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Card reading systems and methodsRelated Patent Categories: Registers, Coded Record Sensors, Particular Sensor StructureCard reading systems and methods description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070187499, Card reading systems and methods. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional, and claims the benefit, of co-pending, commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/741,586, filed Dec. 19, 2003, entitled "Card Reading Systems And Methods," the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. [0002] This application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,802,500, issued Oct. 12, 2004, entitled "Mail Handling Equipment And Methods," and to U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,569, issued on Dec. 30, 2003, entitled "System And Methods Of Providing Inserts Into Envelopes," the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] This invention relates generally to the field of mail processing, and in particular to the processing of mail relating to financial institutions. More specifically, the invention relates to devices for reading information from and writing information to cards and properly matching cards with card carriers. [0004] Credit cards play an important role in today's economy. To receive a credit card, a person typically fills out an application which is processed by a bank that will issue the card. If the application is approved, the card needs to be produced and sent to the requestor. Banks often contract another company to produce and issue cards on their behalf. For example, one such company is First Data Resources (FDR). [0005] To issue a card, the bank sends the information to FDR, typically in electronic form. Using this information a card is embossed and initialized with the appropriate information. The card is then attached to a paper carrier and then placed into an envelope for mailing. Existing equipment for performing such steps are commercially available from Bowe, Augsberg, Germany. Optionally, a second sheet and one or more inserts may also be added prior to placement into the envelope. [0006] Unfortunately, such equipment can be expensive, typically on the order of about $1 million. Further, such machines do not provide sufficient error checking in some cases. Further still, such machines are not designed to work with newer cards (e.g., smart cards). As such, this invention relates to other machines and techniques that may be used to process such media in a more cost effective and efficient manner and operate on new card types. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] Embodiments of the invention thus provide a card reader. The card reader includes a receiving arrangement configured to sequentially receive cards from an upstream process and position the cards to be read. It also includes a first reader configured to read card information from cards a first time and a second reader configured to read card information from cards a second time. The second reader is positioned such that the information is read by the second reader after the information is read by the first reader. The card reader also includes an advancing mechanism configured to advance cards from the receiving arrangement, through the first and second readers, to a downstream process. The card reader also includes a processor programmed to receive card carrier information that identifies at least one card relating to a particular card carrier. The processor also receives card information from the first reader and from the second reader. The processor compares the card information as read by the first reader to the card information as read by the second reader and rejects the card if the card information is inconsistent. The processor also compares the card information as read by either the first or second reader to the card carrier information rejects the card if the card information does not match the card carrier information. Suitable cards include credit cards, stored value cards, smart cards, retailer cards, gift cards and the like. [0008] In some embodiments, the first and second readers comprise mag stripe readers. The card carrier information may be account numbers for each of a plurality of cards relating to the particular card carrier, the card information may be account numbers of cards and the processor may be programmed further to compare the account numbers of the card information to the account numbers of the card carrier information and reject a particular card if the account number of the card information does not match any account number of the plurality of cards relating to the particular card carrier. [0009] In some embodiments, the card reader also includes a writer configured to write information to cards. The writer may be configured to write at least a portion of the card carrier information to cards. The writer may be configured to write at least a portion of the card information to cards. The card writer may be an RF writer configured to write information to smart chips of cards. [0010] In other embodiments, a method of reading cards includes receiving card carrier information relating to a card carrier at a processor, reading card information from a card into the processor a first time, reading card information from the card into the processor a second time, and comparing the card information as read the first time to the card information as read the second time. The method also includes rejecting the card if the card information is inconsistent. The method also includes comparing the card information as read either the first time or the second time to the card carrier information and rejecting the card if the card information does not match the card carrier information. [0011] In still other embodiments, a card reader includes means for reading card information from a card a first time and means for reading card information from the card a second time. The card reader also includes processing means for receiving the card information as read both the first time and the second time, comparing the card information as read the first time to card information as read the second time, and rejecting the card if the card information is inconsistent. The card reader may be configured to advance non-rejected cards to a downstream process in which the cards are mounted to card carriers for mailing to a card recipient. [0012] In still other embodiments, a card reading system includes a card mounting apparatus, a card reading apparatus, and a controller. The card mounting apparatus may be configured to receive card carriers, position two or more card carriers to receive cards, read license plate information from each of the at least two carriers, send the license plate information to a controller, receive cards from the card reader, mount the cards to the card carrier, and advance the at least two card carriers to a downstream process. The controller may be configured to receive the license plate information from the card mounting apparatus and use the license plate information to access card carrier information from a data storage arrangement. The card carrier information may be, for example, an account number of each card to be mounted on each of the at least two card carriers. The controller also may be configured to send at least a portion of the card carrier information to the card reading apparatus. The card reading apparatus may be configured to receive card carrier information from the controller at a processor of the card reading apparatus, read first information, such as an account number, from a card into the processor, read second information, such as an account number, from the card into the processor, compare the first information to the second information, reject the card if the first information does not match the second information, compare the account number of the card to the account numbers of the carrier information, reject the card if the account number of the card does not match any of the account numbers of the card carrier information, and send the card to the card mounting apparatus if the card relates to one of the at least two card carriers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label. [0014] FIGS. 1A and 1B depict simplified schematics of a mail processing systems according to embodiments of the present invention. [0015] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate a card reader according to embodiments of the invention. [0016] FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate methods of reading information from and writing information to cards according to embodiments of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0017] Embodiments of the present invention provide a card reader. The card reader is configured to read information from cards prior to the cards being mounted to a card carrier. In some embodiments the cards are read multiple times and the information from each read is compared, thus providing additional accuracy over conventional readers. In some embodiments, the present invention provides a card reader/writer that, in addition to the card reading functions, writes information to cards. [0018] Having described embodiments of the invention generally, attention is directed to FIG. 1, which depicts a simplified schematic of a mail processing system 100 according to embodiments of the present invention. System 100 includes a series of stations adapted to produce folded mail items oriented in a specific orientation. The mail items may include cards affixed to or otherwise paired with card carriers. Cards processed by system 100 can include credit cards, debit cards, company and stored-value cards, smart cards, phone cards, and the like. Documents processed by system 100 may include a customer billing statement, a new cardholder agreement, a renewal card statement, a card carrier, and the like. Documents also may include a paper insert, such as an advertisement or the like. [0019] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, system 100 includes a printer 110 adapted to print alpha numeric characters on a statement, a sheet of paper, a card carrier, or the like. Printer 110 prints information such as an account number, a customer name and mailing address, a monetary account limit, and the like, and further may print one or more bar codes. In one embodiment, at least one of the bar codes identifies inserts, from a plurality of different inserts, to be sent to a customer. Continue reading about Card reading systems and methods... Full patent description for Card reading systems and methods Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Card reading systems and methods patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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