Magnetic stripe reader with card swipe information feedback

1. A magnetic card reader module comprising:

a magnetic sensor and an adjacent groove, wherein the magnetic sensor picks up an analog magnetic signal generated by swiping a magnetic stripe through the groove, and wherein the magnetic stripe is attached to a card and comprises tracks with magnetically encoded data;

a microcontroller to convert the analog magnetic signal into a digital signal; and

an application to

analyze the digital signal,

decode the digital signal, and

generate an output comprising the magnetically encoded data and card swipe information feedback.

2. A method for reading data encoded in a magnetic stripe comprising:

providing a magnetic card reader comprising a magnetic sensor and an adjacent groove,;

picking up, by the magnetic sensor, an analog magnetic signal generated by swiping a magnetic stripe through the groove, wherein the magnetic stripe is attached to a card and comprises tracks with magnetically encoded data;

converting, using a microcontroller, the analog magnetic signal into a digital signal;

analyzing, using the microcontroller, the digital signal;

decoding, using the microcontroller, the digital signal; and

generating, using the microcontroller, an output comprising the magnetically encoded data and card swipe information feedback.

3. A method for reading data encoded in a magnetic stripe comprising:

providing a magnetic card reader comprising a magnetic sensor and an adjacent groove,;

picking up, by the magnetic sensor, an analog magnetic signal generated by swiping a magnetic stripe through the groove, wherein the magnetic stripe is attached to a card and comprises tracks with magnetically encoded data;

converting, using a microcontroller, the analog magnetic signal into a digital signal;

analyzing, using an application, the digital signal;

decoding, using the application, the digital signal; and

generating, using the application, an output comprising the magnetically encoded data and card swipe information feedback.

4. A magnetic card reader module, comprising:

a magnetic sensor and an adjacent groove,

the magnetic sensor interfaceable with a card having a magnetic stripe attached thereto, the magnetic stripe including the tracks with magnetically encoded data,

wherein the magnetic sensor picks up an analog magnetic signal generated by swiping a magnetic stripe through the groove;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to convert the analog magnetic signal into a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises:

a plurality of edges, and

a plurality of spacings between the plurality of edges; and

a microcontroller to:

analyze the digital signal,

decode the digital signal, wherein the decoding comprises a soft-decision decode of the digital signal, and

generate an output comprising the magnetically encoded data and card swipe information feedback, wherein the card swipe information feedback is based on one or more of the plurality of spacings.

5. The module of claim 4, further comprising an amplifier and a rectification circuit and wherein the analog magnetic signal is amplified by the amplifier and rectified by the rectification circuit.

6. The module of claim 5, wherein the one or more of the plurality of spacings comprise at least one spacing between at least one of a pair of rising edges or a pair of falling edges corresponding to two consecutive rectified pulses,

wherein the microcontroller comprises an application,

wherein the application comprises an edge detection decoding algorithm to determine the at least one spacing, and

wherein one or more soft decision parameters are based on the determined at least one spacing.

7. The module of claim 6, wherein the determined at least one spacing is used to determine a speed of the swiping of the magnetic card.

8. The module of claim 7, wherein the determining of the speed of the swiping is based on a comparison of heights of the two consecutive rectified pulses to the determined at least one spacing.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the digital signal comprises:

a plurality of edges; and

a plurality of spacings between the plurality of edges,

wherein the decoding is based on a soft-decision, and

wherein the card swipe information feedback is based on one or more of the plurality of spacings.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by the microcontroller, a speed of the magnetic stripe swiping; and

providing, by the microcontroller, magnetic stripe swipe diagnostic information.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising amplifying the analog magnetic signal by an amplifier, and

wherein the converting is performed using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the decoding is based on a soft-decision, and the decoding comprises:

determining positions of peaks in the digital signal; and

determining one or more spacings between consecutive peaks,

wherein one or more soft decision parameters are based on the determined one or more spacings.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining, by the microcontroller, a speed of the magnetic stripe swiping; and

providing, by the microcontroller, magnetic stripe swipe diagnostic information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the magnetic stripe swipe diagnostic information comprises a graphical plot of the speed of magnetic stripe swiping versus time.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein the digital signal comprises:

a plurality of edges; and

a plurality of spacings between the plurality of edges,

wherein the decoding is a soft-decision decoding, and

wherein the card swipe information feedback is based on one or more of the plurality of spacings.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the output comprises side information.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing at least some portion of the side information to a user of the magnetic card reader.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the magnetically encoded data comprises an error detecting code.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the error detecting code comprises a parity bit for each encoded character.

20. The module of claim 4, wherein the ADC is an external circuit.

21. The module of claim 4, wherein the ADC is part of the microcontroller.