Patent ID: 8245923

Claim:
A handheld device comprising: a housing; a Micro-Electronic Mechanical System (MEMS) magnetic field sensor disposed within the housing, wherein the MEMS magnetic field sensor is configured to determine a plurality of magnetic data stored on a magnetic stripe of a user provided media when the user disposes the user provided media proximate to the housing, wherein the plurality of magnetic data is determined from a first track of data from a plurality of magnetic tracks of data in the magnetic stripe when the user disposes the user provided media proximate to the housing in a first configuration, and wherein the plurality of magnetic data is determined from a second track of data from a plurality of magnetic tracks of data in the magnetic stripe when the user disposes the user provided media proximate to the housing in a second configuration; and a processor disposed within the housing and coupled to the MEMS magnetic field sensor, wherein the processor is programmed to receive the plurality of user data stored on the user provided media, wherein the processor is configured to execute an application program, and wherein the processor is programmed to provide at least a subset of the plurality of user data to the application program.