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Wireless telephone debit card system and method
| Details |
Inventors: Schilling, Donald L.;
Assignee: InterDigital Technology Corporation (Wilmington, DE)
Primary Examiner: Frech; Karl D.
Assistant Examiner: Franklin; Jamara A.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Volpe and Koenig, P.C.
A wireless debit card communications system comprising a radio unit, a base station, and an end station. The radio unit, for example, a radio telephone, includes a first processor, a reader for reading a credit amount and a personal access number from a debit card, and a transceiver for communicating, using radio waves, a credit signal. The base station receives and relays the credit signal over a communications channel to the end station. The end station includes a switch to generate a first control signal to allocate the credit amount of the debit card to the radio unit, and to set a radio unit access number of the radio unit to the personal access number of the debit card with a communications path through the base station. The end station also generates a second control signal for changing the credit amount and the personal access number of the debit card. The base station may be connected to a debit meter. The radio unit and the debit meter respond to the second control signal to change the credit amount and the personal access number using magnetic writers or writer processors to store an updated credit amount and personal access number on a magnetic strip on a debit card or on a chip on the debit card as the debit card is used in the radio unit. The personal access number may be used as a telephone number of the radio unit. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION According to the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a wireless debit card system comprising at least one radio unit, at least one base station, and at least one end station.
Each end station typically has a communications switch.
Each of the radio units typically has means for reading from a debit card a credit amount and a personal access number.
Each of the radio units also has means for communicating, using radio waves, the credit amount and the personal access number as a credit signal.
The base stations receive the credit signal from each of the radio units and relay the credit signal over a communications channel to the end stations.
Each end station has a communications switch which is responsive to receiving a plurality of credit signals.
In response to receiving the plurality of credit signals, the communications switch allocates the credit amount for each radio unit, and also sets, within the communications switch, the personal access number for each debit card for each radio unit.
A communications channel identified with each personal access number is assigned a path through the base station.
The present invention also includes a method, using a wireless debit card system including a radio unit, a base station, and an end station, comprising the steps of accessing the radio unit with a debit card; reading a credit amount and a personal access number from the debit card; generating a credit signal from the credit amount and the personal access number; transmitting the credit signal over a communications channel; receiving the credit signal at a base station; relaying the credit signal from the base station to the end station over the communications channel; switching the credit signal at the end station; allocating the credit amount of the debit card to the radio unit with a communication path through the base station; and setting a radio unit access number of the radio unit to the personal access number of the debit card with a communication path through the base station
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