CA1262776A - Personal information card system - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract Personal Information Card System A system in which wallet-size visually readable information relating to a person is created on material disposed on one side of a wallet-size card and machine readable information relating to the person is recorded on a laser recordable optical data storage strip disposed on the opposite side of the card. The visually readable information may be a fingerprint or face photograph created by conventional photography or with a laser. The data storage strip is disposed in the card and may be a pre-formed strip of laser recording material. Informa-tion spots recorded on the strip may be insurance, medi-cal, banking, security or other transaction information.
Both the machine readable information and the eye read-able information are read simultaneously by two optical systems, one disposed on each side of the card.

Description

~ 2~77~ 7~622-30 Technical Field The invention relates to optical data information storage and more particularly to a system for recording and reading personal information on an information card containing both eye readable images and laser recorded machine readable data.
Baekground Art Identification cards have u,sed magnetic clata strips in conjunction with photographic pr.tnts of the card owner.
In Uni~ced States Patent 4,236,332, Domo dlscloses a medlcal record card containing a microfilm portion having some data visihle to the eye and other data visible by magnification. The directly visible data is alphanumeric character codes pertaining to emergency medical conditions of the patient and the magnifiable data portions detail the medical history.
Silverman et al teach in United Statces Patent 4,213,038, an access control system with an identifi-. ,~

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cation card. The card has machine recordable indiciaused to choose a master microspot pattern from the machine's memory. This master pattern is compared with an identical pattern on the card for verification. The card also has space for a picture and a signature.
Similarly, Idelson et al. in U.S. Patent 4,151,667, teach an identification card havinc~ a photograph and a phos-phorescent bar code pattern used for verification.
The amount of information these eards ean hold is extremely limited. Data visible to the eye occupies a considerable amount of space on a card, which further limits the amount of information that can be stored. In the patent to Idelson et al., the photograph and bar eod~
pattern overlap. Random microspot patterns ean only be used for verification, while bar eodes ean only represent a small amount of speeific data~ The prior art does not provide for simultaneous reading of maehine readable and eye readable information.
An objeet of the invention is to provide a method of recording personal information on a eard, both a visual image and data to aceompany that image either prior to, during, or after exposure forming sueh image, where the data does not overlap the visual image and to provide for simultaneous reading of both types of data.
Diselosure of the Invention The above objeet has been met by ereating visually readable information on a pieee of laser reeordable material or on photographie material and reeording related data n situ on a strip of laser reeordable material disposed on opposite sides of a wallet-size eard. The visually readable information, whieh is adhered to an inner or outer surfaee on one side of the eard, relates to a person, and may, for example, eonsist of a faee image or fingerprint. A laser beam reeords data on the strip of optieal storage material, in situ, either by ablation, melting, physieal or ehemi-cal ehange, thereby forming spots representing ehanges in 277~

reflectivity. The recording process produces differences in reflec-tivity detectable by a light detector. In this manner data concerning the person may be recorded and read directly from the strip. Since visually readable information and laser written data are disposed on opposite sides of the card, no overlapping occurs and a wider data strip with greater informa-tion capacity may be used.
The uniform surface reflectivity of this reflec-tive strip before recording typically would range between 20% ~nd 65~. For a highly reflective strip, the average ref~ectivity over a laser recorded spot might be in the range of 5~ to 25%.
Thus, the reflective contras~ ratio of the recorded spots would range between 2:1 and 4:1. Laser recording materials are known in the art that create either low reflectivity spots in a reflective field or high reflective spots in a low reElectivity field. An example of the latter type is described in U.~.
Patent 4,343,879. When the reflectivity of the field is in the range of 8% to 20% the reflective spots have a reflectivity of about 40~. The reflective contrast ratio would range from 2:1 to 5:1. Photographic pre-formatting, as described, for example, in U.S. Patent 4,304,848, would create spots having a 10~ reflectivity in a reflective field or 40~ in a low reflectivity field.
By means of in situ laser recording, transaction data, information, or the like related to the photographic image is recorded at subsequent times. For example, insurance claims or medical record entries may be processed sequentially, recording various tr~nsactions on the strip one after another, without erasing data. Digital voice recordings or signatures could also be recorded. A photograph of the claimant would protect against fraudulent use of the card. A card reader, ~;~

- 3a - 70622-30 capable of simultaneously reading machine readable data and projecting eye readable data gives a user adequa-te information for making a human judgment regarding a new transaction.

