Abstract: An opto-electronic apparatus for reading out preferably coded information contained on a data carrier with high reliability and free of disturbances even when the insertion speed of the information carrier into an associated opening of the reading apparatus depends only on the arbitrary actuation by the operating person, including retrograde motions or stoppage of the information carrier. The apparatus is especially adapted to the read-out of information coded in a card as a pattern of alternating transparent and opaque areas which are subjected to infrared radiation whose passage or non-passage is detected by suitable detectors. The process of reading out the information contained in the data carrier is timed or clocked by a clock cycle generated from a clock trackcontained in the data carrier itself.