JP2000251106A - Paper money counter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a stand alone type paper money counter capable of accurately selecting and counting paper money to be counted from a bundle of paper money where paper money with various denominations whose designs and patterns are very similar are mixed. SOLUTION: A paper money counter l reads the image pattern data and dimension data of a carried paper money P with left and right CCD line sensors 83L and 83R and a pattern discriminating part 105 and a dimension discriminating part 106 respectively discriminate the applicable denominations of the money P. Further, a discriminating part 107 finally decides the denomination of the money P on the basis of these pattern discriminated patterns and dimension discriminated results. Because the paper money is selected on the basis of both the image and dimension patterns, a selection operation can be correctly performed so that the counting operation of a paper money to be counted can be accurately performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stand-alone banknote counter capable of accurately selecting and counting only banknotes to be counted from a mixture of banknotes of different types having very similar designs and pictures. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a stand-alone type banknote counting machine is provided with a banknote mounting portion on which a bundle of banknotes to be counted is mounted, and the banknotes mounted on the banknote mounting portion are formed inside one by one. The bills are sent to the bill transport path, and the authenticity of the bills arranged in the bill transport path is determined by the determination unit for determining the authenticity, the number of the true bills is counted, and the counted bills are sent to the bill discharging unit. It is configured to discharge.

[0003] A stand-alone type banknote counter has a structure in which components are assembled in a small case that is convenient to carry. Therefore, the transport mechanism or the like has a simple structure, and is generally designed to perform only authenticity determination and counting of a single denomination bill, and the accuracy of the authenticity determination mechanism is also very high. Not something.

[0004]

Here, an optical sensor or the like is used for discriminating the authenticity of the conveyed bills, in other words, for selecting whether or not the conveyed bills are bills to be counted. Read the image pattern of the bills conveyed by
It is conceivable to adopt a method in which the banknotes are compared with a master image pattern prepared in advance and the banknotes are authenticated or sorted based on their similarity. However, this method has the following problems.

[0005] That is, among banknotes of different denominations, there are some banknotes whose designs and pictures drawn on their surfaces are very similar. In particular, such a situation is highly likely to occur in the European Community where banknotes in each country are circulated. Furthermore, the possibility that such a situation will occur will be further increased if euro bills are newly circulated in addition to European bills.

[0006] In the case of banknotes having very similar pictures and designs, it is difficult to select banknotes based on the similarity of the image patterns. It can happen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a banknote counting machine capable of reliably performing a counting operation of banknotes to be counted by accurately selecting banknotes having a similar pattern or pattern. It is to propose.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a bill selecting means for selecting whether or not a bill to be conveyed is a bill to be counted. In a bill counter that counts bills determined to be bills to be counted by the bill counter, the bill sorting unit reads image information reading information on an image of a predetermined detection area in the bill being transported, Dimension information reading means for reading information relating to the size of the bill to be performed, and discrimination means for determining whether or not the bill to be conveyed is a bill to be counted based on the reading results by the image information reading means and the dimension information reading means. And characterized in that:

Here, the image information reading means and the dimension information reading means may be optical one-dimensional sensors for reading a light and dark pattern of an image of a bill being conveyed. For example, a reflection type using a CCD line sensor and a transmission type using a line sensor composed of a phototransistor can be used.

[0010] The discriminating means develops the one-dimensional image information read by the one-dimensional sensor into a two-dimensional image pattern, and determines a bill size based on the one-dimensional image information. A pattern storage unit that stores and holds a master image pattern of the detection area in the target banknote, a dimension storage unit that stores and holds dimensional information of the banknote to be counted, the two-dimensional image pattern and the master image pattern A pattern discriminating unit for discriminating the degree of similarity, a size discriminating unit for comparing the bill size discriminated by the signal processing unit with the size information stored and held in the size storing unit, and the pattern discriminating unit and the size discriminating unit. And a determination unit configured to determine whether the bill to be conveyed is a bill to be counted based on the determination result of the unit.

