The end-user defines the requirements for the magnetic stripe including the signal amplitude expected, the coercivity of the stripe, the encoding method and the bit density. The card manufacturer uses the first two points to select the type of magnetic material to use. The system designer is concerned with all four of the parameters. explained above, the stripe is made from many small particles bound together in a resin.

A magnetic stripe is the black or brown stripe that you see on your credit card, or maybe the back of your airline ticket or transit card. The stripe is made up of tiny magnetic particles in a resin. The particles are either applied directly to the card or made into a stripe on a plastic backing which is applied to the card. The material used to make the particles defines the Coercivity (see below) of the stripe.

The e-card does not bear the magnetic stripe because it was designed only for Internet and other purchases where physical presentment of the card is not required and for security it cannot be misused at POS machines or ATM machines by anyone.

Track 1 is the first magnetic track on a financial transactional card. It is read-only and recorded at 8.3 bpmm (contents are defined in ISO 7813).

Almost universally, track two will hold the card number, and where used, the card expiry date. What's on the other tracks, if there's anything at all, is totally up to the manufacturer.

When magnetic lines of flux encounter high permeability material, the magnetic forces are both absorbed by the material and redirected away from their target. The most effective shields are constructed as enclosures such as boxes or cylinders with cap ends. The field follows the line of the enclosure so an enclosed shape keeps stray fields from finding gaps that could cause unintended interference.

This is the question we hear most. The answer is, no one really knows for sure. Some doctors believe that the magnetic field affects the iron component of blood, hemoglobin, thereby increasing circulation to the area where magnets are applied. Another theory is that the magnetic field energizes and oxygenates the white corpuscles in the blood stream, and these white corpuscles are natures healing agents. The charged ions increase the blood flow, which provides increased oxygenation to the blood.

Bring your card to Campus Card Services. If we determine that the card is damaged or worn through normal usage, there will be no charge for a replacement. However, there will be a $5 charge if damage is the fault of the cardholder.

Each character that is encoded on the stripe is made of a number of bits. The polarity of the magnetic particles in the stripe are changed to define each bit. Several schemes exist to determine whether each bit is a one or a zero, the most commonly used schemes are F2F (or Aiken BiPhase) and MFM (Modified Frequency Modulation). The ISO/IEC 7811 standards specify F2F encoding. In this encoding, each bit has the same physical length on the stripe.

Everyone uses magnetic stripes. The most visible use is your bank (credit, debit, and ATM) cards, but these are not the only places. Take a look at your Airline Ticket and Boarding pass (ATB) the next time you travel. Many of these are now including magnetic stripes on the cards. Other places include your phone card, your transit (bus or train) ticket, and even your parking lot ticket.

Yes there are. The most commonly quoted standards are the ISO/IEC 7810, 11, 12 and 13 series of standards. These standards are written for the credit and debit card market and so include information on the embossed characters on the cards as well as the track locations and information on the magnetic stripe. ISO/IEC 7811 has six parts with parts two and six specifically about low and high coercivity magnetic stripes.

It is never acceptable for acquirers, merchants, or service providers to retain magnetic stripe data subsequent to transaction authorization. The Visa & MasterCard Operating Regulations prohibit storage of the contents of the magnetic stripe as a unit. Cardholder name, account number, and expiration date may be retained subsequent to transaction authorization, however the data must be encrypted.

The magnetic stripe card standard for financial cards (ie credit and debit cards) allow for three tracks, called, not surprisingly, tracks one, two and three. Track one can contain up to 79 alpha numeric characters, while tracks two and three can contain up to 40 and 107 numeric characters respectively. Note that track one is the only track in the financial card standard that can contain letters - the other tracks can contain numbers only.

Magnetic stripes are not inherently secure. The problem with being easy to manufacture and encode is that it also makes it easy for the crooks to do the same. Several schemes are available for creating a secure encoding on a magnetic stripe, Watermark Magnetics, XSec, Holomagnetics, XiShield, Jitter Enhancement, ValuGard, and MagnaPrint are a few. The contacts for these technologies are listed at the end of the paper.

Magnetic stripes are commonly found on credit cards, access level cards and other cards used in all kinds of applications. (Note: This well-established technology is used in industries with low- to medium-data storage requirements.) Black or Brown Stripes: Magnetic stripe cards are simply PVC cards with either black or brown stripes on them (made up of magnetic particles of resin). Brown stripes are generally low-coercivity (LoCo), while black stripes are high-coercivity (HiCo).