Edwin A Bedell

US Patent:

59230193, Jul 13, 1999

Filed:

Jun 10, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/872024

Inventors:

Edwin A. Bedell - Danville PA
Terry W. Schindler - Sunbury PA

Assignee:

ELK Technologies, Inc. - Sunbury PA

International Classification:

G06K 708
G06K 1306
G06K 1300
G06K 700

US Classification:

235449

Abstract:

A magnetic transducer assembly having no moving parts for detecting and reading information stored on a magnetic stripe on the back of a card. The assembly has a base member with electrical connectors, a card guide member with an S-shaped channel therein to guide a card through the assembly, and a magnetic detection head fixed in a cavity provided in the card guide member on an upper side of the S-shaped channel and at a junction of the convex entry passageway and the concave exit passageway of the S-shaped channel. The fixed magnetic head has a convex face protruding from the cavity and into the S-shaped channel at the junction so that the magnetic stripe on the back of a card inserted through the S-shaped channel frictionally engages the magnetic head so that the magnetic head may read information encoded on the magnetic stripe. The fixed magnetic head is preferably rotated away from the direction which the card travels through the s-shaped channel. Additionally, the S-shaped channel is preferably sufficiently deep so that the card is firmly held within the channel as it travels through the card guide member.

US Patent:

20050006471, Jan 13, 2005

Filed:

Jun 3, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/860616

Inventors:

Edwin Bedell - Danville PA, US
Larry Ditty - Sunbury PA, US
Terry Schindler - Sunbury PA, US
Walter Bonneau - Escondido CA, US

International Classification:

G06K007/00

US Classification:

235440000

Abstract:

Card reader/writer devices and methods for reading/writing both M-cards, PICCs, and/or S-cards, wherein such devices can comprise a magnetic head (which can have multiple tracks), an A/D converter, a gated buffer module associated with the A/D converter, an F2F decoder associated with the gated buffer module for enabling the integration of multiple discrete M-card reader formats with decoder functions, and an integral PICC data processor, which can perform the functions of a PCD, for reading/writing a PICC along with the M-card. An internal RF analog antenna circuit can be provided for receiving signals from the PICC, or an external PCD antenna can be connectable to the RF circuit. The F2F decoder can be integrated with the PICC data processor, and the A/D converter can process analog data from both the magnetic head and the RF antenna circuit. A contact module could also be provided to read/write an S-card.