a magnetic stripe card manual swipe reader unit capable of attaching to and communicating with a conventional personal digital assistant from various manufacturers , using only the electrical power available as supplied by the pda device , and capable of effective electrical power management and conservation operations . additionally , this pda attachable msr unit is capable of recognizing multiple magnetic encoding formats and data record formats and converting said formats to a standardized output format , includes the capability of updating and adding new formats while in field service , and is readily allows verifying card data and encoding sensitive material prior to transmission to the pda . these custom formats can then be used to fulfill current needs in age verification , law enforcement , security , and numerous other applications .