JPH0438035B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a toll collection device for a toll road or the like using a cashless system, and more particularly to an improvement in means for preventing unauthorized use of fixed price tickets.

[Conventional technology]

Currently, cashless systems are being introduced or planned for toll collection systems for toll roads. This cashless system is divided into two types: an advance payment system and a deferred payment system, and the former is generally a fixed price ticket system. This fixed-rate ticket system requires toll road users to purchase a fixed-rate ticket in advance at a toll gate, etc., and when using the toll road, submit the fixed-rate ticket together with the toll ticket to the toll collector at the exit of the toll gate. On the other hand, the toll collector processes the fixed-rate ticket through a fixed-rate ticket processing device. In the above-mentioned fixed-rate ticket processing device, the remaining amount is printed in the remaining amount printing column of the fixed-rate ticket, and the toll collector returns the above-mentioned fixed-rate ticket to the user after printing the remaining amount. . Thus, the user returns the fixed price ticket. In this way, the user can travel on the toll road until the remaining amount on the fixed price ticket becomes zero.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As described above, the fixed price ticket is a cash ticket, and it is necessary to absolutely prevent unauthorized use due to forgery or alteration, compared to a normal pass ticket. In other words, it is necessary that the fixed-rate ticket is difficult to forge and that even if it is forged, it can be easily detected.

In conventional cash vouchers, that is, cashless cards, as a means of preventing unauthorized use, there are cards that have punch holes punched at predetermined positions each time the card is used so that the number of times the card has been used can be seen at a glance.
However, this unauthorized use prevention means is effective when the amount is relatively small and when the number of times of use is small, and problems arose when applied to flat rate tickets for cashless systems on toll roads. In addition, the card becomes full of holes and looks unsightly, giving a negative image to the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toll collection device that can accurately detect forgery, alteration, etc. of flat rate tickets and prevent unauthorized use.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention is characterized by taking the following measures in order to solve the above problems and achieve the objects. In other words, a fixed price ticket is used in which a magnetic recording layer is provided on one side of the card substrate and a thermal printing layer is provided on the other surface, and data regarding the fixed price ticket is magnetically recorded in the magnetic recording layer of the fixed price ticket each time the fixed price ticket is used. At the same time, it is determined whether or not data is not printed in the printing field corresponding to the number of uses provided on the heat-sensitive printing layer of the fixed-rate ticket, based on the level of reflected light at the optical sensor for checking for non-printing. If it is determined that there is no printing in the printed field, predetermined data is thermally printed in this printing field, and then reflected light from the printed optical sensor is used to check whether or not thermal printing has been performed in the specified printing field. If it is determined that the specified printing field has been printed, or if it is determined that thermal printing has not been performed in the specified printing field, it is determined that the fixed-rate ticket is fraudulent. It is a feature.

[Effect]

By taking such measures, if data is printed in the printing field corresponding to the number of uses, or if thermal printing is not performed, the fixed-rate ticket is determined to be fraudulent.

〔Example〕

Figures 1a to 1c show a fixed price ticket 10 applied to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view, a top view, and a bottom view showing an example. The fixed price ticket 10 has a card board 11 as shown in FIG.
It has a structure in which a magnetic recording layer 12 and a printing layer 13 are provided on the front side with the magnetic recording layer 12 sandwiched therebetween, and a thermal printing layer 14 is provided on the back side. The surface of the fixed price ticket 10 is printed with arbitrary designs and characters, as shown in FIG. The back side of the fixed-rate ticket 10, as shown in FIG. A printing field (hereinafter referred to as printing block) 17 corresponding to the number of times of use is provided, and data such as the remaining amount is thermally printed on this printing block 17 each time the fixed-rate ticket is used.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a fixed-rate ticket processing device installed in a toll gate booth of a toll road, etc., which transports the fixed-rate ticket 10 inserted through a fixed-rate ticket insertion slot 21 by a transport mechanism (not shown), and After the processing, the fixed-rate ticket is discharged from the fixed-rate ticket discharge port 22. In addition, the above fixed price ticket insertion slot 2
1 and the discharge port 22 may be used in common.

