Using Read-a-Card as a keyboard wedge

One of the challenges of introducing contactless cards and RFID tag technology to identify users or assets is how to make this work with existing software that might only be designed to accept data typed in by a user.

The same challenge applied to older systems that used barcodes for identification, and the solution that emerged was the 'keyboard wedge' – generally a barcode scanner fed the data into a PC through a special keyboard connector to make it appear as though it was being typed by a user.

As a result, many software applications expect data to be provided automatically in this manner, while in the case of RFID readers, most standard USB devices do not emulate a keyboard, but appear as a smart card reader device, which must be individually controlled through software.

Read-a-Card solves this problem by enabling standard desktop RFID readers to be utilised in keyboard wedge mode on any Windows-based PC. In this mode, Read-a-Card 'types' the card ID into the existing application's window, as though it had been entered via the keyboard. Additionally, Read-a-Card's advanced keyboard format feature provides a simple means of software automation: you can tell Read-a-Card which keys it should press in order to drive your existing software through its menus and dialog fields and to insert the card ID (and possibly other information). Once set up to do this, Read-a-Card will do it automatically every time a card or tag is presented, while the configuration can be easily 'locked' to enable reliable operation in the field.