Patent Application
20080212303
1. Technical Field
The current disclosure is generally related to the field of electronic data information exchange, and, more particularly, to a device for reducing or preventing the exchange of information, including confidential information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Congress has recently passed legislation that provides that individuals will be required to carry cards that contain a variety of confidential information in machine-readable format. See the articles entitled “House Backs Major Shift to Electronic IDs” and “Senate Approves Electronic ID Card Bill,” which are submitted herewith by Applicants on an Information Disclosure Statement. According to the first article referenced above, the Department of Homeland Security will be charged with drafting the details of any regulations regarding the new electronic ID card.
Such electronic ID cards will undoubtedly include information that the card owner would like to prevent unauthorized access to by unauthorized personnel or entities. Such information may be confidential in nature. The confidential information may be personal information or business-related information. For example, information such as home address, country of citizenship, Social Security number, driver's license number, etc. may be part of the information contained in the electronic ID card. The legislation mandates that the electronic ID card employ machine-readable technology, although the precise form of such machine-readable technology is not specified. However, such machine-readable technology may include the use of magnetic strips or an RFID tag, for example.
Given the ease with which machine-readable information may be accessed, personal and/or confidential information maintained in such a format may be readily accessed by unauthorized personnel and used for unauthorized reasons. For example, maintaining confidential information in machine-readable form may facilitate identity theft by criminals that access the machine-readable information without the knowledge of the card holder.
The present disclosure may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:
While the subject matter disclosed herein is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation of the device disclosed herein are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. For purposes of clarity and explanation, the relative sizes of the various features depicted in the drawings may be exaggerated or reduced as compared to the actual size of those features or structures. Nevertheless, the attached drawings are included to describe and explain illustrative examples of the present invention.
As shown in
At least a portion of the body 21 is made from a material that is adapted to disrupt an interrogating signal sent toward the card 22 and/or disrupt a return signal sent from the card 22 to an interrogating device (not shown), or disrupt both signals. The material may also disrupt the ability of the interrogated device to send a return signal, e.g., it may prevent the interrogated device from powering up. It should be understood that, as used herein, the term “interrogating signal” means any form of signal that is used in an attempt to extract electronic information (in any form) from the card 22, e.g., light, radio signals, a signal falling within the electromagnetic spectra, etc. Similarly, it should also be understood that the term “return signal” as used herein means any form of signal by which the card 22 transmits electronic information (in any form) back to an interrogating device. The disruption of the interrogating signal and/or the return signal may be due, at least in part, from the use of a material that absorbs, reflects, or otherwise changes at least a portion of the interrogating signal and/or the return signal.
The material of the body 21 that is used to disrupt an interrogating signal and/or return signal, its thickness, and its location on the shielding device 20 may vary depending upon the particular application. In one embodiment, the entirety of the body 21 of the shielding device 20 may be made of such material. In other cases, only a portion of the body 21, e.g., a portion or the entirety of the front surface 24, may be comprised of such material. Additionally, the material of the body 21 may be opaque or transparent, depending upon the particular material selected.
In one embodiment, the body 21 may be comprised of a metal, such as silver, copper, aluminum, and alloys thereof, and it may have a thickness 34 of approximately 1 Å—2500 μm. The body 21 may be manufactured using a variety of known techniques, e.g., casting, welding, etc. In another example, at least a portion of the body 21 may be made of an electrically conductive transparent material that is adapted to disrupt an interrogating signal and/or a return signal, e.g., indium-tin-oxide (ITO), copper-tin-oxide (CTO), or other similar materials. The thickness and composition of such a transparent material may vary depending upon the particular application.
In general, the body 21 described herein may comprise sufficient material to attenuate the interrogating signal, the return signal or both signals to prevent, hamper or disrupt the transfer of information using such signals. In one example, the body 21 may be designed of a material and configured so as to attenuate a signal by approximately 1-1000 dB. As an even more specific example, the materials of the body 21 and the configuration of the body 21 may be designed so as to attenuate an interrogating or return signal by at least approximately 92 dB. Of course, those skilled in the art will understand that the exact materials employed in all or a portion of the body 21, as well as the thickness and positioning of such materials, may vary depending on a variety of factors, such as anticipated strength of the interrogating and/or receiving signal, the type of device employed (active or passive device), the distance between the source of the signal and the body 21 during anticipated interrogating operations, etc. Of course, these illustrative factors are by no means exhaustive. The type, characteristics and thickness of the material selected to attenuate the signal(s) may be determined based on the characteristics and strength of the anticipated interrogating system, the interrogating signal and the return signal.
Through use of the present shielding device 20, the owner of the information contained on the card 22 may limit or prevent unauthorized access to the information contained on the card 22. When the owner is convinced that an authorized person or entity is appropriately seeking the information on the card 22, the owner of the card 22 may then remove the card 22 from the shielding device 20 and present it to the authorized person.
The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. For example, the process steps set forth above may be performed in a different order. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