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Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a top view of a first embodiment o~
the recording medium of the present inven~ion.
Fig. 2 is a top view of the second embodiment of the present invention.
Figs. 3-6 are alternate sectional constructions of the medium of Fig. 1 taken alony lines A-A in Fig. 1.
Fig. 7 is a top view of the personal information card of the present invention.
Fig. B is a bottom view of the card of Fig. 7.
Figs. 9-11 are alternate sectional constructions of the card of Fig. 7 taken along lines B-B
in Fig. 7.
Fig. 12 is a partial sectional view o-f an alternate embodiment of the medium of ~ig. 1.
Fig. 13 is a plan view of optical apparatus for reading and writing on the data strip portion o~ the medium illustrated in Fig. 1 and 7.

Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention With reference to Fig. 1, the data medium used in the present invention may be seen to comprise a photographic medium 11 having a planar major sur~ace 13 which is divided into a visual image area 15 and a data strip 17. Visual image medium 11 is in sheet form disposable on a wallet-size card. The visual image area r 15 can be conventional photographic images, produced by usual photoyraphic techni~ues, typically by exposure and development of the medium. Alternatively, a laser can be used to create eye-readable visual images on a thin laser recording medium. The image areas 15 may occupy the entirety of the visual image medium, except ~or the clata strip, or discrete areas as shown in Fig. 1. Several images may be disposed on the photographic medium.
Alternative].y, only a single image may be on the medium.
The pxesent invention uses an optical data strip 17 which may have prerecorded information, but must have user written information, written on the strip i2~

ln situ. The t~pe of material that may be used is relatively highly reflective material which forms a shiny field against low reflectivity spots such as pits, craters, holes or dark spots in the reflective surface which tend to be absorptive of light energy. The con-trast differences between the low reflectivity spots and the shiny reflective field surrounding the spots cause variations at a detector when the spots are illuminated by light of lesser intensity than the light that origin-ally created the spots. Alternatively, a low reflectivi-ty material may be used which creates high reflectivity spots when recorded with a laser.
Data strip 17 is intended to provide a personal data record accompanying the visual images on the same material just as a movie sound track accompanies a sequence of ~rames of film. Data is written in individual tracks extending a longitudinal direction, as indicated by the spot patterns 19 and these spot patterns are analogous to sound track on a film, except that the data tracks contain a much higher density of information and are usually read in reflection, rather than in transmission. The information density is greater because each of the spots in the spot pattern is approximately 5-25 microns in size with a spacing of about 5~25 microns between spots. The spots may be either digital or analog data, and can be circular or oblong, but in any case are recorded by a laser in the usual way, for example as shown in U.S. Patent 4,278,756 to Bouldin, et al.
Fig. 2 is similar to Fig. 1 except that a larger visual image medium 21 is used with a plurality of rows of images 23, 25, and 27. Accompanying each row of images i9 a corresponding data strip 33, 35 and 37.
These data strips are analogous in construction to the st~ip of Fig. 1. Once again, it is not necessary that each row have individually different images. Each row may consist of either multiple images or a single image.
The embodiment of Fig. 2 is a microfiche type medium 6%'7~

