Card technologies

Including smart cards and chip & pin

Card technologies now incorporate smart cards with chip and pin, which are replacing traditional magnetic stripe card readers.

Typical applications include point of sale, employee ID cards and time and attendance systems.

Most card reading solutions are available in desktop and wall-mount configurations and can connect easily into PCs and other host systems.

For mobile data capture applications, card reading and receipt printing may also be combined, to provide one integrated solution.

Magnetic stripe data carrier technology is one of the most established and widely used of all the data capture technologies. Magnetic stripe card readers are characterised by the brown/black stripe to be found on the back of bank, credit and customer loyalty cards.

Magnetic stripe card technology has the following key attributes and limitations:

• Well established read/write technology
• Low to medium storage capability
• Low cost
• Durable
• Contact read required, generally requiring a standard card-based carrier form