News

Elo TouchSystems intros monitor with card reader

March 18, 2004

FREMONT, Calif. -- Elo TouchSystems, Inc., a unit of Tyco Electronics, has introduced a new 15-inch Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) touch monitor that includes a three-stripe magnetic stripe reader (MSR) that is incorporated into the monitor housing.

According to a news release, the new monitor, an enhanced version of Elo's Entuitive 1525L LCD touch monitor, is targeted toward applications that require the use of credit/debit cards, loyalty cards and other card transactions.

It is available with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or serial connection for use with Elo's AccuTouch fivewire resistive or IntelliTouch and SecureTouch surface wave touch technologies.

Mike Sigona, Elo's marketing manager Europe, said in the release, "Unlike so many monitors that use a card swipe, Elo's MSR does not look like a tacked-on afterthought, but blends seamlessly with the color and lines of the host monitor."

Sigona said that the MSR connection cables are hidden from view through the use of a USB hub inside the monitor that allows a single USB connection/cable to carry both the touch interface signal and the MSR data. The serial version has two cables/external connectors to carry both touch and MSR data.

According to the release, the MSR conforms to Microsoft's Human Interface Class specification version 1.1 for the USB interface and supports OLE for Point-of-Sale (OPOS) for the serial interface.

While most MSRs access just two stripes on the user's card, Elo has extended its MSR technology to read the third data stripe, which is normally reserved for applications such as customer loyalty programs.

A three-dimensional animated view of the product can be seen on Elo's Web site.