JPH0319992B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to coin processing machines such as coin counting machines, sorting/counting machines, and deposit/withdrawal machines used in financial institutions such as banks, supermarkets, department stores, etc., or automatic change replenishing machines. This invention relates to a detection device for circular objects such as coins, which detects dirt on the surface of coins in automatic vending machines and the like. [Prior art] When dispensing paper or coins at financial institutions such as banks, or supermarkets and department stores,
Handing overly dirty paper or coins will give a bad impression to customers, so I try to hand over clean, clean paper or coins as much as possible. To sort out dirty paper and coins, a device has been developed that automatically detects and sorts soiled paper. Since it was impossible to install a large device consisting of a coin transport mechanism in a coin passageway with a complicated coin conveyance mechanism, staff members manually visually distinguish dirty coins from clean coins in advance. They were discerning and sorting. [Problems to be solved by the invention] As mentioned above, in the past, dirty coins could not be detected automatically and the coins had to be sorted out by the clerk, which took time and effort. There was a problem that there were variations in the judgment of dirt. The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and is capable of automatically detecting dirt on circular objects such as coins. It is an object of the present invention to provide a detection device for a circular object such as a coin, which can accurately detect dirt by detecting dust adhesion on a detection surface for detecting dirt on a circular object such as a coin. [Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a light emitting means 15 that emits light, the light of the light emitting means 15 entering from one end, and the light emitting end 5 at the other end.
A light emitting optical fiber 5 irradiates a circular object C such as a coin conveyed from a, and the light emitted from this light emitting optical fiber 5 and reflected by the circular object C such as a coin enters from the light receiving end 6a at one end and enters the other end. a light-receiving optical fiber 6 that conducts to the light-receiving optical fiber 6; a light-receiving means 1 that receives light emitted from the other end of the light-receiving optical fiber 6;
8, and is provided with a detection surface 8 which integrally constitutes the light-emitting end 5a of the light-emitting optical fiber 5 and the light-receiving end 6a of the light-receiving optical fiber 6, facing the surface of the circular object C such as the coin. , an optical detection means 2 comprising a transparent plate 9 closely fixed to the detection surface 8.
and a material detecting means 3 for detecting the material of the circular object C such as a coin to be conveyed, and when the output of the material detecting face 3 is within a first predetermined range, the optical detecting means 2 detects the material of the circular object C such as a coin. dirt detection means for detecting dirt by comparing the amount of light received from the optical detection means 2 with a predetermined reference level; and the transparent plate 9 of the optical detection means 2 when the output of the material detection means 3 is within a second predetermined range. and a dust adhesion detection means for detecting dust adhesion by comparing the amount of light received from the coin with a predetermined dust adhesion level, and detects dirt on the circular object C such as a coin each time one circular object C such as a coin is conveyed. and dust adhesion to the transparent plate 9. [Function] In the present invention, the material detection means 3 detects the material of the circular object C such as a coin conveyed, and the optical detection means 2 irradiates light onto the circular object C such as a coin conveyed. The reflected light is received by the optical detection means 2, and based on the amount of light received by the optical detection means 2, the dirt detection means and the dust adhesion detection means detect dirt on the circular object C such as a coin each time a circular object C such as a coin is conveyed. The adhesion of dust to the transparent plate 9 closely fixed to the detection surface 8 of the optical detection means 2 is detected. And the dirt detection means is
When the output of the material detection means 3 is within the first predetermined range, dirt is detected by comparing the amount of light received from the circular object C such as a coin with a predetermined reference level, while the dust adhesion detection means detects dust adhesion by comparing the amount of light received from the transparent plate 9 of the optical detection means 2 with a predetermined dust adhesion level when the output of the material detection means 3 is within a second predetermined range. . [Embodiment] Next, the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a coin passage through which coins C of a coin processing machine such as a coin counting machine, sorting/counting machine, deposit/dispensing machine, etc. are conveyed. The optical detection section 2 and the material detection section 3 as material detection means are used to detect the coin C.
