Data carrier

A data carrier of the personal card type, holding information about at least one of the owner, the card issuing organization, account number, etc., and being intended for manual utilization at a place of use or by means of a read in/read out device comprised in a terminal equipment, said data carrier comprising:

• means for carrying out a verification process which includes internal processing of supplied identification information of the owner during said verification process and for generating an acceptance signal (acc) as a result of a verification of the identity and/or right of the owner to use the data carrier;
• said means including:
• a verification device for carrying out said verfication process and comprising a sensor device (2) for sensing a finger tip of the user of the card and obtaining corresponding finger print line information of said user, said sensor device (2) comprising a plurality of sensing elements each having a sensing surface (9') for contacting the finger tip of the user and a registration means (23;
• 34) which is controllable by said surface and the registration state of which during the sensing operation is defined dependent on the relative positions of the sensing surface and a finger print line;
• reading means (3) for reading said state of registration;
• signal processing means (4) coupled to said reading means for forming an identification bit sequence from the registration state information obtained by said reading;
• memory means (6) for permanent storage of a previously and correspondingly obtained reference bit sequence;
• comparator means (5) for comparing said identification bit sequence formed by said signal processing means and said reference bit sequence and for generating said acceptance signal (acc) when the degree of coincidence between said bit sequences is within a predetermined acceptance range;
• and
• control means for the control and current supply (8,10) of said verification device during the verification process.