In [[Communication]]s and [[Computing cloud|computing]] a '''machine-readable medium''' ('''automated data medium''') is a [[Recording medium|medium]] capable of storing [[Data (computing)|data]] in a format readable by a mechanical device (rather than [[human readable]]).
Examples of machine-readable media include magnetic media such as [[Disk storage|magnetic disk]]s, cards, [[magnetic tape|tapes]], and [[magnetic drum|drums]], [[punched card]]s and [[paper tape]]s, [[optical disc]]s, [[barcode]]s and [[Magnetic Ink Character Recognition|magnetic ink characters]].