In this case, in order to reduce the amount of processing information, a part of the image pattern of the conveyed bill may be read. For this purpose, a left one-dimensional sensor in which the left edge of the transported bill is included in the detection area and a right one-dimensional sensor in which the right edge of the transported bill is included in the detection area are arranged. Based on the read information of
What is necessary is just to determine the similarity of the image patterns.

When a pair of left and right sensors are arranged, there are four states for transporting banknotes, and a master image pattern corresponding to these states may be stored and held in the pattern storage unit.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a stand-alone banknote counter to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Mechanical Structure) FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a bill counter of this embodiment. Describing with reference to this figure, the banknote counter 1 has a case 4, and a banknote placing section 5 is formed on the front upper portion thereof. The bills placed here are held in a vertically aligned state by a pair of left and right guide plates 6 and 7. An operation surface 8 is arranged on a front portion of the bill placement unit 5, and various operation switches constituting the input unit 9 and a plurality of displays defining the display unit 11 are provided here. The faces are arranged.

At the lower position of the operation surface 8, first and second paper discharge units 12, 13 which are paper money discharge units are arranged in this order from the upper side. A part of the pair of impellers 14 and 15 for discharging bills toward the discharge portion is exposed from the opening of the lower first discharge portion 13.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the bill counter 1. As shown in this figure, inside the case 4 of the banknote counter 1, a banknote transport path from the banknote mounting section 5 to the first and second discharge sections 12 and 13 is formed.
This bill transport path is composed of a plurality of guide plates and a transport belt.

That is, the inclined bottom surface 5 of the bill placement portion 5
a pair of upper and lower guide plates 21 and 22
Defines a transport path portion. A pair of guide plates 23a,
The transport path portion is defined by 23b, and the subsequent portion is defined by guide plates 24 and 25 arranged in a line and a transport belt 26 arranged to face these. I have. The subsequent transport path is bent in a U-shape, and is defined by an arcuate guide plate 27 and a transport belt 26 facing the guide plate 27. The transport path portion following the U-shaped transport path portion is defined by a linear guide plate 28 and a portion of the transport belt 26 stretched linearly to face the guide plate 28.

A sorting guide plate 31 as sorting means is arranged in a portion of the transport path that is continuous with the transport path portion. The sorting guide plate 31 is capable of pivoting up and down around a rotating shaft 31a at a tip end thereof, and is pivoted up and down by driving means such as a solenoid mechanism (not shown). When the sorting guide plate 31 is at the upper turning position (the position indicated by the solid line in the drawing),
The lower arc surface 31b of the sorting guide plate 31 and the arc-shaped guide plate 32 define a transport path portion, through which bills are guided to the second discharge unit 13. On the other hand, when the sorting guide plate 31 is at the lower turning position (the position shown by the imaginary line in the drawing), the upper side surface 31c of the sorting guide plate and the guide plate 33 define a transport path portion, Through this, the bill is guided to the first discharge unit 12.

The transport drive mechanism for transporting the banknotes along the banknote transport path partitioned as described above comprises the following components. A feed roller 4 is provided on the bottom surface 5a of the bill placement portion 5.
1 is arranged. A feed roller 42 that is in contact with the bottom surface 5a is disposed downstream of the feed roller 41, and a transport roller 43 and a guide roller 44 that is in contact with the feed roller 42 are disposed downstream of the feed roller 42. Guide plate 2
A pair of guide rollers 45 and 46 are arranged at the downstream ends of the first and the second 22, respectively. Also, a pair of guide plates 23a, 23b
A pair of guide rollers 47 and 48 are also arranged at the downstream end of. Further, a pair of guide rollers 4
9, 50 are arranged.

A large-diameter transport roller 51 is disposed in a U-shaped transport path formed on the downstream side of the guide rollers 49 and 50. Two guide rollers 52 and 53 are arranged in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the transport roller 51. A pair of guide rollers 54 and 55 are arranged on the downstream side of the U-shaped conveyance path portion, and a pair of guide rollers 56 and 57 are also arranged at a position in front of the sorting guide plate 31 arranged on the downstream side. Have been.

