, and
an O~/OFF switch 20. Keys 13 and 15 for addition and subtraction, respectively,
as well as keys 17, 19 and 22, and 24, of which the role is indicated below, are also
provided on the front of the calculator 12.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the memory of the calculator
12, of which the contents remain in memory even when the calculator is switched off,
comprises several registers in which are respectively recorded the initial amount of the
account and the recording date, the latest balance of the account and, in chronological
order, the amounts and dntes of all the operntions carried out since the recording of the
initinl amount. It is obvious that meLms can be provided to replace the initinl arnount,
tor e:~ample, by the latest bnlnnce, when the number of operations cnrried out exceeds
the cnpLIcity of the memory.
The different registers cnn be cnlled successively and the contents displayed via keys
17, 19, 22 and 24, the display showing the date thanks to a clock and data associated
with the cnlculator, and the nmount of an expenditure by pressing one of the keys 17,
19 placed above key 15 '-', or a receipt by pressing one of the keys 22 or 24 placed
above key 13 '+'.
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It should be noted that it is also possible, without leaving the framework of the
invention, to provide for the use of the calculator 12 for other conventional functions,
by temporarily isolating from the calculating circuits the memory registers and the
~'~ circuits reserved for the recording and handling of the data relative to the operations
carried out with the credit card or the like, for example by activating an appropriate
function key of the calculator.
The calculating and memory means are also organized to allow the cancellation of one
or more operations recorded in memory, for example to liberate the memory after
checking the operations calTied out upon receipt of a bank statement or the like.
As shown in Figure 2, the holder 10 comprises an access slot 26, through which the
card can be inserted into a compartment designed to accommodate it. A~ranged in this
compartment is a switch (not shown) which, in a preferred embodiment, is connected
to the calculator, and is activated by the credit card or the like when the card is suitably
in place.
When the card is removed from the holder and then re-inserted, the signals transmitted
by the switch are analyzed by the calculator, which then activates a buzzer 28
preferably arranged in the wall of the back 30 of the holder 1~. The buzzer 28
remains activated until an operation is carried out by means of the keyboard of the
calculator and entered into memory by means of key '-' for an e,Ypenditure or '+' for a
receipt.
The calculator then stops the buzzer 28.
Denoted by 32 in Figure 3 is a battery serving to power the calculator 12 and the
buzzer 28.
We shall now refer to Figures 4 to 7 illustrating another embodiment. In this
embodiment, the holder 10 is similar to the holder of the embodiment described above
in reference to Figures I to 3, but with a different arrangement of the components of
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the calculator 12, of which the display screen is shown schematically at 33 and the
keyboard at 34. In this embodiment, the switching means are provided by an elastic
strip 38 and a stud 35 provided on the inner face 36 of a wall 37 carrying the printed
circuit o~ the calculator 12~ which lirnits with a parallel wall 40 the housing 39 for
accommodating the credit card, bank card, charge card or the like, C. When the card
is completely inserted into the compartment 39, ~he condition is the one shown in
Figure Sa, in which the card is inserted between stud 35 and strip 38. In this
condition, the card C is also positioned opposite a microcontroller 41.
As illustrated in Figure 7, the microcontroller 41, which contains a clock and a dater,
is powered by a battery 42 and is connected to an acoustic alarm 43, the simplest
being a piezoelectric buzzer, on the one hand, and to the display device 33 on the
other, as well as to the switching means 35, 38 and to the matrix keyboard 34, which
can be made in the forrn of a diaphragm added above the printed circuit 37.
As a variant, the switching means 35, 38 consist of a photocell device, the operation
of the 'mechanical' or 'optical' switching device being the same as that of the device
described by reference to Figure l to 3 in terms of the operating functions and
procedures of the calculator.