Reference numeral 23 denotes a magnetic reproducing section, which reads magnetic data such as the effective amount and the number of times of use, which are magnetically recorded on the magnetic recording layer 12 of the fixed price ticket 10. 24 is a magnetic recording section, and the magnetic recording layer records the remaining amount after subtracting the usage amount such as tolls from the effective amount read by the magnetic reproducing section 23, that is, the effective amount for the next use, or the updated number of uses, etc. 12. Reference numeral 25 denotes a non-printing determination section consisting of an optical sensor, which determines whether data such as the remaining amount is printed on a predetermined printing block 17 corresponding to the number of times of use on the back side of the fixed price ticket 10.
If it has already been printed, it is considered that there is a fraudulent flat rate ticket. On the other hand, if the non-printing determining unit 25 determines that no data is printed in the predetermined printing block 17, that is, if it is determined that the fixed-rate ticket is a normal fixed-rate ticket, a thermal print head consisting of a thermal print head The unit 26 prints data such as the remaining amount on the printing block 17. Reference numeral 27 denotes a printing completion determination section consisting of an optical sensor, which determines whether or not data has been thermally printed on a predetermined printing block 17 in the thermal printing section 26, and if it is determined that data has not been thermally printed. If the fixed price ticket is fraudulent, it is considered to be a fraudulent fixed price ticket.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of the fixed-rate ticket transport mechanism and each processing mechanism in the fixed-rate ticket processing device 20.
31a to 31d are conveyor belts, which are driven by a stepping motor 32 through a timing belt 33 and a gear G in forward and reverse rotation. 3
4 to 37 are fixed price ticket position detection sensors, which detect the position of the fixed price ticket 10 that is conveyed in the forward direction (solid line arrow in the figure) and the reverse direction (broken line arrow in the figure) by the conveyor belts 31a to 31d. do. In addition, 2
3a is a magnetic data reading head, 24a is a magnetic data writing head, 25a is an optical sensor for checking unprinted characters, 26a is a thermal print head, 27
a is a printed check optical sensor.

Next, the operation of this device will be explained. When the flat rate ticket 10 is inserted from the flat rate ticket insertion slot 21, the insertion of the flat rate ticket 10 is detected by the position detection sensor 34,
The stepping motor 32 is driven in normal rotation. Then, the fixed price ticket 10 is conveyed in the direction of the solid line arrow in FIG. When the fixed-rate ticket 10 is detected by the position detection sensor 35, the magnetic data reading head 23a in the magnetic reproducing section 23 reads the fixed-rate ticket 10.
Magnetic data (valid amount, number of uses, etc.) magnetically recorded on the magnetic recording layer 12 of 0 is read. Thereafter, when the fixed-rate ticket 10 is detected by the position detection sensor 37, the stepping motor 32 is driven in reverse, and the fixed-rate ticket 10 is conveyed in the direction of the broken line arrow in FIG. Then, the fixed price ticket 1 is detected by the position detection sensor 36.
If 0 is detected, the remaining amount obtained by subtracting the usage amount from the effective amount read by the magnetic reproducing section 23,
The updated magnetic data such as the number of uses is stored in the magnetic data writing head 24a in the magnetic recording section 24.
is written into a predetermined position of the magnetic recording layer 12.
Next, based on the point in time when the fixed-rate ticket 10 passes the position detection sensor 35, when a predetermined print block 17 corresponding to the number of times of use on the back side of the fixed-rate ticket 10 reaches the optical sensor 25a of the unprinted character determining section 25, a light is emitted. By reflection, it is determined whether or not this print block 17 is unprinted. Here, print block 17
has already been printed, it is determined that the fixed-rate ticket is a fraudulent fixed-rate ticket that has been altered by, for example, transferring magnetic data from a used fixed-rate ticket immediately after it was issued.
This is notified by a notifying means (not shown). On the other hand, if the printing block 17 is not printed, it is determined that the fixed-rate ticket is normal, and the thermal printing section 2
When the print head 26a reaches the print head 26a at step 6, the remaining amount, etc. is thermally printed on the printing block 17. Next, the above printing block 1
7 reaches the optical sensor 27a of the printed determination section 27, it is determined by light reflection whether or not thermal printing has been performed. Here, if there is no thermal printing, the fixed-rate ticket is determined to be a fraudulent fixed-rate ticket made by modifying an ordinary paper or plastic card that does not have the thermal printing layer 14, and a notification means (not shown) informs that fact. is reported. On the other hand, if thermal printing is detected, the fixed price ticket 10 is discharged from the fixed price ticket discharge port 22. At this time, the stepping motor 32 stops when the fixed price ticket 10 is detected by the position detection sensor 14.

