Patent ID: 8302860

Claim:
A read head device, comprising: a housing; a read head positioned in the housing, the read head being configured to be coupled to a mobile device, the read head having a slot for swiping a magnetic stripe of a financial transaction card, the slot being utilized to enable a financial transaction between a buyer and seller, the read head reading data on the magnetic stripe and producing a signal indicative of data stored on the magnetic stripe, an output jack inserted into at least one of an audio jack or microphone input port of the mobile device for providing the signal indicative of data stored on the magnetic stripe to the mobile device; passive ID circuitry in the read head or coupled to the read head to deliver a unique ID of the read head to the mobile device; wherein the slot is configured to maintain contact between the read head and the magnetic stripe of the financial transaction card during a swipe and decoding of the signal is performed at the mobile device, the decoding including determining pulses in the signal and converting at least some of the pulses to characters, a width of the slot being sized to enable the successful swipe without creating sufficient torque between the signal plug or output jack and the read head or at the mobile device to cause damage due to excessive torque.