Authentication system for identification documents

1. An apparatus for reading information from a driver license for use in an age-related activity comprising:

an information reader for reading machine readable information from said driver license;

a processor responsive to said machine readable information read by said information reader and operable to execute instructions to

(a) determine an identifier corresponding to an issuing jurisdiction of the driver license from said read information,

(b) extract date of birth and expiration date information from said read information based on an organizational format corresponding to said determined identifier,

(c) check at least one of the extracted date of birth and extracted expiration date information for conformance to predetermined values so as to provide either a successful check for conformance or alternatively, an unsuccessful check for conformance, and

(d) calculate an age in response to said successful check for conformance by instruction (c); and

a display responsive to said processor and operable to display at least said calculated age in response to said successful check for conformance by instruction (c) and, alternatively, to indicate said unsuccessful check for conformance by instruction (c).

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor also executes at least one instruction to determine and verify parity checksum of said read information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor also executes at least one instruction to check for an absence of expected information in said read information based on said determined identifier.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said instruction to check for the absence of expected information is a check for blank tracks.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the determine instruction further determines jurisdiction character set information and the check instruction further checks the jurisdiction character set information for conformance to associated values.

6. The apparatus of cairn 1 wherein the processor is further operable to execute at least one instruction to cause the display to indicate said expiration date.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is further operable to execute at instructions to extract driver license number information and to execute instructions to cause the display to indicate said driver license number.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said age restricted activity is age verification of a bearer of said driver license at an ingress to an establishment with an age requirement.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said establishment is a gambling establishment.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said apparatus is coupled to a vending machine of tobacco and/or alcohol products.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said age restricted activity is the age verification of a bearer of said driver license at a point of sale for tobacco and/or alcohol products.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said information reader is a magnetic reader.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said information reader is a bar code reader.

14. A method for reading information from a driver license for use in an age-restricted activity comprising the steps of:

(a) reading machine readable information from a driver license;

(b) determining an identifier corresponding to an issuing jurisdiction of the driver license from said read information;

(c) extracting date of birth and expiration date information from said read information based on an expected organizational format corresponding to said determined identifier;

(d) checking at least one of the date of birth and expiration date information for conformance to predetermined values so as to provide either a successful check for conformance or, alternatively, an unsuccessful check for conformance;

(e) calculating an age and displaying at least said calculated age in response to said successful check for conformance by instruction (d); and

(f) displaying an indication of said unsuccessful check for conformance by instruction (d).

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of determining and verifying parity checksum of said read information.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of checking for an absence of expected information in said read information based on said determined identifier.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said checking step includes checking for blank tracks.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said determining step further comprises determining jurisdiction character set information and said checking step further checks the character set information for conformance to associated values.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of displaying said expiration date.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising the step of displaying said driver license number.

21. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of displaying an indication for granting or denying a driver license bearer ingress to an establishment with an age requirement.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein said establishment is a gambling establishment.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein said method further comprises the step of providing a vend or no-vend signal to a tobacco and/or alcohol product vending machine.

24. The method of claim 14 wherein said age restricted activity is the age verification of said bearer at a point of sale for tobacco and/or alcohol products.

25. The method of claim 14 wherein said reading step further comprises reading magnetic tracks of said driver license.

26. The method of claim 14 wherein said reading step further comprises reading optical machine readable information on said driver license.