The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 26, 1996
Don C McCall, Round Rock, TX (US);
David A Biedermann, Austin, TX (US);
Dresser Industries, Inc., Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A cleaning system and method for a card reader device that initiates a prompt when a head of the card reader device needs to be cleaned, and cancels the prompt only when the head has been cleaned. A card reader device is connected to a computer system which determines when the card reader device should be cleaned. When it is time for the card reader device to be cleaned, the computer system initiates a prompt requesting the cleaning task. The card reader device is cleaned with a cleaner card including a cleaning surface and a data strip. The cleaner card is inserted into the card reader device so that first the cleaning surface comes in contact with the head, thereby cleaning the card reader device, and then the data strip of the card comes in contact with the head. The card reader reads data encoded on the data strip and sends it to the computing device. The computing device acknowledges that the head of the card reader device has been cleaned and cancels the prompt accordingly.