JP6577909B2 - Media identification device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a medium identification device, and more particularly to an opening / closing mechanism for an image pickup unit provided in the medium identification device.

  Conventionally, in a device that transports a medium such as coins and images with a camera, the camera opens and closes in order to remove transported objects such as coins and foreign matters that have accumulated on the transport path and to remove dirt on the glass surface of the camera. Equipped with an open / close mechanism. In the opening / closing mechanism, it is necessary to confirm that the opening / closing mechanism is closed before the device operates, and a dedicated detection sensor is mounted only to confirm that the opening / closing mechanism is closed (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2013-101467 A

  In Patent Document 1, the open / close state of the open / close mechanism is detected by a dedicated sensor. However, since a dedicated sensor is provided in the opening / closing mechanism, the number of parts required for the opening / closing mechanism increases, which may increase the complexity and increase the failure rate and increase the cost. It was.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and provides a medium identification device capable of suppressing costs without increasing the number of components and increasing the occurrence rate of defects as compared with the conventional technology. The purpose is to do.

  In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, a medium identification device according to the present invention is a medium identification device for identifying a medium, and a lower mechanism provided with a conveyance path for conveying the medium; An imaging unit for imaging the medium is provided, and the gain of the imaging unit is determined based on an upper mechanism that is connected to the lower mechanism so as to be opened and closed, and an instruction for confirming an open / closed state of the medium identification device received from a host device. A control unit that determines an open / closed state of the medium identification device by determining whether or not a guide for a conveyance path is included in the obtained captured image. It is comprised as a medium identification device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress the cost without increasing the number of parts as compared with the related art and without increasing the defect occurrence rate.

Configuration diagram of conventional coin identification device The figure which shows a mode when the conventional coin identification device will be in an open state. The block diagram of the coin identification device in a present Example The figure which shows an example when the camera unit of the coin identification device in a present Example images a medium. Image of camera at the time of imaging without a medium in a conventional coin identification device Opening and closing camera image diagram with a conventional coin identification device Camera image when opening and closing with camera gain up or light source light up Camera image when the camera gain is increased or the amount of light source is increased and the lens is not fully closed

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, an opening / closing mechanism provided in a coin identifying device that handles coins is described as an example. However, the present invention can be applied not only to coins but also to devices that handle various media.

  First, a conventional example will be described. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a coin identification device in a conventional example. As shown in FIG. 1, in a conventional coin discriminating apparatus, a camera unit C that images a medium such as a coin that is transported on a transport path T, an upper mechanism X1 of a coin discriminating apparatus that includes the camera unit C, and a coin discriminating apparatus. A lock mechanism L that locks the opening and closing of the lower mechanism X2 and an open / close sensor S for detecting the open / closed state of the lock mechanism L are provided. The camera unit C includes a lens unit P for imaging the medium transported on the transport surface of the transport path T. The open / close sensor S is a light shielding sensor that detects light shielding by the lock mechanism L, for example.

  In the above coin identification device, there are cases where coins or foreign matters staying on the transport path T are removed, or dirt on the glass surface of the lens portion P of the camera unit C is removed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, it is necessary to open the mechanism X1 in the A direction with the axis X11 as a fulcrum. At this time, the lock mechanism L is removed from the hook portion X21. At this time, since the sensor S is not shielded by the lock mechanism L, the sensor S can detect that the upper mechanism X1 is in a buying state. However, the sensor S must be provided only to detect the opening and closing of the upper mechanism X1, and the occurrence rate of defects due to securing of installation space, an increase in cost, and an increase in the number of parts will increase.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the coin identification device is configured as shown in FIG. That is, the coin identifying apparatus 101 in this embodiment includes a camera unit 103 that captures an image of a medium such as a coin conveyed on the conveyance path T, an upper mechanism 1011 of the coin identifying apparatus 101 including the camera unit 103, and the coin identifying apparatus 101. A lock mechanism 102 that locks the opening and closing of the lower mechanism 1012 is provided. The open / close sensor S provided in the conventional example is not provided. The camera unit 103 includes a lens unit 1031 for imaging the medium transported on the transport surface of the transport path T, and a control unit 1032 that is an IC chip that controls the operation of the camera unit 103. Yes. As shown in FIG. 2, the lower mechanism 1012 is provided with a transport path T for transporting coins, while the upper mechanism 1011 is provided with a camera unit 103 and is connected to the lower mechanism 1012 so as to be opened and closed. As will be described later, the control unit 1032 increases the gain of the camera unit 103 in accordance with an instruction for checking the open / closed state of the coin identification device received from a host device such as an ATM (Automated Teller Machine), and obtains an image. By determining whether or not the picked-up image includes the transport path guide G of the transport path T, the open / close state of the coin identifying device is determined.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example when the camera unit 103 of the coin identifying apparatus 101 in the present embodiment images the medium. As shown in the left part of FIG. 4, when a medium A such as a coin is imaged by the camera unit 103, the medium A in the camera imaging range R, the transport path T, and the medium A transported through the transport path T This is an image of the conveyance path guide G that guides the conveyance destination. However, as shown in the right part of FIG. 4, in the camera captured image I at that time, the conveyance path guide G is not distinguished from the conveyance path T, and only the medium A is imaged. The control unit 1032 identifies the medium A using this image. This also applies to the conventional apparatus.

