Citizendia
Your Ad Here

An example of the reverse side of a typical credit card: Green circle #1 labels the Magnetic Stripe
An example of the reverse side of a typical credit card: Green circle #1 labels the Magnetic Stripe

A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing Data by modifying the Magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's In Physics, magnetism is one of the Phenomena by which Materials exert attractive or repulsive Forces on other Materials. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called a magstripe, is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head. Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit cards, identity cards, and transportation tickets. A credit card is part of a system of Payments named after the small Plastic card issued to users of the system An identity document, also called a piece of identification ( ID) is a document used to verify aspects of a person's Identity. They may also contain an RFID tag, a transponder device and/or a microchip mostly used for business premises access control or electronic payment. Radio-frequency identification ( RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or In Telecommunication, the term transponder (short-for Trans mitter-res ponder and sometimes abbreviated to XPDR XPNDR TPDR or TP has the following meanings Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside Access control is the ability to permit or deny the use of a particular resource by a particular entity

A number of International Organization for Standardization standards, ISO 7810, ISO 7811, ISO 7812, ISO 7813, and ISO 4909, define the physical properties of the card, including size, flexibility, location of the magstripe, and magnetic characteristics. ISO/IEC 78102003 is an International standard that defines four formats for identity or Identification cards ID-1 ID-2 ID-3 and ID-000 ISO 7811 is a set of 7 (7811-1 to 7811-7 standards describing the recording technique on identification cards ISO 7812, first published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO in 1989, is the international standard governing Magnetic stripe identification ISO 7813 defines standards for banking cards such as the thickness and the rounding for the corners They also provide the standards for financial cards, including the allocation of card number ranges to different card issuing institutions.

Contents

The magnetic stripe

The process of attaching a magnetic stripe to a plastic card was invented by IBM under a contract with the US government for a security system. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Forrest Parry, an IBM Engineer, had the idea of securing a piece of magnetic tape, the predominant storage medium at the time, to a plastic card base. He became frustrated because every adhesive he tried produced unacceptable results. The tape strip either warped or its characteristics were affected by the adhesive making it technically unusable. After a frustrating day in the laboratory, trying to get the right adhesive, he came home with several pieces of magnetic tape and several plastic cards. As he walked in the door at home, his wife was ironing and watching TV. She immediately saw the frustration on his face and asked what was wrong. He explained the source of his frustration: inability to get the tape to "stick" to the plastic in a way that would work. She said, "Here, let me try the iron. " She did and the problem was solved. The heat of the iron was just high enough to bond the tape to the card[1].

There were a number of steps required to convert the magnetic striped media into an industry acceptable device. These steps included: 1) Creating the international standards for stripe record content, including which information, in what format, and using which defining codes. 2) Field testing the proposed device and standards for market acceptance. 3) Developing the manufacturing steps need to mass produce the large number of cards required. 4) Adding stripe issue and acceptance capabilities to available equipment. These steps were initially managed by Jerome Svigals of the Advanced Systems Division of IBM, Los Gatos, California from 1966 to 1975.

In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0. 223 inches (5. 66 mm) from the edge of the card, and is 0. 375 inches (9. 52 mm) wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0. 110 inches (2. 79 mm) wide. Tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch (8. 27 bits per mm), while track two typically has a recording density of 75 bits per inch (2. 95 bits per mm). Each track can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric characters. Track 1 standards were created by the airlines industry (IATA). Track 2 standards were created by the banking industry (ABA). The American Bankers Association (ABA is a free-trade and professional association that promotes and advocates issues important to the banking industry in the Track 3 standards were created by the Thrift-Savings industry.

Magstripes following these specifications can typically be read by most point-of-sale hardware, which are simply generic general-purpose computers that can be programmed to perform specific tasks. Point of sale or point of service ( POS or PoS) can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop or the location where a transaction Examples of cards adhering to these standards include ATM cards, bank cards (credit and debit cards including VISA and MasterCard), gift cards, loyalty cards, driver's licenses, telephone calling cards, membership cards, electronic benefit transfer cards (e. An ATM card (also known as a bank card, client card, key card or cash card) is an ISO 7810 card issued by a Bank, MasterCard Worldwide ( is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, USA. Scrip is any Substitute for Currency which is not Legal tender and is often a form of credit. g. food stamps), and nearly any application in which value or secure information is not stored on the card itself. The US Food Stamp Program is a Federal assistance program that provides food to low and no income people living in the United States. Many video game and amusement centers now use debit card systems based on magnetic stripe cards. An Example of one of these is ECS by Embed International. Embed International is a supplier manufacturer of Debit card systems and managementapplications for the amusement leisure and retail industries