are provided in order of the transport direction. The optical detection unit 2 includes a light emitting optical fiber 5 that emits light incident from one end from a light receiving end 5a at the other end, and receives reflected light of the light emitted by the light emitting optical fiber 5 from a light receiving end 6a at one end. A plurality of optical fibers 5 and 6 for light reception and light reception are bundled together and the end surfaces of the light reception ends 5a and 6a are aligned flush with each other. A support frame 7 in the form of a rectangular frame is housed therein, and constitutes a detection surface 8 as shown in FIG. This detection surface 8
The light-receiving optical fibers 6 are arranged throughout the support frame 7, whereas the light-emitting optical fibers 5 are arranged in several rows at predetermined intervals (the light-emitting optical fibers 5 are shown by thick lines), and , a transparent plate 9 is tightly fixed to this detection surface 8 . Further, an insertion hole 10 through which light emitted from the light-emitting optical fiber 5 passes is formed on the coin passage 1 which the detection surface 8 faces. Further, the material detection section 3 has a magnetic sensor 11, which is provided in a substantially U-shape so as to sandwich the front and back surfaces of the coin C conveyed to the coin passage 1. By outputting a magnetic signal, the central processing unit 31 (described later) determines a dirt detection zone and a dust detection zone.Based on this magnetic signal, it also performs denomination identification and stores the random access memory 33 (described later). The denomination signal is stored in the magnetic denomination memory MDM and checked against the designated denomination. A light emitting means 15 is connected to the other end of the light emitting optical fiber 5 to the light emitting end 5a, and this light emitting means 15 includes a small light emitting lamp 16 having an illuminance of, for example, about 7000Lx, and a light emitting circuit for lighting the light emitting lamp 16. It consists of 17. A light receiving means 18 is connected to the other end of the light emitting device 6 with respect to the light receiving end 6a, and this light receiving means 18 detects the amount of reflected light emitted from the light receiving optical fiber 6 by means of a detection light receiving sensor 19, and detects the amount of reflected light emitted from the light receiving optical fiber 6. 20 outputs a voltage level signal, and the detected analog voltage value is sent to the A/D converter 21.
Converts it to a hexadecimal digital value and outputs the received light signal. Further, an infrared cut filter 22 is interposed between the light receiving lamp 16 and the light emitting optical fiber 5, and among the light emitted from the light emitting lamp 16, light having a wavelength of infrared light or more (for example, a wavelength of 700 nm or more) is provided. is cut, and only light of a wavelength whose amount of reflected light is likely to change depending on the degree of dirt on the surface of the coin C is passed through the light receiving sensor 19. Further, a yellow filter 23 is interposed between the light receiving sensor 19 and the light receiving optical fiber 6, and among the reflected light transmitted through the light receiving optical fiber 6, a wavelength of yellow light or less (for example, a wavelength of 500 nm or less) is provided. ), and only the reflected light that can easily detect dirt on the coin C is allowed to pass through the light receiving sensor 19. Further, one end of a monitor optical fiber 24 is connected to the light receiving means 15 together with the light emitting optical fiber 5, and a monitor light receiving means 25 is connected to the other end of the monitor optical fiber 24. This monitor light receiving means 25 detects the amount of light from the light emitting lamp 16 in order to determine whether or not the light emitting lamp 16 is emitting light normally.Similarly to the light receiving means 18, the monitor optical fiber 2
The light transmitted through the light receiving circuit 28 is detected by the monitor light receiving sensor 27 through the yellow filter 26, and the voltage level signal output from the monitor light receiving circuit 28 is converted into a digital value by the A/D converter 29 to generate a monitor light receiving signal. Output. Next, 31 is a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU)
So, this Cu31 is lead-on memory 32 (hereinafter referred to as
The coin processing machine is controlled according to a program stored in the ROM (referred to as ROM), and when the output of the material detection means (magnetic identification section 12) is within a first predetermined range described later, the optical detection means (light receiving means 18) When the dirt detection means detects dirt by comparing the amount of light received from the coin C with a predetermined reference level and the output of the material detection means (magnetic identification section 12) is within a second predetermined range described later. Optical detection means (light receiving means 1
8) is provided with a dust adhesion detection function for detecting dust adhesion by comparing the amount of light received from the transparent plate 9 with a predetermined dust adhesion level. This CPU 31 controls the light emitting circuit 17 to control the lighting of the light emitting lamp 16, and a magnetic signal from the magnetic identification section 12 and each light reception signal from the A/D converters 21 and 29 are input to the CPU 31, respectively. . Further, a random access memory (hereinafter referred to as RAM), a coin processing unit 34, and a display unit 35 are connected to the CPU 31, and the RAM 3 has at least various flags, memories, and counters as shown in the figure, and the coin processing The unit 34 conveys the coins C one by one to the coin passage 1, and the display unit 35 displays at least an abnormality such as dirt, dust adhesion, insufficient light, etc., and further has a coin counting display and denomination identification function. If applicable, the number of coins by denomination, etc. will also be displayed. Also,
The number of normal coins and dirty coins may be displayed separately. Next, each detection operation of this embodiment will be explained. In FIG. 5, from the magnetic identification section 12 to the CPU 3
The magnetic signal input to 1 is divided into points a, b, c, and d, and a dirt detection zone is defined as a first predetermined range between a and b, and a dust detection zone is defined as a second predetermined range between c and d. This is the detection zone. The levels of a, b, c, and d that determine each zone differ depending on the denomination, and are shown in the zone determination table in Table 1 below.

