Patent ID: 9552501
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: G06K,G11B

Claim:
1. A card reader comprising: a card insertion slot configured to guide a magnetic card having a magnetic stripe to a transport passage; a pre-head arranged in the vicinity of said card insertion slot configured to detect the presence of said magnetic stripe; and a magnetic head disposed in an inside of the card reader for reading magnetic data from and writing magnetic data to the magnetic stripe of the magnetic card when the magnetic card is taken into the inside of the card reader through an output signal from the pre-head; wherein said pre-head includes: a head portion which has at least one pair of magnetic cores arranged to be opposite from each other, with a magnetic gap arranged between the magnetic cores to produce a signal indicating magnetic data recorded on the magnetic stripe; a signal converting part converting the signal indicating the magnetic data into periodic pulses or a constant holding signal different from the magnetic data recorded on said magnetic stripe as the output signal from the pre-head so that the signal indicating the magnetic data is not outputted from the pre-head; and coils wound around the pair of magnetic cores; and wherein the periodic pulses or the constant holding signal output from the signal converting part of the pre-head is input to the card reader as a sign for taking the magnetic card into the inside of the card reader; and wherein said signal converting part is equipped with a detection circuit for detecting the signal indicating magnetic data recorded on the magnetic stripe from said head portion and an output circuit for outputting the periodic pulses or the constant holding signal as the output signal from the pre-head.