Counterexamples of cards which intentionally ignore these standards include hotel key cards, most subway and bus cards, and some national prepaid calling cards (such as for the country of Cyprus) in which the balance is stored and maintained directly on the stripe and not retrieved from a remote database. Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía

Magnetic stripe coercivity

Magstripes come in two main varieties: high-coercivity (HiCo) at 4000 Oe and low-coercivity (LoCo) at 300 Oe but it is not infrequent to have intermediate values at 2750 Oe. In Materials science, the coercivity, also called the coercive field, of a ferromagnetic material is the intensity of the applied Magnetic Oersted (abbreviated as Oe) is the unit of magnetizing field (also known as magnetic field strength or intensity in the CGS system of units Oersted (abbreviated as Oe) is the unit of magnetizing field (also known as magnetic field strength or intensity in the CGS system of units High-coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or that need to have a long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, and a high-coercivity card writer may write both high and low-coercivity cards (most have two settings, but writing a LoCo card in HiCo may sometimes work), while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.

In practical terms, usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color, and high coercivity stripes are nearly black; exceptions include a proprietary silver-colored formulation on transparent American Express cards. American Express ( sometimes known as " AmEx " or " Amex " is a diversified global Financial services company headquartered in High coercivity stripes are resistant to damage from most magnets likely to be owned by consumers. Low coercivity stripes are easily damaged by even a brief contact with a magnetic purse strap or fastener. Because of this, virtually all bank cards today are encoded on high coercivity stripes despite a slightly higher per-unit cost.

Magnetic stripe cards are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripes are generally less expensive to produce and are less resilient but are suitable for cards meant to be disposed after a few uses.

Financial cards

Main article: ISO 7813

There are up to three tracks on magnetic cards used for financial transactions, known as tracks 1, 2, and 3. ISO 7813 defines standards for banking cards such as the thickness and the rounding for the corners Track 3 is virtually unused by the major worldwide networks such as VISA, and often isn't even physically present on the card by virtue of a narrower magnetic stripe. Point-of-sale card readers almost always read track 1, or track 2, and sometimes both, in case one track is unreadable. The minimum cardholder account information needed to complete a transaction is present on both tracks. Track 1 has a higher bit density (210 bits per inch vs. 75), is the only track that may contain alphabetic text, and hence is the only track that contains the cardholder's name.

The information on track 1 on financial cards is contained in several formats: A, which is reserved for proprietary use of the card issuer, B, which is described below, C-M, which are reserved for use by ANSI Subcommittee X3B10 and N-Z, which are available for use by individual card issuers:

Track one, Format B:

LRC is a form of computed check character. In Telecommunication, a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC or horizontal redundancy check is a form of Redundancy check that is applied independently to

The format for track 2 was developed by the banking industry (ABA). This track is written with a 5-bit scheme (4 data bits + 1 parity), which allows for sixteen possible characters, which are the numbers 0-9, plus the six characters  : ; < = > ? . The selection of six punctuation symbols may seem odd, but in fact the sixteen codes simply map to the ASCII range 0x30 through 0x3f, which defines ten digit characters plus those six symbols. American Standard Code for Information Interchange ( ASCII) The data format is as follows:

Note: It is possible for these strips to be completely erased if brought close to high strength Neodymium magnets
Note: Commercial Encoders use '~' for Start sentinel, ';' for separator: such as Datacard, Fargo, Zebra, Magicard, and Persona Encoders/Printers. A neodymium magnet or NIB magnet (a variety of Rare-earth magnet) is a powerful Magnet made of a combination of Neodymium, Iron, and
Example Code: '~#;data?'

Driver's Licenses (USA)

The data stored on magnetic stripes on American driver's licenses is specified by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). Not all states use a magnetic stripe on their driver's licenses. For a list of those that do, see the AAMVA list of US License Technology. The AAMVA site also contains a list of the Canadian jurisdictions that use magnetic stripes on their driver's licenses.

The following data is stored on track 1:

The following data is stored on track 2:

The following data is stored on track 3:

Note: Each state has a different selected of information they encode, not all states are the same.

Other card types

Smart cards are a newer generation of card containing an integrated circuit chip. A smart card, chip card, or Integrated circuit card ( ICC) is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside The card may have metal contacts connecting the card physically to the reader, while contactless cards use a magnetic field or radio frequency (RFID) for proximity reading. Proximity card (or Prox Card) is a generic name for contactless integrated circuit devices used for security access or payment systems Radio-frequency identification ( RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or

Hybrid smart cards include a magnetic stripe in addition to the chip — this is most commonly found in a payment card, so that the cards are also compatible with payment terminals that do not include a smart card reader. The term payment card covers a range of different cards that can be presented by a cardholder to make a Payment.

See also

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic