Card reader
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorDavid C. C. May
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A card reader for reading magnetic stripe cards which are manually inserted, and withdrawn, by a user. The card is constrained to follow a path which displaces the card laterally while the card is outside the reader, and before the magnetic stripe reaches a magnetic sensor within the reader. The lateral displacement prevents an illicit magnetic sensor, positioned externally to the reader by a hacker, from reading the magnetic stripe, since the stripe is moving in an incorrect direction while the card is external to the reader.
Claims16
A card reader which reads a data-bearing magnetic stripe on a card comprising:
- (a) a housing having a card entry slot;
- (b) a magnetic read head located within the housing;
- and
- (c) guide means for
- (i) displacing a card laterally with respect to the entrance slot during initial insertion of the card, and prior to engagement of the read head with the magnetic stripe,
- ii) terminating the lateral displacing before the magnetic stripe reaches the read head, and then
- iii) guiding the magnetic stripe in a path across the read head, which path enables reading of the data by the read head, as insertion continues.
A card reader for reading a card bearing a magnetic stripe, comprising:
- a) a housing;
- b) a magnetic read head within the housing, which reads the magnetic stripe;
- and
- c) a guide system which guides the card past the read head, along a path which causes the magnetic stripe to incorrectly align with any second magnetic read head located outside the housing.
A card reader for reading a card bearing a magnetic stripe, comprising:
- a) a housing;
- b) a magnetic read head within the housing, which reads the magnetic stripe;
- and
- c) a guide system which guides the card past the read head, along a path which requires any additional magnetic read head, located external to the housing, to move as the card moves, in order to read the magnetic stripe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.