where each row o~ images would have corresponding data on a data strip. The images are such that they can be viewed with the naked eye or with low power (maynification) optical systems. On the other hand, the data strips are not usually read with the naked eye, but require either m:Lcroscopic inspection or preferably reading by reflection of a ~canning laser or light emitting diode beam as explained below.
However, a laser could record visual images such as serial numbers, personal data, or even face imayes on the laser recordable material.
Figure 3 illustrates a first construction of the re~ording me~ium shown in Figure 1. The sectional view includes a sub~trate 22 which is transparent and may be one of the many polymeric substrate materials known in photographic arts. Applied to the substrate 22 is a subbing layer, not shown, and an emulslon layer 24. This emulsion layer has a photographic image area lS made by exposure and development in the usual way. The wavy lines 26 represent filamentary silver particles which characterize normal photographic images. Data strip 17 is one of many laser recording materials. For example, it could be a reflective silver/gelatin layer converted ~rom silver-halide emulsion having fine grain size, less than 0.1 microns, by a silver diffusion transfer process described in United States Patent 4,312,938 (Drexler and ~ouldin). Such material is known as DREXON, a reyistered trademark o~ Drexler Technology Corporation, and is sold by said firm.
In the referenced patented process, silver halide emulsion is exposed to a non-saturating level of actinic radiation to activate silver halide. The activated emulsion is then photographically developed ~o a grey color of an optical density of 0.05-2.0 to red liyht, forminy an absorptive 77~
7062~-30 underlayer. T~ere is no fixing after this flrst developme~t step. The surface of the emulsion strip is then fogged by a fogging agent such as horohydride to produce silver precipitating nuclei 6a ~2:6~2~7~

from the part of the unexposed and undeveloped silver halide emulsion. The strip is then contacted with a monobath containing a silver halide solvent and a silver reducing agent to complex, transfer and reduce the remaining unexposed and undeveloped silver to reflective, non-filamentary silver at the nuclei sites on the sur-face. The reflective layer contains from 20% to 50%
silver particles of which 1% to 50% may be filamentary silver formed in the initial development step. Beneath the reflective layer is an absorptive underlayer~
The reflective surface layer is characterized by non-filamentary particles 28 overlying a concentration of filamentary particles which form the absorptive under-layer. Separating the data strip from the image are is an unprocessed silver halide buffer area 30 which would remain generally clear since it is neither exposed nor developed. The buffer area 30 is not necessary, but is desirable because chemical processing of data strip 17 differs from the processing of image area 15. The buffer area 30 may be fixed to remove silver halide so that the area will remain clear. This is optional. Both pro-cesses may occur by spraying of chemicals onto the sur~
face of the film, with a mask covering buffer area 30.
Such spray processing is well known in photolithography.
~owever, in the present case it may be necessary to proceed in two steps. In the first step, conventional photographic processing of image area 26 takes place.
Subsequently, the image area, together with the buffer area 30 is masked to allow separate processing of the data strip 2~3. After processing is complete, a trans-parent plastic layer 32 is adhered to the emulsion, forming a protective layer. Layer 32 may be any of the well known plastic protective layers. The remainder of the film, apart from the data strip 17, need not have fine grain size. Data strip 17 can also be added to the photographic material in the form of an adhesive tape which is bonded to the photographic material either be-77~

fore or after the photograph is developed, or both can bebonded separately to a wallet-size card.
Fig. 4 is similar to Fig. 3 except that sub-strate 34 is coated only with silver halide emulsion to the right of line 36. The imaye area 15 is exposed, developed and fixed. A protective coating 38 may then be applied. A pre-formed strip 40 of laser recording material may then be disposed on the substrate. This may be a strip of DREXON material, previously mentioned.
Such a pre-forme~ strip of laser recording material would have its own thin substrate 39 carrying the emulsion layer. Alternatively, the recording material could ~e any of the other direct-read-after-write laser recording materials, for example such as that described in U.S.
Patent 4,230,939 issued to DeBont, et al., where the patent teaches a thin metallic recording layer of re-~lective metal such as Bi, Te, In, Sn, Cu, Al, Pt, Au, Rh, sb, Ge, Se, Ga. Materials which are preferred are those having high reflectivity and low melting point, particularly Cd, Sn, Tl, In, Bi and amalgams. These materials may be premanufactured on a very thin substrate and adhered to the substrate by means of subbing layer.
After adhering the laser recording material to the sub-strate, a transparent protective coating 44 is applied.
This coating material may be the same as protective material 38.
With reference to Fig. 5, substrate 52 has a notch or groove 54 which allows placement of a laser recording material 56 therein. This laser recordiny material may be processed in situ from silver halide material previously existing in the groove, as in the case of Fig. 3, or pre-existing laser recording material which is placed in the groove, as with the pre-existiny laser recording material of Fig. 4. In either case, the photographic image area 15 is exposed and developed in the usual way, while an unexposed and undeveloped area 58 protects data strip 56. Since emulsion area 58 is ~ ~2 7 ~