On the other hand, a discharge roller 58 and a guide roller 59 are disposed at a position closer to the first discharge portion 12 than the sorting guide plate 31. Also, the sorting guide plate 31
The discharge roller 6 is located at a position closer to the second discharge portion 13 than the discharge roller 6.
0 and the guide roller 61 are arranged in contact with each other.

Here, the motor 62, which is the drive source of the transport drive mechanism, is located slightly behind and below the impellers 14, 15. A timing belt 64 for transmitting a driving force is stretched over a driving roller 63 attached to an output shaft of the motor 62. The timing belt 64 is guided by a guide roller 61 and a transport roller 4 via a guide roller 65 as indicated by a thick broken line in the drawing.
3, the guide roller 45 and the transport roller 51. An encoding plate 66 with a slit is attached to the motor output shaft.
The drive is controlled based on the rotation of No. 6.

The transport belt 26 has a guide plate 47,
Transport roller 51, discharge roller 58, and guide roller 5
9 and is driven by a motor 62. On the other hand, the pair of impellers 14 and 15 are designed to be driven by separate drive motors 71.

On the other hand, a sensor unit 80 is mounted on the back surface of the guide plate 23b for selecting bills being conveyed (determination of authenticity and denomination). The sensor unit 80 is a reflection type optical sensor unit. The sensor unit 80 includes a light emitting tube arranged in a direction orthogonal to a passing bill and a CCD line sensor (both not shown) arranged in the same direction as the light emitting tube. It is configured. The sensor unit 80 reads image information of a predetermined detection area in a passing bill and dimensional information of the bill.

(Control System) FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a control system of the banknote counter 1 of this embodiment. The control circuit 90, which forms the center of the control system, is formed of, for example, a one-chip microcomputer, and the detection output (image information and dimensional information of the passing bill) output from the sensor unit 80 is A / D.
After being converted, it is input to the control circuit 90. The control circuit 90 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. In the drawing, functional blocks realized under the control of the CPU are shown.

In the discrimination circuit 91, based on the detection output of the sensor unit 80, whether or not the passing bill P is a bill to be counted is discriminated (decision of authenticity and denomination). The counter 92 counts, for each denomination, banknotes that have been classified as banknotes to be counted, in other words, bills to be counted. When it is determined by the determination circuit 91 that the passing banknote P is not a bill to be counted or when it is determined that the banknote P is a counterfeit bill, the drive control circuit 93 transmits the bill P through the motor control circuit 94 based on the determination result. hand,
The motors 62 and 71 are controlled. That is, these motors are stopped at a predetermined timing, and the counting operation of bills is forcibly stopped.

The operation mode setting circuit 95 reads out and sets operation conditions suitable for sorting and counting of designated banknotes from the operation condition storage circuit 96 based on an input command from the input unit 9. The drive control circuit 93 controls each drive portion so as to execute the operation mode set by the operation mode setting circuit 95. The determination result of the determination circuit 91, the counting result of the counter 92, and the like are displayed via the display unit 11.

(Bill Sorting Operation) Next, FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a sorting operation by the discriminating circuit 91 of this embodiment. With reference to this figure, a description will be given of a banknote denomination operation performed by the sensor unit 80 of the banknote counter 1 of the present embodiment.

The discriminating circuit 91 of this embodiment is a buffer memory 10 for developing one-dimensional image information read by a CCD line sensor 83 as a one-dimensional sensor into a two-dimensional image pattern.
1 and a dimension identification unit 102 for determining a bill size based on the one-dimensional image information. Also, a standard image data memory 103 that stores and holds a master image pattern (standard image data) of a detection area (described later) of a bill to be counted, and dimension data that stores and holds dimension data of the bill to be counted. A memory 104 is provided.

The discriminating circuit 91 further includes a pattern discriminating section 105 for discriminating the degree of similarity between the read two-dimensional image pattern and the standard image pattern (master image pattern) and a bill size discriminated by the dimension discriminating section 102. A dimension discriminating unit 106 for comparing with dimension data stored and held in the dimension data memory 104 is provided. In addition, a discriminating unit 107 is provided for discriminating whether or not the passing bill is a bill to be counted based on the discrimination results of these discriminating units 105 and 106.

