Notes to support the CIE IGCSE IT (4017) course

1. 2.2 DIRECT DATA ENTRY
AND ASSOCIATED DEVICES

2. TOPICS
1. Magnetic stripe readers
2. Chip and PIN
3. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
4. Magnetic Ink Character recognition (MICR)
5. Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
6. Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
7. Bar codes

3. • Information is held in the magnetic
stripe
• Widely used – simple and easy to use
• Easily readable by a variety of devices
• Not very secure these days
• Limited storage capacity
• Data can be destroyed by strong magnetic fields
1. MAGNETIC STRIPE

4. 2. CHIP AND PIN
• Modern cards now contain an embedded microchip
• Information can be encrypted or password protected for
extra security
• More secure than magnetic stripe

5. 3. RFID
• Radio Frequency Identification
• Acts as a transponder – a device
that sends out a radio signal
• RFID Tags are attached to objects so that they can be
tracked automaticaly
• The information is stored in databases and so can quickly
and efficiently be accessed, updated etc
• Tags include:
• an embedded microchip for storing information
• an antenna for sending and recieving signals

6. RFID USES
• Race timing
• Passports
• Transport payments
• Product tracking
• Transport
• Libraries

7. 4. MICR
• Banks use MICR (magnetic ink character recognition)
readers to read the account details off the bottom of
cheques
• The process is very quick and accurate
• Cheques with magentic ink are difficult to forge

8. 5. OMR (OPTICAL MARK RECOGNITION)
• This system reads marks on certain
places on specially made forms
• Very fast
• Problems if the marks aren’t clear
• Only suitable for some types of data entry – eg multiple
choice questions

9. 6. OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR)
• Can turn a scanned image back into editable text
• Can be time consuming to do
• The image to be scanned needs to be
very clear
• The finished document must be
checked for accuracy

10. 7. BARCODES
• Barcodes are a set of lines that represent numbers
• Widely used
• Often used for prices
• The data is not held in the bar code but
in the database the code refers to
• Very fast and accurate

11. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIRECT ENTRY
• Advantages
• Quick to enter data
• Very accurate
• Very reliable
• Removed human error if done properly
• Disadvantages
• Relatively costly to set up the equipment
• Training of staff required