unexposed and undeveloped, it remains clear and forms a protective layer over the data strip.
In the embodiment of Fig. 6, no groove exists in substrate 60. Rather, a photographic image area 15 is exposed and dev~loped in the usual way, with the re-mainder of the substrate being covered with emulsion which is masked and protected from exposure and develop~
ment, forming a protected region 62. On top of the protected region 62 a strip of laser recording material 64 is positioned. This laser recording material may be ~ormed in situ by application of a silver halide emulsion strip which is then processed, as data strip 17 in Fig. 3 is processed, or may be a pre-formed strip which is applied as in Fig. 4. The strip is then covered with a protective layer 66.
With reference to Fig. 7 and 8, a personal information card 71 is illustrated having a size common to most credit cards. The width dimension of such a card is approximately 54mm and the length dimension is ap-proximately 85mm. These dimensions are not critical, butpreferred because such a size easily flts into a wallet and has historically been adopted as a convenient size for automatic teller machines and the like. The card's base 73 is a dielectric, usually a plastic material such as polyvinylchloride or similar material. Polycarbonate plastic is preferred. The surface finish of the basb should have low specular ref~ectivity, pre~erably less than 10 percent. Base 13 carries a photographic or laser recordable visual image medium 75 on one side of the card and an optical data strip 77 on the opposite side of the card from medium 75.
Photographic medium 75 has a visual image, which can be a conventional photographic image produced by usual photographic techniques, typically by exposure and development of the medium. Alternatively, when medium 75 is a piece of laser recordable material, a laser can be used to create eye-readable visual images.
The images may occupy the entirety of the medium 75 or ~2~7~6 discrete areas as shown in Fig. 8. ~ single image may be disposed on the visual image medium. Alternatively, several images may be on the medium. For example, user identification indica 79, such as name, card number and card expiration date may be provided along wlth a face photograph or fingerprint photograph. Alternatively, the indicia 79 may be embossed on either surface of the card.
Strip 77 is preferably disposed on a side of the card opposite that containing the visual image medium 75. Whereas strip 17 in Fig. l disposed is side-by-side relationship to image area 15 is typically about 15 millimeters wide to avoid overlapping with image area 15, the optical data strip 77 in Fig. 7 may be larger, typi-cally about 35mm wide. Strip 77 may also have other sizes and orientations. In any case, strip 77 has a data capacity which is at least as great as, and often more than twice that of the capacity-of strip 17 in Fig. 1 The strip is relatively khin, approximately 100-500 microns, although this is not critical.
~ig. 9 illustrates a first construction o~ the card shown in Figs. 7 and B, and is similar to Fig. 3 except that card base 77 is generally nontransparent and the photographic or laser recordable visual image material 75 is disposed on the opposite side of the card from strip 77. Applied to card base 77 is a photographic material 75, comprising an emulsion layer, made according to techni~ues well known in the photographic art. Note that the card base itself becomes the substrate for the emulsion layer and should carry an appropriate subbing layer, as well as a moisture barrier layer. For the latter purpose, a very thin film of Aclar may be used having a thickness of about one mil. No separate film base layer is used in order to minimize thickness of the card. Photographic images 81 are made by exposure and development in the usual way. The wavy lines 83 represent filamentary black silver particles which characterize normal photographic images. Visual images may also be made by a laser. Said laser recorded visual ~2~2~7~

