1 2
According to this discriminating operation, since the
BILL DISCRIMINATING DEVICE discrimination is carried out based upon the extracted
characteristic patterns, it is possible to reduce the BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION amount of processing data and thus realize a device The present invention relates to a bill discriminating 5 caPable of high-speed and precision discriminating opdevice which is able to carry out a bill discriminating eratlon-111S preferable t use, for example, features of the operation at high-speed based on a reduced amount of blU such as numerals, portrait and watermark as the processing data for bill type discrimination by extract- characteristic bill patterns.
ing and reading only characteristic regions of the bill. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Bill discriminating devices are known and one example is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publica- 0ther objects and advantages of the present invention tion No. 18087/1986. This prior art bill discriminating wU1 become apparent from the following detailed dedevice is adapted to discriminate the type and the genu- scription of a preferred embodiment of the present inineness of bills based on data relating to substantially the yention taken in reference to the accompanying drawwhole area of the bill by reading picture images present mgs in which:
along a band running diagonally across the bill by FIG.1 is a block diagram showing the basic structure
means of an image sensor. °f a preferred embodiment of a bill discriminating de
The bill dispensing device of the prior art is advanta- vice of the present invention; geous in that it can discriminate the genuineness of a bill 2Q FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the electrical with high precision based upon a minimum amount of circuitry of the embodiment of FIG. 1; data substantially over the whole region of bill. How- FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the interrelation beever, since important data required for discriminating tween the image sensor and the bill; the genuineness of a bill does not always appear on the FIGS. 4a, b, c are a schematic view of several types of diagonal band of bill, it often happens that important 25 bills for explaining the characteristic data of each type data are missed and only unnecessary data is obtained. of bill;
A further problem is that a long time is required to FIG. 5 is a view for explaining the positional relation
carry out the discriminating process with respect to all between the image sensor and the bill; and
bits of data read from the diagonal band of the bill. FIG. 6 is a flow-chart for explaining the discriminat
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 30
ing operation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a In FIG. 1 which shows a functional block diagram of
bill discriminating device which is able to carry out bill the basic structure of the bill discriminating device of
discrimination with high speed and precision based the present invention, "a" denotes an image sensor, "b"
solely on important data required for bill discrimination. 35 denotes a picture image data storing means, "c" denotes
According to the present invention, there is provided a first bill-type discriminating means, "d" denotes a
a bill discriminating device comprising: image sensor position data storing means, "e" denotes a reference
means "a" for reading a picture image of a bill; picture pattern storing means, and "f" denotes a second bill-,
image data storing means "b" for storing picture image type discriminating means. FIG. 2 is a block diagram
data output from said image sensor; first bill-type dis- 40 showing the electrical circuitry of the device. The
criminating means "c" for discriminating the type of bill image sensor 1 is, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled
by computing the width of the bill based upon said Device) line-sensor type and is so arranged that it lies
picture image data; position data storing means "d" for perpendicularly to the transferring direction of a bill P.
storing the positions of characteristic regions of each Since the bill P is transferred in parallel with its short
type of bill; reference pattern storing means "e" for 45 sides in this case, the direction of the image sensor 1
storing reference patterns corresponding to said charac- becomes parallel to the long sides of the bill P.
teristic regions in each type of bill; and second bill-type The image sensor 1 is electrically driven by a driver
discriminating means "f' for discriminating the type of 2. That is, the image sensor 1 is driven by a plurality of
said bill by reading said reference patterns and extract- pulses output from the driver 2 to read the electric
ing therefrom picture image data corresponding to said 50 charge of each picture element and to output the read
characteristic regions and comparing the extracted pic- electric charge as sequential picture image data. The
ture image data with said reference patterns. picture image data is digitized by a converter (not
According to the present invention, bill discrimina- shown) and stored in a primary memory 3. The primary
tion can be carried out by the following steps: memory 3 is adapted to store a number of lines and the
(1) Reading the picture image data output from the 55 picture image data necessary for detecting the bill patimage sensor "a"; tern.
(2) Roughly discriminating the type of bill from the The signal from the image sensor 1 is also forwarded length of the picture image data (corresponding to the to a bill detecting section 4. The bill detecting section 4 width of the bill); constantly monitors the output signal of the image sen
(3) Reading position data and reference patterns of 60 sor 1 to detect the presence or absence of the bill P and the characteristic regions corresponding to the type of outputs signals to a controller 5 to commence the bill bill; pattern detecting operation when it detects and con
(4) Extracting picture image data (a characteristic firms the presence of the bill P.
pattern) corresponding to the characteristic regions The controller 5 controls not only the operation of
from the position data; and 65 the driver 2 but also a writing operation for writing the
(5) Finally discriminating the type of bill by compar- picture image data output from the image sensor 1 into ing the characteristic patterns with the reference pat- the primary memory 3. Picture image data of the numterns. ber of lines required for bill discrimination is thus writ4,823,393
