Abstract: Traffic management or enforcement is performed through the use of a monitor transponder in the environs of an RF highway toll collection system. When normally operating transponders communicate with a roadside reader system, the roadside system communicates with the monitor transponder, which in turn signals if a valid normal transponder is detected. If no signal is generated by the monitor transponder, it is evident that the vehicle has no transponder or that the transponder is faulty or invalid.

Abstract: In a transaction terminal, a credit card reader is used not only to enter data from cards of customers, but a special card is used to place the terminal in supervisory modes in at least one of which it will accept data from further special cards which are used to input data used in the transaction mode, particularly alphanumeric data for printing on transaction slips. The terminal has a customer accessible auxiliary keyboard which may be used for data entry, at a location remote from the main unit, allowing for point of sale data entry, including private entry of a customer's Personal Identification Number, either to validate a transaction or during selection of a PIN for encryption by the terminal. Data captured by the auxiliary keyboard is only retained for so long as a customer's card resides in a slot in the auxiliary keyboard, and PIN numbers are encoded as part of a sequence in which data is downloaded to the main unit.