images are typically made of a plurality o~ laser created spots, which alter t~e surface reflectivity of the recording medium.
Data strip 77 may be any of several laser recording materials. For example, it could be a reflec-tive silver/gelatin layer converted from a fine grain silver halide emulsion by a silver diffusion transfer process, as described above with reference to Fig.3.
Areas ~5 and 86 are not subject to this process. After processing is complete, a transparent layer 87 is applied to the emulsion, forming a protective layer. Layer 87 may be any of the well known protective layers, such as acrylates. Data strip 77 can be bonded to the card base 73 either before or after the photographic material 75 is developed.
Fig. 10 is similar to Fig. 9 except that a pre-formed strip 91 may be disposed on a card base 93. This strip may be any of the direct-read-after-write laser recording materials described above with reference to ~ig. 4. Such a pre-formed strip 91 would have its own substrate 95 carrying the emulsion or thin metallic re-cording layer 97. After adharing the pre~formed strip 91 to the card base 93, a transparent protective coating 99 is applied. ~ transparent protective layer 101 may also be appliad over the visual image medium 103, or an~ of the other image media in Figs. 9 and 11. The protective layers 99 and 101 may be any of the well known protective layers, such as acrylates.
With reference to Fig. 11, card base 105 has a notch or yroove 107 which allows placement of a laser recording material 109 therein. This laser recording material 109 may be created in situ from silver halide material previously existing in groove 107, as in the case of Figs. 3 and 9, or preexisting laser recording material may be placed in the groove, as with the pre-existing laser recording materials of Figs. 4 and 10. In either case, the photographic emulsion material 111, having a construction and placement similar to emulsion ~a262 :77~;

