Document structure with circuit elements

Abstract

Information can be retrieved from documents such as game cards and document security can be improved by printing electronic circuits or circuit elements on the ticket. Conductive or semiconductive ink can be printed on the document by using gravure, relief, planographic, letter press or flexographic methods to form the circuit elements. In one lottery ticket embodiment the circuit elements are printed over play indica and under a scratch-off coating so that they are removed when the ticket is played. An electronic verification machine can then be used to determine which portions of the scratch-off coatings covering the play indicia have been removed. A second group of circuit elements can also be printed under the play indicia which improves security by blocking light that may be shined through the ticket and by being tested, along with the first group of circuit elements, for integrity by the electronic verification machine. Security can be enhanced by printing upper and lower blocking layers over the indicia printed on the document. Printing circuit elements on lottery tickets is particularly suitable for probability tickets because it makes it possible to automatically detect which latex play spots covering the play indica have been removed or tampered with. In addition, by printing circuit elements under a scratch-off coating it is possible to make a data card that can be written by scratching off the coating where the resulting data can read by a machine.