COMBINED MAGNETIC OPTICAL CHARACTER READER

A system and method for character recognition in which each of a plurality of characters is recognized both magnetically and optically. If the magnetic reader fails to recognize a character while the optical reader is successful in recognizing it, a character identification signal corresponding to the character recognized by the optical reader is generated while if the optical reader fails to recognize a character and the magnetic reader is successful in recognizing it, an identification signal corresponding to the character recognized by the magnetic reader is generated. Where the magnetic and optical readers provide signals indicative of different characters while attempting to read the same character, depending on the parameters of the system an identification signal corresponding to one or the other recognition signals, or a reject signal is generated.