JPH055283B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for identifying gift certificates for gift giving of goods.

[Prior Art] Figure 3 shows the appearance of a gift certificate. In the figure,
1 is a gift certificate; 2 is a data signal band in which the type, amount, date of issue, and other data signals of the gift certificate are recorded; and 3 is a strobe signal band in which a strobe signal is recorded. Data signals and strobe signals are written with magnetic ink or the like, and are clearly shown for convenience of explanation, but in reality, a pattern or the like is drawn on them and the signal band itself is hidden. 4 is a white part provided in the signal band, which is used to detect the thickness of the gift certificate. L is the length of the gift certificate. Identification of gift certificates is usually done by a banknote validator or similar validator, which uses the data signals described above,
In addition to detecting the data content using strobe signals, the dimensions and thickness of the gift certificate are also detected and used for identification. Various sensors were used for various detections, and a microprocessor built into the identification device made identification decisions based on the sensor output.

FIG. 4 shows the appearance of the banknote/gift certificate validator 5, and FIG. 5 shows the arrangement of sensors within the validator. In FIG. 4, 5A is a gift certificate insertion slot, and in FIG. 5, 6 and 7 are insertion detection sensors for detecting the insertion of a gift certificate, and are comprised of, for example, a photo sensor.
Reference numeral 8 denotes a thickness detection sensor, which is composed of a photo sensor that combines a light emitting element and a light receiving element. Data detection sensors 9 and 10 detect data signals and strobe signals, respectively, and magnetic sensors such as magnetic heads are used. l is the distance between the thickness detection sensor and the magnetic sensor. Arrows indicate the direction of insertion. The inserted gift certificate 1 is transferred to the conveyance path 11 as shown in FIG.
It is conveyed inside by a conveyor belt 12. 13 is a motor that drives the conveyor belt, 14 is a motor 13
This is a tachometer generator attached to the shaft of the 8
A and 8B are a light emitting element and a light receiving element, respectively, which constitute a photo sensor. The gift certificate 1 moves as shown in FIGS. 7A, B, and C. When the gift certificate is moved to the position shown in FIG. 7C, the thickness of the gift certificate is detected using the thickness detection portion 4 of the gift certificate. At this time, until the thickness detection part matches the position of the thickness sensor 8, the position is controlled by calculating the number of pulses of the tachometer generator 14 attached to the shaft of the conveyance motor 13 to detect whether the gift certificate has moved. I was gone. 8A, B, and C are diagrams showing the state of thickness detection, and the output of the thickness detection sensor 8 is detected at a position controlled by the number of pulses of the tachometer generator shown in FIG. 8A. Figure B shows the detection level of the thickness detection sensor when one gift certificate is inserted, and Figure B shows the detection level of the thickness detection sensor when two gift certificates are inserted.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, when detecting the position of the thickness detection portion 4 by measuring the conveyance distance from the tip of the gift certificate by the number of pulses of the tachometer generator 14 as described above, the difference between the measured conveyance distance and the actual conveyance distance and Errors due to expansion and contraction of gift certificates are superimposed,
In particular, when the thickness detection portion 4 is formed at the rear end in the conveyance direction and the distance from the tip is long, the error becomes large, making it difficult to accurately detect the position of the thickness detection portion 4, making it difficult to The problem is that data is not available.

In view of the above-mentioned points, the present invention utilizes the fact that the positional relationship between the signal recorded in the data recording section consisting of a strobe signal band and a data signal band and the thickness detection portion is not affected by conveyance errors. A gift certificate thickness detection method that reduces the effects of conveyance errors and expansion/contraction errors and obtains reliable thickness detection data by detecting the positions of The purpose is to provide

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention has a strobe signal band in which a strobe signal consisting of a series of bit signals provided at predetermined intervals is recorded, and the presence or absence of a bit signal at a position corresponding to each bit signal of the strobe signal. A data recording section consisting of a data signal band on which a data signal representing data is recorded is formed in the conveyance direction, and a gift certificate having a thickness detection portion formed at the rear end in the conveyance direction is conveyed, and the gift certificate is conveyed. Sometimes, the predetermined data is detected by scanning the data recording section with a data detection sensor and sequentially reading each bit signal of the strobe signal and data signal, and at intervals sufficiently shorter than the length of the gift certificate to be identified. A thickness detection sensor provided at a position in front of the data detection sensor in the conveyance direction scans the thickness detection portion to detect thickness detection data, and detects the detection data of the data detection sensor and the thickness detection sensor. In the method for detecting the thickness of a gift certificate for identifying the gift certificate based on data, it is determined whether or not the data detection sensor reads a predetermined bit signal from the tip side during the conveyance, and The present invention is characterized in that the thickness detection data for the identification is detected from the thickness detection sensor in response to the read determination of the bit signal.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the data detection sensor determines whether or not a predetermined bit signal has been read from the data recording section, and in response to the read determination of the predetermined bit signal, the thickness detection sensor detects the thickness for identification. By making the interval between the predetermined bit signal and the thickness detection part match the interval between the data detection sensor and the thickness detection sensor, the data is used to detect the position of the thickness detection part. By using the positional relationship between the signal recorded in the recording section and the thickness detection part, the position detection is not affected by conveyance error, and the distance between the data detection sensor and the thickness detection sensor is set according to the length of the gift certificate. Since it is sufficiently shorter than
Errors due to expansion and contraction of the gift certificate can also be sufficiently reduced.

