Transaction Network, Telephones, and Terminals: Transaction Stations

The Transaction I and II telephones are designed to serve as user main station telephones and to automate the procedures of short message, inquiry/response systems when connected to a customer's computer center via the switched telecommunications network. These telephones have been employed in a broad range of financial applications including credit checking, check authorization, account inquiry, teller inquiry, and electronic funds transfer. Other industry applications include inventory control, process control, and personal identification systems. The Transaction telephone transmits short computer inquiries as TOUCH-TONE® signals and receives responses returned as voice or data messages. It provides a means of reading information from plastic cards encoded with a magnetic stripe and a means of manual data entry. Instruction lamps guide the user through the transaction. In general, information needed by the computer in these inquiries includes merchant identification, customer identification, and the nature and amount of the transaction. The merchant and dialing information is generally obtained from a dialing card, while the customer information is obtained from a customer card. The dialing card also contains control information for the Transaction telephone. Where cards are not avail3487