Granted Patent B2

US 8,367,580 · App. 11/549,463 · Granted Feb 5, 2013

Abstract

Claims (23)

1. A method for providing a security enabled dual-sided thermal medium, the method comprising:

thermally imaging a first side of the dual-sided thermal medium having a thermally sensitive coating on opposing sides with a first data security feature, wherein the first data security feature comprises a first numeral; and

thermally imaging a second side of the dual-sided thermal medium with a second data security feature, wherein the second data security feature comprises a second numeral that is interleaved with the first data security feature, the first side and second side of the dual-sided thermal medium are imaged with the first and second data security features via a single pass of the dual-sided thermal medium through a dual-sided thermal printer, during the single pass the thermal medium is fed through the dual-sided thermal printer which has a first print head interfaced to the first side of the thermal medium and a second print head interfaced to the second side of the thermal medium.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising printing an ink security feature at a location on at least one of the first side and the second side.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein printing further comprises printing the ink security feature with an ink selected from the group consisting of: thermochromic ink; scratch-to-color ink; coin-reactive ink; near infrared fluorescent ink; photochromic ink; a clear ink; ultraviolet fluorescent ink; and color shifting ink.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising representing the first data security feature and the second data security feature as one or more numerals symbolizing numbers selected from the group consisting of: decimal; binary; octal; hexadecimal; natural; negative; integer; rational; irrational; real; imaginary; complex; transcendental; alphanumeric; consecutive bar code; modulus; gothic; a magnetic image character recognition (MICR); optical character recognition (OCR); CMC7; and 2D consecutive bar code.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising imaging the first side and the second side of the thermal medium by scratching.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising printing a transaction logo at a location on at least one of the first side and the second side of the thermal medium.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising embedding a transaction logo security feature in the transaction logo.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the embedding further comprises printing the transaction logo security feature using an ink selected from the group consisting of: thermochromic ink; scratch-to-color ink; coin-reactive ink; near infrared fluorescent ink; photochromic ink; a clear ink; ultraviolet fluorescent ink; and color shifting ink.

9. A security enabled dual-sided thermal medium, the thermal medium comprising:

a thermally sensitive coating on each of a first side and a second side of the dual- sided thermal medium;

a first data security feature disposed at a location on the first side of the dual-sided thermal medium, wherein the first data security feature comprises a first numeral; and

a second data security feature disposed at a location on the second side of the dual-sided thermal medium, wherein the second data security feature comprises a second numeral that is interleaved with the first data security feature;

the dual-sided thermal medium is configured to be fed through a dual-sided thermal printer with the first side of the dual-sided thermal medium in contact with a first print head to apply heat and simultaneously the second side of the dual-sided thermal medium in contact with a second print head to apply heat.

10. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 9 , further comprising:

an ink security feature disposed at a predetermined location of at least one of the first side and the second side of the dual-sided thermal medium.

11. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 10 , wherein the ink security feature includes an ink selected from the group consisting of: thermochromic ink; scratch-to-color ink; coin-reactive ink; near infrared fluorescent ink; photochromic ink; a clear ink; ultraviolet fluorescent ink; and color shifting ink.

12. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 9 , wherein the first data security feature and the second data security feature are one or more numerals symbolizing numbers selected from the group consisting of: decimal; binary; octal; hexadecimal; natural; negative; integer; rational; irrational; real; imaginary; complex; transcendental; alphanumeric; consecutive bar code; modulus; gothic; a magnetic image character recognition (MICR); optical character recognition (OCR); CMC7; and 2D consecutive bar code.

13. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 9 , wherein the first side and the second side of the thermal medium are adapted to be imaged by scratching.

14. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 9 , further comprising a transaction logo at a location on at least one of the first side and the second side of the thermal medium.

15. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 14 , further comprising a transaction logo security feature embedded in the transaction logo.

16. The dual-sided thermal medium of claim 15 , wherein transaction logo security feature includes an ink selected from the group consisting of: thermochromic ink; scratch-to-color ink; coin-reactive ink; near infrared fluorescent ink; photochromic ink; a clear ink; ultraviolet fluorescent ink; and color shifting ink.

Assignments (15)