layer 83 in Fig. 9, is exposed and developed in the usual way. In all cases, the preferred total thickness of the card conforms to ISO standards for credit cards or bank cards, although other thicknesses may also be used.
With reference to Fig. 12, a substrate 70 is shown which carries a photographic image in a substrate portion not shown. This image may be abo~e the substrate surface or withing a groove of the substrate, as pre-viously mentioned. The substrate carries a secondary substrate 72 which is a thin flexible material, only a few mils thick, carrying a laser recording material 74.
The secondary substrate 72 is adhered to the primary substrate 70 by means of an adhesive or sticky substance, similar to dry adhesives found on tape. The laser re-cording material may be any of the materials previouslydiscussed, such as DREXON material, except that the secondary substrate 72 is substituted for the substrate previously mentioned. ~ protective layer 76 is adhered over the laser recording material. The laser recording material rests above developed silver halide emulsion, resembling Fig. 6, except that the visual image emulsion is completely exposed and developed in the region under-lying the secondary substrate.
In all o~ these embodiments, a strip o~ laser recording material is disposed on a card along with one or more visual images for providing data storage for~data related to the same person associated with the photo image. Remarks in the form of alphanumerics, voice or digitized pictures or signature may be laser recorded adjacent to the photographic image. By this means these two forms of communication will not be separated. Infor~
mation about the person is complimentary to the photo ima~e on the card. ~or example, transaction information related to a person may be recorded on the card. Such transaction information could be ban]cing information, such as a record of deposits and withdrawals. In former years, such transactions were recorded in a passbook, but because of the amount of time taken for sequential entries in a passbook and because of automation, passbook ban~ing was aban~oned, even though it was more favorable to consumers. Now, sequential transactions may be re-corded automatically so that a consumer may once again have a complete record of prior transactions, although a card reader is necessary. The visual image on the card provides for security and guards against fradulent transactions. Insurance transactions, immigration matters and the like all involve sequential transactions involving personal data. While it is important to record the transaction, it is also important to relate the transaction to eye-readable personal data so that a human judgement may be formed. For this purpose, a visual image of a face or fingerprint assists in forming a human judgement relating to the validity of the transaction.
Prior to execution of a transaction, the identity of a user is checked against the personal information on the back side of the card. Both sides of the card are read by a machine. Once the user's identity is verified by a human judgment, or that of a machine comparing user charactereistics, such as fingerprints, then a trans-action is entered on the da~a strip.
of course, while the photo images may be read by conventional means, low-powered laser or a photo-detector array apparatus must be used to read the datastrip. A laser apparatus is illustrated in Fig. 13, which illustrates the side vlew of the lengthwise dimension of the medium of Fig. l or 7, consisting of a data strip in combination with photo images on a card.
In Fig. 13, a side view of the lengthwise dimension of a card is shown. The optical system shown represents one embodiment of a laser read/write system.
The card has a first data strip 41 and an eye readable image 43 adhered to opposite sides of card lOO. Strip 41 is laser recordable, in situ, whil.e image 43 is a pre-recorded eye readable image. The card is usually re-ceived in a movable holder 42 whi.ch brings the card 100 into the trajectorie~; of the beams. Laser light source 143 is preferably a pulsed semiconductor laser of near infrared wavelengths emitting beam 145 which passes through collimating and focusing optics 147. Light source 173 is either a laser or light emitting diode of near infrared wavelengths which emits beam 175 which passes through collimating and focusin~ optics 177. Beam 145 may be either a read beam or a write beam. Beam 175 may be only a read beam. In the read mode, laser power of beam 145 is lowered to about 5~ of the record power.
Beam 145 is sampled by a beam splitter 149 which transmits a portion of the beam through a focusing lens 151 to a photodetector 153. The detector 153 confirms laser wri-ting and is not essential.
The beams 145 and 1~5 are then directed to first servo controlled mirrors 155 and 185 respectively.
Mirror 155 is mounted for rotation along axis 157 in the direction indicated by arrows A. Likewise, mirror 18~ is mounted for rotation along axis 187 in the direction indicated by arrows B. The purpose of mirrors 155 and 185 is to find the lateral edges of the laser recording material in the coarse mode of operation and then in a fine mode of operation identify data paths which exist predetermined distances from the edges.
From mirrors 155 and 185, the beams 145 and 175 are directed toward mirrors 161 and 191 respectively.
Mirror 161 is mounted for rotation at pivot 163, while mirror 191 is also mounted for rotation at pivot 193.
The purpose of mirrors 161 and 191 is for fine control of motion of the beams along the length of the card. Coarse control of the lengthwise position of the card relative to the baams is achieved by motion of movable holder 42.
The position of the holder may be established by a linear motor adjusted by a closed loop position servo system of the type used in magnetic disk drives.
Mirrors 155, 185, 161 and 191 may be under independent servo control. The servos for mirrors 155 and 161 are linked by software to the servos for mirrors 185 and 191 to allow simultaneous reading or reading and ~ r writing of data strip ~1 and 43. ~lternatively, mirrors 155, 185, 161 and 191 may be mechanically linked, so that one servo controls mirrors 155 and 185, while another servo controls mirrors 161 and 191. Note that mirrors 5 161 and 191 plvot about axes 163 and 193 respectively.
In simultaneous reading and writing of strip ~1 and ~3, information is recorded on strip 41 at a position correspondiny to the position of the next transaction in a series of transactions. Both the strip and the eye readable image are read simultaneously from respective positions on the two strips.
In addition to text the card may be prerecorded with a preinscribed pattern containing servo tracks, timing marks, program instructions, and related functions. These positioning mar~s can be used as a reference for the laser recording system to record or read data at particular locations. U.S. patent No.
4,304,848 decribes how format~ing may be done photolitho-graphically. Formatting may also be done using laser recording or surface molding of the servo tracks, having marks, programming and related functions. Dil, in U.S.
patent 4,209,804 teaches a type of surface molding.
Re~erence position information may be prerecorded on the card so that position error signals may be generated and used as feedback in motor control. Upon reading one data path, the mirror 157 is slightly rotated. The motor, moves holder ~1 lengthwise so that the path can be read, and so on.
As light is scattered and reflected from spots in the laser recording material, the reflectivity of the beam changes relative to surrounding material where no spots exist. The beam should deliver sufficient laser energy to the surface of the recording material to create spots in the data writing mode, but should not cause disruption of the surface so as to cause difficulty in the data reading mode. The wavelength of the laser should be compatible with the recording material to achieve this purpose. In the read mode, power is ~262'776 approximately 5% to 10% of the recording or writing power.
Differences in reflectivity between a spot and surrounding material are detected by light detector 165 which may be a photodiode. Liyht is focused onto detector 165 by beam splitter 167 and focusing lens 16g.
servo mo-tors, not shown, control the positions of the emirrors and drive the mirrors in accord with instruc~
tions receive~ from control circuits, as well as ~rom feedback devices. The detector 165 produces electrical signals corresponding to pits. Other optics, including beamsplitter 197, focusing lens 199 and camera 195 are used to observe the photo images, while data is being read or written on the data strip.
A photodetector array such as a CCD could also be used, rather than camera 195. It could be-either a linear array or area array. The number of detector elements per track would be approximate]y three elements to create a reading redundancy. The surface would be illuminated with low-cost, light-emitting diodes gen-erating power primarily in the near infra-red to match the sensitivity specturm of the photodetector array.