More specifically, the image data of the passing banknote P is a CCD line sensor 8 which is a one-dimensional optical sensor.
3 and is written and stored in the buffer memory 101 of the discriminating circuit 91 via the A / D converter 84. Since the banknote P is being transported by the banknote transport mechanism, two-dimensional image data is generated on the memory 101. Since each image data is taken in as intensity data of light and dark, the two-dimensional image data represents distribution of light and dark.

The standard image data memory 103 previously stores two-dimensional image data of each denomination imaged under the same conditions. In the pattern determination unit 105, the buffer memory 1
The image data expanded on 01 is searched for from the standard image data to find the one with the closest brightness distribution. As a result, the denomination of the bill based on the image pattern is determined.

Here, a pattern identification method, that is, a method for determining which of the standard image patterns the light / dark distribution pattern of the image data of the conveyed banknote P is closest to can be based on the following calculation. .

Dw = Σ | x−Cw | That is, the absolute value of the difference between the density x of each dot of the photographed banknote image pattern and each dot density Cw of the standard image pattern of denomination w is calculated. For all dots in the area,
The sum dw is calculated. This calculation is performed for each standard image pattern of all denominations. And
Among the obtained dw's, the one whose value is equal to or less than a predetermined value is determined to be the denomination of the target bill.

That is, usually, the one with the minimum value dw is
It is sufficient to judge that the banknote is the denomination of the target banknote.However, if there are banknotes with very similar patterns and designs, similar values can be obtained, so any banknote can be used only with the image pattern. Cannot be determined. For this reason, in this example, a plurality of kinds of applicable denominations can be determined by the image pattern determination.

It is needless to say that the calculation range for such discrimination is desirably the whole area of the bill, but it is preferable to calculate only in a limited range from the viewpoint of calculation speed and memory capacity. . Therefore, in this example, CC
A pair of left and right CCD line sensors 83L and 83R are arranged as the D line sensor 83, and an image including a left corner f and a right corner g of a banknote indicated by oblique lines in the drawing is read.
Calculations are made for these parts.

The CCD line sensor 83L of this embodiment
The 83R also needs to read the vertical and horizontal dimension data of the banknote as described below.
It is set so that the left edge d and the right edge e of the banknote P are included.

Here, in order to minimize the displacement of the detection area (calculation area), after detecting the upper edge c (front edge in the transport direction), the left edge d, and the right edge e of the banknote P, The regions f and g to be calculated (shaded portions in the figure) may be cut out.

When the left and right corners of the bill are used as the detection area, it is necessary to previously store four standard image patterns for each denomination. That is, as the transport mode of the banknote P, there are four types of transport modes that combine the case where the side detected by the sensor 83 is one of the front and rear surfaces and the case where the transport direction is reversed. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare four types of standard image patterns corresponding to these four types of transport modes.

Next, data relating to the left edge d and the right edge e of the bill P is input to the dimension discriminating section 102 of the discriminating circuit 91, and the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the bill P are identified based on these data. The dimension identification information is supplied to the dimension determination unit 106. The dimension discriminating unit 106 compares the dimension data for each denomination stored in advance in the dimension data memory 104 with the supplied dimension data to determine a coin denomination corresponding to the coincident or most similar dimension data. I do. As in the case of image pattern discrimination, two or more types of denominations may be discriminated in size discrimination.

In the discriminating section 107, the pattern discriminating section 105
By comparing the denomination determined by the above and the denomination determined by the dimension determination unit 106, if there is a denomination matching both sides, it is determined whether or not the denomination is a bill to be counted. . If there is no coin denomination, it is determined that the bill to be conveyed is not a bill to be counted immediately.

As described above, in the discriminating circuit 91 of this embodiment, bills are sorted based on the image pattern and dimensions of the bills P to be conveyed. Therefore, the pattern,
Even in the case where banknotes having very similar symbols are mixed, only banknotes to be counted can be reliably selected and counted.