According to this embodiment, each time the fixed-rate ticket 10 is used, a predetermined print block 17 corresponding to the number of times of use on the back of the fixed-rate ticket 10 is checked for unprinted characters, and then the remaining amount, etc. is displayed in this print block 17. Since it is thermally printed, for example, even if a fraudulent fixed-rate ticket is tampered with by transferring the magnetic data of a used fixed-rate ticket to the magnetic data of the initial state (issued state), the non-printing determination unit 25 will not can be detected. Further, since printing is performed on the printing block portion 17 by thermal printing, the printing will not be performed on fraudulent fixed-rate tickets forged using ordinary paper or plastic cards that do not have the thermal printing layer 14. Therefore, this type of fraudulent fixed-rate ticket is printed by the printed determination unit 27.
It can be detected by In addition, 10 fixed price tickets
Even if data such as the remaining amount printed on the print block section 17 of the printer is erased or erased, the print block section 17 will not be printed by the thermal print section 26 because the thermal print layer 14 has been scraped off with it. Not done. Therefore, it is detected that the flat rate ticket is fraudulent.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the embodiment described above, a case has been described in which the present invention is applied to a cashless system for toll roads, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to other cashless systems.
It goes without saying that various other modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, the present invention uses a fixed price ticket in which a magnetic recording layer is provided on one side of a card substrate and a thermal printing layer is provided on the other surface, and data related to the fixed price ticket is stored in the magnetic recording layer of the fixed price ticket. is magnetically recorded each time the fixed-rate ticket is used, and the reflected light on an optical sensor for checking whether data is unprinted is detected in the printing column corresponding to the number of uses provided on the thermal printing layer of the fixed-rate ticket. Judgment is made based on the level, and if it is determined that a predetermined printing field has not been printed, the predetermined data is thermally printed in this printing field, and then whether or not thermal printing has been performed is printed in the specified printing field. When it is determined that a predetermined printing field has been printed, or when it is determined that thermal printing has not been performed on a predetermined printing field. This is a fraudulent flat rate ticket.

Therefore, according to the present invention, if data is printed in the printing field corresponding to the number of uses, and if thermal printing is not performed, it is determined that the fixed-rate ticket is fraudulent. It is possible to provide a toll collection device that can accurately detect charges and prevent unauthorized use.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1a, b, c to 3 are views showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 1a to c are sectional views, top views, and bottom views showing an example of the structure of a fixed price ticket, Second
The figure is a block diagram showing the configuration, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of the flat rate ticket transport mechanism and each processing mechanism. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Fixed price ticket, 11... Card substrate, 12... Magnetic recording layer, 13... Printing layer, 14... Thermal printing layer, 17
...Printing block (printing field), 20...Fixed price ticket processing device, 21...Fixed price ticket insertion slot, 22...Fixed price ticket ejection port,
23... Magnetic reproducing section, 24... Magnetic recording section, 25... Unprinted determining section, 26... Thermal printing section, 27... Printed determining section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flat rate ticket having a magnetic recording layer on one side of a card substrate and a thermal printing layer on the other side;
a magnetic recording means for magnetically recording data regarding the fixed price ticket on the magnetic recording layer of the fixed price ticket each time the fixed price ticket is used;
non-printing determination means for determining whether data is not printed in a printing column corresponding to the number of uses provided on the thermal printing layer of the fixed price ticket, based on the level of reflected light from an optical sensor for checking non-printing; a thermal printing means for thermally printing predetermined data in the printing field when the non-printing determination means determines that the predetermined printing field is not printed; and a printed determination means for determining whether or not the printing has been performed based on the level of reflected light from the printed check optical sensor, and the unprinted determination means determines that a predetermined printing field has been printed. or when the printing completion determining means determines that thermal printing has not been performed in a predetermined printing field, the flat rate ticket is determined to be fraudulent.