  In the conventional apparatus, when imaging is performed with the camera unit 103 in the absence of the medium A such as coins, the conveyance path T and the conveyance path guide G in the camera imaging range R are imaged as shown in FIG. However, like the camera captured image I, nothing is captured. That is, when the medium A is not transported on the transport path T, the transport path guide G and the Hanst T are not distinguished from each other in the camera captured image, and a uniformly dark camera captured image is obtained.

  This is because, as shown in FIG. 6, when the upper mechanism X1 is opened, the camera-captured image I1 when opened and when the upper mechanism X1 is closed when the upper mechanism X1 is closed. The same applies to any of the camera-captured images I2, and the camera-captured image cannot be captured separately for each of the transport path T and the transport path guide G. Therefore, it cannot be detected whether the upper mechanism X1 is in the open state or the closed state.

  However, in this embodiment, only when the open / close state of the upper mechanism X1 is confirmed, the control unit 1032 changes the setting value of the analog amplifier or the digital amplifier included in the camera unit C to increase the gain of the camera unit C. A camera-captured image that can distinguish the transport path T and the transport path guide G can be obtained. Specifically, the control unit 1032 has received an instruction to execute processing for confirming the open / closed state of the coin identifying device 101 (for example, the upper mechanism X1 is closed) from a higher-level device such as ATM. In this case, the coin identification device is in an open state or closed by determining whether or not the conveyance path guide G is included in the obtained camera captured image by increasing the gain of the camera unit C. Determine if it is in a state.

  In the case of an analog amplifier, the gain can be finely increased by an analog value, whereas in the case of a digital amplifier, the gain can be roughly increased by a digital value. Switch appropriately according to the environment in which the coin identification device is installed (for example, the brightness in the ATM device as the host device) and the environment in the coin identification device (for example, the brightness when the upper mechanism is closed). You may do it.

  The degree to which the gain is increased may be determined so that the transport path guide G can be distinguished from the transport path T when the upper mechanism X1 is closed in advance. In order to make it possible to discriminate between the conveyance path guide G and the conveyance path T, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, at the edge portion of the conveyance path guide G that is distinguishable from the conveyance path T on the camera captured image. It is sufficient that the shadow of a certain conveyance path guide edge E can be obtained.

  As shown in the left part of FIG. 7, the control unit 1032 performs the above-described control so that the conveyance path T and the conveyance path guide G that are in the camera imaging range R but are not captured in the dark are visible. When the upper mechanism X1 is in the closed state, the conveyance path T appears in gray in the closed camera captured image I11, and the conveyance path guide G is imaged with the conveyance path guide edge E as a black shadow. Further, when the upper mechanism X1 is in the open state, as shown in the right part of FIG. 7, the transport path T and the transport path guide G are captured without distinction as in the open camera captured image I21. It is possible to detect the open / closed state from the camera-captured image without showing anything. Therefore, the open / closed state of the coin identifying device can be detected without mounting a dedicated open / close detection sensor in the coin identifying device as in the conventional device. 7 shows a case where the upper mechanism X1 is in an open state to the extent that the light of the camera unit C provided in the upper mechanism X1 does not reach the transport surface of the transport path T.