[Table] Then, the A level of the dirt detection zone (for example, 10
When the magnetic signal reaches level 5 (for yen coins),
The level of x ₁ of the light reception signal from the light receiving means 18 is detected for this a level t ₁ , and after detecting the level of x ₁ , the magnetic signal is detected as x ₂ for t ₂ , x ₃ for t ₃ , and so on. The level of the received light signal is detected at several points at predetermined time intervals until it reaches level b (for example, level 12 in the case of a 10 yen coin). Then, the detection level of these light reception signals is compared with the preset dirt determination level for each detection by the CPU 31,
Determine how dirty the coin C is. This stain determination level is shown in the stain determination table in Table 2 below.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the optical detection means and the material detection means are configured integrally with the light-emitting end of the light-emitting optical fiber that irradiates light and the light-receiving end of the light-receiving optical fiber that receives reflected light, and are provided with a detection surface. When the output of the material detection means is within a first predetermined range, dirt is automatically detected by comparing the amount of light received by the optical detection means from a circular object such as a coin with a predetermined reference level. Moreover, when the output of the material detection means is within the second predetermined range, dust can be detected by comparing the amount of light received from the transparent plate provided on the detection surface of the optical detection means with a predetermined dust adhesion level. It is also possible to detect adhesion, and therefore, each time a circular object such as a coin is conveyed, it is possible to detect dirt on the coin or other circular object as well as dust adhesion on the detection surface, making it possible to accurately detect dirt. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of its main parts, Fig. 3 is a configuration diagram of its detection surface, and Fig. 4 shows the contents of its random access memory. Explanatory diagram, Figure 5 is a diagram of each signal waveform,
Fig. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the main part thereof, Fig. 7 is a flowchart thereof, Figs. 8 and 9 are configuration diagrams showing modified examples of the detection surface of the device of the present invention, and Fig. 10 is a diagram of the configuration of the detection surface of the device of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a modification of the optical detection section of the device. 2... an optical detection section as an optical detection means, 3...
...Material detection unit as material detection means, 5... Optical fiber for light emission, 5a... Light emitting end, 6... Optical fiber for light reception, 6a... Light receiving end, 8... Detection surface,
9...Transparent plate, 15...Light emitting means, 18...Light receiving means, 31...Central processing unit having the function of dirt detection means and dust adhesion detection means, C...
A coin as a circular object such as a coin.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A light-emitting means that emits light, a light-emitting optical fiber that enters the light of the light-emitting means from one end and irradiates it to a circular object such as a coin being conveyed from the other end of the light-emitting end;
A light-receiving optical fiber that receives light emitted from this light-emitting optical fiber and reflected by a circular object such as a coin from one end of the light-receiving end and conducts it to the other end, and receives light emitted from the other end of this light-receiving optical fiber. A detection surface is provided opposite to the surface of the circular object such as the coin and integrally constitutes a light-emitting end of the light-emitting optical fiber and a light-receiving end of the light-receiving optical fiber. an optical detection means for detecting the material of the circular object such as a coin to be conveyed; and a material detection means for detecting the material of the circular object such as a coin being conveyed; dirt detection means for detecting dirt by comparing the amount of light received by the detection means from a circular object such as a coin with a predetermined reference level; and when the output of the material detection means is within a second predetermined range, the optical detection means a dust adhesion detection means for detecting dust adhesion by comparing the amount of light received from the transparent plate with a predetermined dust adhesion level, and detecting the adhesion of dust by comparing the amount of light received from the transparent plate with a predetermined dust adhesion level, A detection device for a circular object such as a coin, which detects dirt on a transparent plate and dust on a transparent plate.