[Example] The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Examples are shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. Figure A is a side sectional view, and Figure B is a plan view showing the positional relationship between the thickness detection portion 4 and the data recorded in the signal bands 2 and 3. In the figure, reference numeral 15 denotes a roller that sandwiches the gift certificate between the data detection sensors 9 and 10.
Data signals and strobe signals are recorded in data signal band 2 and strobe signal band 3 at predetermined intervals, and required data is recorded depending on the presence or absence of a bit signal of the data signal at a position corresponding to each bit of the strobe signal. are doing. Therefore, the strobe signal read by the data detection sensor 9 or 10 by the time the gift certificate 1 moves and reaches the position where the edge of the thickness detection portion 4 exactly coincides with the thickness detection sensor 8, 8A, 8B. The number of bit signals (or data signals) is constant. Also, the thickness detection part 4
The number of bit signals of the strobe signal recorded over the length in the moving direction is also constant. As shown in the figure, when reading the 50th data, if the thickness sensor is applied from the hidden part to the detection part, in the example shown, the 51st to 54th data are read. What is necessary is to detect the output obtained from the thickness sensor.

The distance l between the thickness sensor and the data detection sensor is usually designed to be very small compared to the total length L of the gift certificate, usually L = 150 mm, l = 12.5
mm.

Conventionally, since the expansion/contraction rate or cutting error with respect to the length of gift certificates is about ±1%, the total length of gift certificates has been in the range of about 150±1.5 mm.

When using a tachometer generator to detect the position of the white part (width is approximately 4 mm), the end position of the gift certificate and the number of pulses of the tachometer generator do not always match due to slippage during conveyance of the gift certificate. Furthermore, when detecting a region located at a long distance from the tip of the bill due to the above-mentioned expansion/contraction rate or cutting error, the error becomes as large as about ±1.5 mm. In the case of the present invention, in addition to using the data recorded on the gift certificate,
Since only the expansion/contraction rate of the gift certificate or the cutting error of ±1% with respect to the relative distance 1 is a problem, the error becomes ±0.125 mm, which significantly improves the dimensional accuracy.

The above identification judgment is performed by a microprocessor processing unit (CPU) built into the identification machine. Note that a microprocessor has RAM (writable memory) in which necessary data is written in advance and programs are stored.
Equipped with ROM (read-only memory).

Figure 2 shows an outline of the operation of the CPU.

When the gift certificate is inserted through the insertion slot 5A and detected by the insertion detection sensors 6 and 7, the gift certificate is transported by the conveyor belt, and data is read by the data detection sensors 9 and 10. The thickness is detected between the 51st and 54th bit signals read, and it is determined whether there is one gift certificate, and if there are two, the gift certificate is returned. If there is only one sheet, the read data is determined. Data reading and judgment are performed according to normal procedures.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention as described above, the data detection sensor determines whether or not the predetermined bit signal has been read from the data recording section, and in response to the determination of reading the predetermined bit signal. Thickness detection data for identification is detected from the thickness detection sensor, and the interval between the predetermined bit signal and the thickness detection section is made to match the interval between the data detection sensor and the thickness detection sensor. The positional relationship between the data recording section and the thickness detection section is used to detect the position of the thickness detection section, so that the position detection is not affected by conveyance errors, and the distance between the data detection sensor and the thickness detection sensor for this purpose is equal to that of the gift certificate. Since the length of the gift certificate is sufficiently shorter than the length of the gift certificate, the error due to expansion and contraction of the gift certificate can be sufficiently reduced.

Therefore, it is possible to accurately detect the position of the thickness detection part with less influence of conveyance errors and expansion/contraction errors.
Reliable thickness detection data can be obtained. Moreover, since this position detection uses a data detection sensor for detecting data in the data recording section necessary for gift certificate identification, there is no need to provide a special sensor for position detection. It can be constructed at low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1A and B are side sectional views and plan views for explaining the thickness detection method of the present invention, Figure 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention, and Figure 3 shows the signal band of a gift certificate. 4 is a perspective view of the gift certificate recognition device, FIG. 5 is a layout of sensors within the recognition device, FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the transfer mechanism for explaining the conventional thickness detection method, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the gift certificate recognition device. Figures A, B, and C are plan views explaining the movement status of gift certificates, respectively.
Figures A, B, and C are diagrams for explaining the conventional thickness detection method. Figure A is a signal waveform diagram of the tachometer generator, Figure B is when there is only one gift certificate, and Figure C is when there is only one gift certificate. It is a figure which shows the output waveform of each thickness detection sensor when two sheets are used. 1...Gift certificate, 2...Data signal band, 3...
Strobe signal band, 4...thickness detection portion, 6,
7...Insertion detection sensor, 8...Thickness detection sensor,
9, 10...data detection sensor, 14...tachogenerator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Strobe signal band in which a strobe signal consisting of a series of bit signals provided at predetermined intervals is recorded, and data in which a data signal indicating predetermined data is recorded depending on the presence or absence of a bit signal at a position corresponding to each bit signal of the strobe signal. A gift certificate in which a data recording section consisting of a signal band is formed in the conveyance direction and a thickness detection portion is formed at the rear end in the conveyance direction is conveyed, and during the conveyance, a data detection sensor detects the data recording section. detecting the predetermined data by scanning the strobe signal and sequentially reading each bit signal of the data signal;
A thickness detection sensor provided at a position on the front side in the conveying direction from the data detection sensor by an interval sufficiently shorter than the length of the gift certificate to be identified scans the thickness detection portion to detect thickness detection data, and detects the thickness detection data. In the gift certificate thickness detection method for identifying the gift certificate based on detection data of a detection sensor and detection data of a thickness detection sensor, the data detection sensor reads a bit signal of a predetermined number from the leading end side during the conveyance. A method for detecting the thickness of a gift certificate, characterized in that the thickness detection data for the identification is detected from the thickness detection sensor in response to the read judgment of the predetermined bit signal.