Claims (15)

Claims

1. A data card transaction system comprising, a wallet-size card having opposed, planar, major surfaces, an in situ, laser recordable strip disposed on one of said surfaces and a visually readable image dis-posed on an image medium on the opposite surface, and optical means for reading both sides of said card while said card remains operatively associated with said optical means.

2. The transaction system of claim 1 wherein said laser recordable strip comprises DREXON material.

3. The transaction system of claim 1 wherein said image medium is a silver-halide emulsion layer disposed over the card base without an intervening film base layer.

4. The transaction system of claim 3 wherein said visually readable image in said emulsion layer is a face photograph.

5. The transaction system of claim 1 wherein said optical means comprises a pair of lasers with means for simultaneously scanning opposed major surfaces of the card.

6. The transaction system of claim 1 wherein said optical means comprises a photodetector and a camera.

7. The transaction system of claim 1 further defined by means for laser recording transaction data on said laser recordable strip.

8. A data card transaction system comprising, a wallet-size card having opposed, planar, major surfaces including a first surface with a strip of in-situ, laser recording material thereon, and an image medium for visually readable information disposed on a second major surface of the card, a reading and writing beam means disposed in writing relation with respect to said strip for writing sequential data thereon, a first light detector means disposed in reading relation to said strip for reading sequential data, a reading beam means disposed in reading rela-tion with respect to said image medium for shining reading light on said second major surface, a second light detector means disposed in reading relation to said image medium for detecting said visually readable information, and means providing relative motion between said beams and the card for reading and writing said informa-tion on the card.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said reading and writing beams and said reading beam means are disposed for simultaneous operation on opposite sides of said card.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said second light detector means is a camera.

11. A method for recording personal information on a wallet-size card comprising, creating visually readable information on an optical recording medium, said information relating to a person, disposing said visually readable information on a first side of a wallet-size card, disposing a laser recordable optical data storage lamella on a second side of said card, said second side opposite said first side, and recording information indicia related to said person onto said lamella, in situ, by means of laser.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said optical recording medium is a photographic medium.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said optical recording medium is a laser recording medium.

14. A multilayer data card comprising, a planar substrate having opposed major surfaces, a layer of photosensitive material being photographically exposed and developed disposed over at least part of a major surface of the substrate, said material layer bearing visually readable information, and a direct-read-after-write optical data storage layer disposed over a portion of the photosensitive material layer, said data storage layer recordable in situ with a laser.

15. A multilayer data card comprising, a planar substrate having opposed major surfaces, a direct-read-after-write optical data storage layer disposed over part of a major surface of the substrate, said data storage layer recordable in situ with a laser, and a layer of photosensitive material being photographically exposed and developed disposed over the optical data storage layer, said material layer having a first portion bearing visually readable information optically adjacent to said optical storage layer and having a second portion with an optically transmissive zone over the optical storage layer.