  In addition, when the upper mechanism X is not completely closed, as shown in FIG. 8, the non-closed camera captured image I11 ′, which is a camera captured image when the upper mechanism X1 is brought into the non-fully closed state. It is possible to detect that the conveyance path guide edge E ′ shown in FIG. 2 is not completely closed because the conveyance path guide edges E ′ are not parallel to each other but are shaded black. In the example shown in FIG. 8, since the upper mechanism X1 is in a non-completely closed state with the axis X11 provided on the left side as viewed in the drawing as a fulcrum, the transport path in which the optical axis of the camera unit C is the imaging surface It can be seen that the two conveyance path guide edges E ′ are not parallel to the right side of the drawing on the side opposite to the axis X11 and are slightly open, not perpendicular to the conveyance surface of T. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the control unit 1032 analyzes the camera captured image, determines whether or not the two conveyance path guide edges are parallel, and determines that both are parallel. In this case, it can be detected that the upper mechanism X1 is in the closed state, while it can be detected that the upper mechanism X1 is in the incompletely closed state when it is determined that both are not parallel. In addition, when the control unit 1032 analyzes the camera captured image and determines whether or not the shadows of the two transport path guide edges are included, it determines that the shadows of the two transport path guide edges are not included. It is possible to detect that the upper mechanism X1 is in the open state.

In this embodiment, only when confirming the open / closed state of the coin discriminating apparatus, by increasing the lighting time of the light source provided in the camera unit C at the time of imaging, the amount of light is increased and the imaging range is brightened. By making the conveyance path T and the conveyance path guide G that are in the range R but dark and not visible, as shown in FIG. 7, the conveyance path T appears in gray in the closed camera captured image I11, The conveyance path guide edge E of the conveyance path guide G is imaged as a black shadow.
Similarly, it is possible to obtain an opened camera captured image I21 and a non-closed camera captured image I11 ′.

  As described above, in the first and second embodiments, whether or not the coin identification device is opened or closed is determined by using a camera image without mounting an open / close detection or tilt detection sensor. Costs can be suppressed without increasing the number of points and without increasing the failure rate. Specifically, only when checking the open / closed state, change the setting value of the analog amplifier or digital amplifier provided in the camera unit to increase the camera gain, or lengthen the light source lighting time during imaging By increasing the number, it is possible to obtain a camera-captured image in which the medium conveyance path and the medium conveyance path guide that are dark and not captured are obtained, analyze the image, and confirm the open / closed state of the coin identification device.

  In addition, you may implement combining the part or all structure of the effect identification device in the said Example 1 and the coin identification device in Example 2 suitably. For example, a coin identification device is installed between the control method of the control unit (control to increase the gain of the camera unit) in the first embodiment and the control method of the control unit (control to increase the lighting time of the light source) in the second embodiment. Depending on the environment (for example, the brightness in the ATM device as the host device) and the environment in the coin identification device (for example, the brightness when the upper mechanism is closed), or a combination of these Also good.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Coin identification apparatus 1011 Upper mechanism 1012 Lower mechanism 102 Opening / closing lock mechanism 103 Camera unit 1031 Lens part 1032 Control part T Medium conveyance path A Coin medium R Camera imaging range G Conveyance path guide E, E 'Conveyance path guide edge

Claims (6)

A medium identification device for identifying a medium,
A lower mechanism provided with a conveyance path for conveying the medium;
An upper part mechanism provided with an image pickup unit for picking up an image of the medium and connected to the lower part mechanism so as to be opened and closed;
Based on an instruction received from a host device to confirm the open / closed state of the medium identifying device, the gain of the imaging unit is increased to capture an image, and whether the obtained captured image includes a guide for the conveyance path or not By determining the open / closed state of the medium identification device,
A medium identification device comprising: The control unit captures an image by increasing a gain of the imaging unit by changing a setting value of an analog amplifier provided in the imaging unit.
The medium identification device according to claim 1, wherein: The control unit picks up an image by increasing the gain of the imaging unit by changing a setting value of a digital amplifier provided in the imaging unit.
The medium identification device according to claim 1, wherein: The control unit switches between an analog amplifier provided in the imaging unit and a digital amplifier provided in the imaging unit according to an environment in the medium identification device.
The medium identification device according to claim 1, wherein: Based on the instruction, the control unit obtains an image by increasing the amount of light by increasing the lighting time of the light source provided in the imaging unit instead of controlling to increase the gain of the imaging unit. Determining whether the medium identification device is open or closed by determining whether or not the captured image includes a guide for a conveyance path;
The medium identification device according to claim 1, wherein: The control unit performs control for increasing the gain of the imaging unit based on the instruction and control for increasing the amount of light by increasing the lighting time of a light source provided in the imaging unit. Switch according to the environment,
The medium identification device according to claim 1, wherein:

Images