Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kazutaka Sakamoto

Masanobu Katsumura

Mikio Kawasaki

Hidekazu Hata

Takanori Muranaka

Shigeki Maeda

Sinji Arase

Hiroyuki Ueta

Makoto Yonemura

To provide a card reader adaptable to a variety of cards and excelling in card carrying ease. The card reader includes: a card passage; a carrying unit for moving a card within the passage, a data recording/reproducing unit for at least either recording data onto or reproducing data out of the card present in the passage, an image forming unit for forming a visible image on the card, and an image erasing unit for erasing any visible image formed on the card, and has a configuration of handling cards differing in thickness.

Card reader

A card reader has a main body and a card reader unit provided within the main body for executing at least one of recording and reproducing data on a card inserted in the card reader unit. A first communication unit is provided within the main body for executing at least one of inputting and outputting a signal, a power supply unit is provided within the main body for supplying electric power to each unit, and a controller is provided within the main body for controlling each unit. An accessory device can be removably attached to the main body for having at least one of the functions among a printing function, a data communicating function and a display function. A second communication unit is provided within the accessory device for having at least one of the functions of receiving a signal from the first communication unit and sending a signal to the first communication unit.

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Kumamoto, Japan

Kazutaka Sakamoto