Although impractical, what if? 2 by Randall Munroe has made me think: would it be possible to make a credit card scanner size device (e.g. a calculator) that read punch cards? 

33 minutes ago, VoidPetsBack said:

Although impractical, what if? 2 by Randall Munroe has made me think: would it be possible to make a credit card scanner size device (e.g. a calculator) that read punch cards? 

I don’t see why not. It only needs to be wide enough to fit the card, and long enough to accommodate a row of the holes, and read the rows sequentially 

A credit card reader scans a magnetic strip.  A punched card as of 1970 IBM System 3 below needs an optical row of sensors reader.  And possibly an stepper motor for motion.

To read the punch card, you can use your smartphone's built-in camera, like you do with e.g. QR codes or OCR, and write an app in Java, Kotlin or iOS Swift..

https://www.google.com/search?q=OCR+punch+card

 

Edited January 30, 20241 yr by Sensei

OMG !   It's worse than Vietnam ...

I'm starting to have flashbacks of 'typing' Hollerith punch cards, to solve the energy levels of the Helium atom, circa 1978-79.