Patent ID: 6839772

Claim:
A chip card reader comprising: a central processing unit comprising means for emitting and receiving, on a communication bus having a single data wire, binary messages having a first format determined by a communication protocol for contact chip cards, a card receiving device comprising a contact card connector connected to the central processing unit by means of the communication bus, the contact card connector being therefore connected to said single data wire, and a contactless read head for contactless chip card comprising: means for receiving or sending, from or to a contactless chip can, messages having a second format determined by a communication protocol for contactless chip cards, a serial interface directly connected to said single data wire of said communication bus that carries the binary messages having the first format determined by a communication protocol for contact chip cards, means for converting messages received on the serial interface and having the first format into messages having the second format, and, vice versa, converting messages received from a contactless chip card and having the second format into messages having the first format applied on the serial interface, and hardware and software arranged so that the contactless read head does not respond to a contact chip card activation command received on the serial interface, and responds to a specific activation command of the contactless read head different from a contact chip card activation command.