Input Devices : MICR

The Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) system reads characters printed in a special magnetic ink into the computer. The main users of MICR are banks. They use it to read information from cheques into their computers so that the cheques can be cashed. Here is some information stored on a cheque using MICR :

The information printed on the cheque using MICR is :

• A unique number for the cheque.
• A code that identifies the bank and branch that issued the cheque (the sort code).
• The number of the account that the cheque relates to.

MICR readers can only read one special font which can represent only numbers and a few punctuation marks. They can read characters very quickly and with 100% accuracy. Information printed in magnetic ink is also very secure. It is not possible to change the information by writing over it with a pen and the printed numbers are not damaged by folding (as often happens with cheques). Both the reader used by MICR and the special ink are expensive.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004