Patent ID: 6789738
Filing Date: 2004-09-14
Classification: G01J,G06K,H01S,H04B

Abstract:
A mounting cartridge for mounting an information card resembling a conventional business card into a reader to read data magnetically stored in a ring zone thereon, wherein the reader is a conventional floppy disk drive having a read head and a spindle with a central axis, the mounting cartridge comprising:a bottom cover, a top cover, a hinge hingably connecting said top and bottom covers, and a latch suitable for manually locking and unlocking said top and bottom covers together to contain the information card within the mounting cartridge; said top and bottom covers having dimensions, when the mounting cartridge is hingably closed and latched, such that the mounting cartridge has dimensions equivalent to a conventional diskette cartridge as commonly used in the floppy disk drive; a hub having an upper side, a lower side and a center axis, wherein said hub is centrally and rotatably mounted in said bottom cover, and said upper side is flat and substantially coplanar with said top and bottom covers when the mounting cartridge is closed, and said lower side is shaped to engage with the spindle of the floppy disk drive and thereby cause said center axis of said hub to become coaxial with the central axis of the spindle when the mounting cartridge is loaded into the floppy disk drive; said top cover including a centrally located rotatable unit against which the information card is pressably held by said hub when it is engaged by the spindle of the floppy disk drive and said top cover includes depressors which depress said guides downward out of said plane of the information card when the mounting cartridge is closed, thereby permitting the information card to move in said plane within the mounting cartridge such that said ring zone with the data magnetically stored therein is rotatable about the central axis of the spindle of the floppy disk drive; and said bottom cover including a port permitting access by the read head to the data magnetically stored in the ring zone of the information card when the mounting cartridge with the information card mounted therein is loaded into the floppy disk drive and said bottom cover includes guides extending upward into a plane defined by the information card, thereby aligning the information card in said bottom cover member when the mounting cartridge is open.