On the other hand, regarding the method of determining the authenticity of a bill,
Since various methods conventionally used can be used as they are, their description is omitted in the above embodiment.

As can be seen from the above description, the designation of the bill to be counted can be input from the operation unit 8. In addition, information on the specifiable bills is stored in the operation condition storage unit 96, and is read from the storage unit 96 in accordance with the input operation mode, and is stored in the discrimination circuit 91.
, And are stored and held in these memories.

On the other hand, the outline of the operation of transporting and sorting bills in the bill counter 1 of this embodiment is as follows. The bill P sent from the bill placement unit 5 to the bill transport path by the feed roller 41 is transported by the transport rollers 43 and the rollers 45, delivered to the transport belt 26, and transported by the transport belt 26. Roller 45 and conveyor belt 26
While passing through the sensor unit 80 disposed between the banknotes, sorting (decision of authenticity and denomination) as to whether or not the banknote P is a banknote to be counted is performed. On the basis of the determination result, the drive control circuit 93 controls the drive mechanism 97 of the sorting guide plate 31.
To drive the sorting guide plate 31 (see FIG. 3). Accordingly, the bills conveyed to the sorting guide plate 31 are discharged by the sorting guide plate 31 toward the corresponding denomination discharging unit 12 or 13.

[0046]

As described above, the bill counter of the present invention is configured to sort bills based on the image pattern and dimensions of bills. Therefore, even in the case where banknotes with very similar patterns and designs are mixed, banknotes to be counted can be reliably selected and accurately counted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a bill counter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic internal configuration diagram illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the bill counter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing an outline of a control system of the bill counter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram for explaining a bill sorting operation of the bill counter of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Banknote counting machine 4 Case 5 Banknote placement part 12, 13 Ejection part 26 Conveying belt 31 Sorting guide plate 64 Timing belt 80 Sensor unit 83, 83L, 83R CCD line sensor 91 Discrimination circuit 92 Counter 101 Buffer memory 102 Dimension identification part 103 Standard image data memory 104 Dimension data memory 105 Pattern discriminator 106 Dimension discriminator 107 Discriminator P Banknote

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 11, 1999 (1999.3.1.
1)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Drawing

[Correction target item name] Fig. 4

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

FIG. 4

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A bill counting device that has bill sorting means for sorting whether or not a bill to be conveyed is a bill to be counted, and counts bills determined by the bill sorting device to be bills to be counted. In the machine, the bill sorting means is an image information reading means for reading image information of a predetermined detection area in a bill to be conveyed, a dimension information reading means for reading dimension information of a bill to be conveyed, and these image information reading And a discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the conveyed bill is a bill to be counted based on the reading result by the means and the dimension information reading means. 2. A bill counting machine according to claim 1, wherein said image information reading means and said dimension information reading means are optical one-dimensional sensors for reading a light and dark pattern of an image of a bill being conveyed. . 3. The signal according to claim 2, wherein the discriminating unit develops the one-dimensional image information read by the one-dimensional sensor into a two-dimensional image pattern and determines a bill size based on the one-dimensional image information. A processing unit, a pattern storage unit that stores and holds a master image pattern of the detection area in the banknote to be counted, a dimension storage unit that stores and holds size information of the banknote to be counted, and the two-dimensional image pattern A pattern discriminating unit for discriminating the degree of similarity between the master image pattern and the master image pattern; a dimension discriminating unit for comparing the bill size discriminated by the signal processing unit with dimension information stored and held in the size storage unit; And a discriminating unit for discriminating whether or not the bill to be conveyed is a bill to be counted based on the discrimination result of the unit and the size discriminating unit. Bill counting machine to be. 4. The one-dimensional sensor according to claim 3, wherein the one-dimensional sensor includes a left-side one-dimensional sensor in which a left edge of a transported bill is included in a detection area and a right-side edge of a transported bill includes in a detection area. A banknote counter characterized by being a right one-dimensional sensor. 5. The banknote counter according to claim 4, wherein the pattern storage unit holds four types of patterns as a master image pattern of the detection area in the banknote to be counted.