Card speed determination in a card reader

Claim 1

A card reader control system for a card reader wherein a card is manually driven to travel through a card reader, said card reader control system comprising: a card reader for reading information stored on said card and for generating a clock signal in response to occurrence of said information on said card; measuring means for measuring time intervals of said clock signal generated by said card reader when the card is manually driven to travel in said card reader; first storing means for storing said time intervals of said clock signal measured by said measuring means, said storing means further storing a first maximum time interval and a first minimum time interval at least before said card travels in said card reader; second storing means for storing predetermined time intervals, a second maximum time interval and a second minimum time interval; a working register operatively connected to said first storing means and said second storing means for temporarily storing said time intervals measured by said measuring means; determination means for determining card speed by comparing the time intervals measured by said measuring means with said predetermined time intervals stored in said second storing means, said determination means further comparing each of said time intervals temporarily stored in said working register with each of first maximum and first minimum time intervals stored in said first storing means, said determination means updating said first maximum time interval by each of said time intervals temporarily stored in said working register which is greater than said first maximum time interval, said determination means also updating said first minimum time interval by each of said time intervals temporarily stored in said working register which is less than said first minimum time interval, and said determination means comparing the first and second minimum time intervals and the first and second maximum time intervals stored in the respective first and second storing means for determining a minimum and a maximum card speed, said determination means being programmable by computer software; and alarm means for generating an alarm signal when said determination means determines said card speed fails to be within a preferred range, said preferred range being between said second maximum time interval and said second minimum time interval.