Product: Orion check and card reader
Company: 4Access Communications Co.

What do you think of when you hear the word "partitioning"? The Great Wall of China or ... the Walls of Jericho, which in a classic Clark Gable movie was just a blanket on a clothesline.

When 4Access Communications talks about hard-partitioning its multiapplication reader, think Great Wall. Hard partitioning prevents applications from interfering with each other, according to Orion Product Manager Jeff Feldman.

A terminal with clothesline-style partitioning runs all programs through one interface, and those programs may share a modem and other connections through a single controller.

Loading additional software could interfere with the payments application. "We are a full-blown Linux PC in the body of a terminal. We don't have those issues because of the architecture," Feldman said.

The Orion stand-alone terminal reads checks as well as credit, debit, loyalty, EBT and gift cards. Check 21 capability has just been added. "We have designed it to handle things we don't know about yet," he said.

Its recognition technology integrates magnetic and optical character recognition in real time.

"When a check is scanned, it does the magnetic read and at the same time takes an image of the face of the check, and compares the optical read with the magnetic read to make sure they match," Feldman said.

The Orion verifies that all captured check images and data have been uploaded and stored on the archive and retrieval server before purging them, eliminating the dropped image experience.

The images are available by logging on to a secure Web site from any PC. Along with the payment information, the Orion can transmit performance data from its individual components, including end-of-life warnings.

This allows the ISO to be proactive with equipment deployed in the field, Feldman said.

Driving the machine is a 32-bit, 400-megahertz Intel processor with 128 megabytes of flash memory and 32 megabytes of random access memory. The unit reportedly can store 1,000 images. Up to 512 megabytes of RAM is optional.

The unit creates 300 dots-per-inch images in either black-and-white TIFF or grayscale JPEG formats.

The Orion is multimerchant capable, enabling each location to store images and configure its terminal independently of the chain, but allowing a single download from all terminals.

Communications include two RS-232 ports, two RJ-11 ports for phone lines, one 10BaseT Ethernet port and a USB port. A programmable inkjet cancellation printer is optional.

Peripheral devices such as drivers license readers and biometric scanners can also be integrated with the unit. With Orion's secure data encryption and hard partitioning, you can save your clothesline for Hollywood pin-ups.

4Access Communications Co.
888-306-4222
www.4accesscommunications.com