Communicate my applicaction with other hardware devices.

[Georgen]

Im designing/developing this system where the security is very important. There is an operator that allows different users enter their passwords so the operator can do stuff with their accounts. This can be a system for many different projects. The problem is, Im not going to provide a second keyboard for the user to type its password, since it is the only thing he/she needs to do. Instead I want to use a hardware device that is like a small KeyPad (like those used in credit card transactions). Now...

How can I program such device?
Does the vendor of those things provides APIs for program it?
What if I had one (I dont right now) and connect it to my Pc, will Windows generate MESSAGES for it?

Any suggestions or ideas...

 

[Georgen]

... I just realized it was a sstupid Idea because.. what if the user password contains alphabet characters... (well anyway)... Id like to have some info on the subject. Is there a MsComm control in .NET or any similar?

In short, I wont do the keypad now, but how can I solve the problem I just mentioned... what about second keyboard? has anybody ever programmed two keyboards at the same time? can it be done?

So many questions... any answer or whatever suggestions is ok!! thanks!!

 

[penfold69]

Why not look at a swipe-card solution?

You can pick up card readers, or keyboards with built-in card readers. You can then access them using the relevant SDK (provided by the hardware vendor)

B.

 

[Georgen]

Oh... ???, wow thats what i was looking for, can you tell me more? I will do a search in Google anyway! but can you give me more information. That solution would be so fancy for my project!!