Abstract: A magnetic recording medium having uniaxially highly anisotropic particles with an easy axis intrinsic coercive force of less than 1900 oersteds. Also disclosed is a machine readable magnetically encoded document employing the medium of the present invention and an apparatus for reading such document and validating the same.

Abstract: A magnetic recording medium having at least two particle populations that may be either contained in a single layer of magnetic medium or a dual layer of magnetic medium. In a first embodiment one of the particle populations of the medium is formed of conventional magnetic recording particles and the other population is highly anisotropic. In a second embodiment both particle populations are highly anisotropic but they are aligned so that the easy axes of magnetization of the populations are at an angle to one another. Also disclosed is a machine readable magnetic recording document that employs the magnetic recording medium of the present invention, and an apparatus for reading such document and validating the same.

Abstract: This ticket making machine is capable of issuing a single ticket without waste of ticket stock. A web of ticket stock having a magnetic stripe record surface is arranged to be advanced around a rotating carrier having a magnetic recording unit and one ticket (web) parting member arranged internally threof. The web is passed between the rotating carrier and a complementary ticket (web) parting member. The peripheral speed of the rotating carrier is very much greater than the speed of the advancing web, whereby the information is magnetically recorded in close to conventional manner. The one parting member is a double-ended anvil arranged to be rotated into and out of position for parting the web in cooperation with a blade forming the complementary parting member. A camming surface arrangement in the same frame structure as the carrier and web are mounted and a cam follower coupled to the anvil toggles the latter on demand for exerting relatively light force for engaging the two in parting the web.

Abstract: A system prevents erasure of audio material pre-recorded on a magnetic recording strip on a card or photograph. Erasure of any selected portion of the recording strip is prevented by securing material to the card or photograph to thicken the card or photograph along the length of the magnetic strip that is not to be erased. The thickened portion of the card cannot be inserted into or moved along a slot in a magnetic eraser, and the thickened portion of the card is detected in a recording machine for disabling the record mode of the recorder to prevent recording over the portion of the magnetic strip that should not be erased. The material thickening the card is preferably secured to the face of the card opposite the face bearing the magnetic strip.

Abstract: A portable plastic card is assigned to carry relevant inventory and other data for each of a given number of items. The card both stores and displays sufficient data to make it useful as an inventory control tool. The visual data is a persistent electrochromic display that shows select portions of the data stored in the magnetic track. Two edges of the card are tapered to prevent their improper introduction to a card reader. A diagrammatic drawing shows the preferred use of the card in a slip-issuing mode.

Abstract: This invention relates to camera apparatus having a mechanism containing transparent slides for projection, and, with this, there is provided a mechanism for including with these slides related sound records for reproduction concurrently with the pictorial representations.

Abstract: A system for generating audible information from indicia printed on a paper, the system being particularly applicable to indicia printed in ink by conventional printing techniques. A printed sound track is provided, the sound track being oriented on the paper in a direction defined as the manual scanning direction, this being the horizontal direction in most instances. The track consists of a multiplicity of elongated parallel sound track segments printed on the paper in closely spaced arrangement. The segments are oriented in a direction which is generally transverse a manual scanning direction, i.e., the vertical direction in most instances. Also provided is an optical scanner adapted to be manually scanned over the sound track in a manual scanning direction. The scanner includes automatic means for continuously scanning the segments longitudinally to produce electrical signals representative of audio information. Means are also provided for converting the electrical signals into audible signals.

Abstract: An audiovisual book system comprising an audiovisual apparatus accepting a book containing audiovisual pages, each page having an image and a sound track disposed near one of its edges and also having elongated perforations passing through binder means disposed in the book; individual pages, while they are retained and guided by the elongated perforations, are sequentially displaced, from their nesting position in the book, to a playing position, in which the sound track protrudes beyond one edge of the book and is thus exposed to a moving transducer in the apparatus, which scans the sound track arranged in the apparatus for scanning the sound track.In an alternative embodiment, the audiovisual book contains audiovisual sheets having two consecutive edges defining between them a missing area and an information track disposed about an axis which intersects this missing area.

Abstract: An apparatus for recording and/or reproducing video signal information employs, as a record medium, a sheet assembly composed of at least two normally closely adjacent, confronting flexibly resilient sheets which provide mutual protection, when in that relation, for video signal information recorded, for example, magnetically, on at least one of the sheets.

Abstract: A low cost credit card reader is provided wherein the magnetic stripe on a stationarily positioned credit card is read by the spring powered transverse activation of a read head, and wherein the normal spring-related fluctuations in read head velocity are compensated for and offset by a rotatable member having a concentric circumference and a variably radiused spiraling circumference, the rotatable member being interposed between and cable interconnected with said spring and a translatable read head carrier, said spring and said rotatable member in association with an opposing airpot cooperating to provide the read head with a uniform controlled velocity of movement throughout each reading cycle.

Abstract: A guide member for use with a magnetic reading and/or recording head of a ticket issuing machine is made of material of low permeability and has a portion of material of high permeability. When the guide member is located adjacent a magnetic read/record head and is adjusted so that the material of high permeability is in register with the gap of the head, the separation loss between the head and a ticket, coated with a magnetisable material and passing between the head and the guide, is reduced to a minimum.

Abstract: A flexible resilient magnetic particle type information card capable of correctly reading information thereon after such card has been bent double on itself and creased, said card comprising a flexible base, a layer of uniformly distributed magnetic particles thereon, and a flexible overlayer of nonmagnetic material, said over layer having a thickness of at least 2 mils, said layer of magnetic particles being magnetically encoded, the magnetic flux transitions of such encoding being at least 0.02 inch apart and said magnetic particle layer being enclosed between the base layer and over layer and spaced from the edges of the card.A method of storing information in binary data form comprising magnetically recording information on a magnetic strip that has an over layer of at least 2 mils by inducing transitions in the magnetization of the strip at a minimum spacing of 0.02-0.1 inch.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for recording information in the form of video signals on record members such as cards and reproducing selected portions of the information recorded as visually monitorable information on a viewing screen such as an electronic display or cathode ray tube. The information is recorded in the form of tracks of recordings which may be selectively scanned by a video transducer to generate electrical signals which may be used to modulate the reading means of an electronic display to present a visually monitorable or photographically reproducible image on said display.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for verifying the status of an account such as a credit card account or that the holder of a card is the party indicated by information recorded on the card. In one form, information is recorded on a magnetic recording strip of a card which is automatically read when a magnetic pick-up is caused to scan the recording. The signals generated are then fed to a comparator which compares same with information reproduced from a memory or signals generated in scanning a characteristic of the card holder such as a voice or photoelectrically generated signals scanning a finger print or other physical characteristic of the holder. Special card scanning means is also provided.

Abstract: An automatic record feeding device particularly advantageous for use in association with a flexible foil-type video disc record used by a video disc player. The record feeding device includes a transfer roll having at least one escapement recess or notch formed in the outer peripheral surface thereof, and a back-up guide cooperative with the transfer roll to hold the disc record between it and the transfer roll during transfer of the disc record from one position to another.