Method and apparatus for dynamic, on-demand creation of financial transaction cards having nonuniform data storage formats
A system and technique is disclosed for manufacturing a plurality of financial transaction cards substantially simultaneously even though their respective parameters, including the format of data in a readable/writable medium thereon, may vary from card to card. A surface of the financial transaction card contains terms and conditions and graphics, a writable/readable medium for storing variable data and a two-dimensional data matrix. The writable/readable medium may be implemented with a strip of magnetic material applied to the surface of the card, a smart chip carried on the card substrate, a two dimensional data matrix such as a barcode printed on the surface of the card such or any combination thereof. The variable data may be recorded on the writable/readable medium and may include an identifier which uniquely identifies the gift card from all other gift cards in the production set. The data stored in the two dimensional barcode serves as a reference to a data record, which may include data identifying another item, such as a greeting card or other carrier mechanism this, with which the gift card may be matched.
1. A system for manufacturing a sheet of financial transaction cards, each card having a plurality of parameters, the system comprising:
(A) a mechanism for affixing a first readable data storage mechanism to a surface of a card;
(B) a mechanism for affixing a second readable/writable data storage mechanism to a surface of the card;
(C) a mechanism for reading, prior to data being written to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism, the data stored in the first readable data storage mechanism;
(D) a mechanism for determining from the data read from the first readable data mechanism a value for a data format identifier associated with a second readable/writable data storage mechanism; and
(E) a mechanism for recording data to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism in accordance with the identified format.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first readable data mechanism comprises a data matrix.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the data matrix comprises a two-dimensional barcode.
4. The system of claim 3 wherein the readable/writable data storage material comprises a strip of magnetic material.
5. In a method of manufacturing a sheet of financial transaction cards, each card having a plurality of parameters, the method comprising:
(A) affixing a first readable data storage mechanism to a surface of a card and affixing a second readable/writable data storage mechanism to a surface of the card;
(B) prior to data being written to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism, reading the data stored in the first readable data storage mechanism;
(C) determining, from the data read from the first readable data storage mechanism, a value for a data format identifier associated with the second readable/writable data storage mechanism; and
(D) recording data to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism in accordance with the identified format.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the first readable data storage mechanism comprises a data matrix.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the data matrix comprises a two-dimensional barcode.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein the readable/writable data storage material comprises one of a strip of magnetic material or a semiconductor memory device.
9. The method of claim 5 wherein the second readable/writable data storage mechanism comprises a smart chip.
10. The method of claim 5 wherein (C) further comprises:
(C1) reading a file identifier from the first readable data storage mechanism.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein (C) further comprises:
(C2) retrieving the identified file, including a format identifier, from a computer memory.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein (C) further comprises:
(C3) providing a format identifier to a data recording apparatus; and
(C4) recording data from the identified file to the second readable data storage mechanism.
13. In a method of manufacturing a sheet of financial transaction cards, each card having a plurality of parameters, the method comprising:
(A) affixing a first readable data storage mechanism to a surface of a card and affixing a second readable/writable data storage mechanism to a surface of the card;
(B) prior to data being written to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism, reading the data stored in the first readable data storage mechanism;
(C) accessing, from data read from the first readable data storage mechanism, card profile data associated with the second readable/writable data storage mechanism; and
(D) recording at least a portion of the card profile data to the second readable/writable data storage mechanism in accordance with the identified format.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the card profile data comprises any of a unique identifier, bar code content data, magnetic strip format identifier, magnetic strip content data, graphic content data and shipping type.