The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 20, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 18, 1997
Clinton S. Sheppard, Mountain Home, AR (US);
Donald R. McCombes, Laguna Beach, CA (US);
Express Technology, Inc., Little Rock, AR (US);
Abstract
A process and apparatus determines whether a person is authorized to purchase a restricted goods, such as tobacco or alcohol, or attend a restricted even, such as a strip tease act or a movie, or receive a certain discount, such as a senior discount. The person has a date of birth and a corresponding age and an identification material, such as a driver's license, having the date of birth encoded on a magnetic strip attached thereto. The date of birth is magnetically read from the magnetic strip attached to the identification material. The apparatus has a magnetic reader, a microprocessor, and a warning device. The magnetic reader reads the date of birth from the magnetic strip attached to the identification material. The microprocessor is electrically coupled to the magnetic reader and programmed to receive the date of birth read and to compute the age by comparing the date of birth to the first date. The first date is inputted into the microprocessor. The microprocessor further compares the age to a standard age to determine whether the person is authorized. The warning device is electrically coupled to the microprocessor and alerts an operator whether or not the person is authorized.