JPH04105191A - Card processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a card with erroneous printed contents from being moving by identifying a printed character and an area between the characters, counting the number of the characters and discriminating whether it is matched with the number of the characters to be printed or not. CONSTITUTION:Plural POS (Point of Sales) terminals 2 are connected to a host computer 4 through an in-line 3 and a card reader/writer 5 is connected to the respective POS terminals 2 through a cable 6. When printing is executed on a card, the printed part of the card is read and a character and an area between the characters are identified by the card reader/writer 5. Then, the number of the characters is counted, the number of the counted characters and the number of the characters to be printed are compared and it is discriminated whether they are matched mutually or not. Thus, the card with erroneous operation related to the printing is not discharged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a card processing device, and more particularly to a card processing device that performs necessary processing using a card on which characters are printed.

[Background Art] Recently, various prepaid cards such as telephone cards and transportation tickets have been on the market. Each time a prepaid card is used, the value information magnetically written on it is rewritten into information representing the value reduced by the amount used, and the usage status is updated for the convenience of the card user. The displayed information is visually recorded on the card.

There are two ways to visually represent the usage status: punching a hole at the position corresponding to the balance on the card, and printing and recording the usage details and balance on the card. The former method lacks accuracy because it represents the balance in an analog manner.

On the other hand, the latter method allows the balance to be displayed digitally, giving the user a sense of security as the balance can be accurately grasped, and the user does not need to write down the usage status of the card. , convenient. Therefore, the latter method has higher needs than the former method.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in the method of printing and recording the usage status, etc.
It is not detected whether printing was performed accurately or not.
There have been cases where the card is ejected without the characters or part of the characters to be printed, or with characters of different contents printed.

Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a card processing device that can determine whether or not a printing-related malfunction has occurred.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A card processing device according to the present invention includes an identification means for reading a printed portion from a card and identifying characters and an area between characters, and a character identified by the identification means. and a determining means for determining whether the number of characters counted by the counting means matches the number of characters to be printed.

[Operation] In the present invention, when printing is performed on a card, the printed portion of the card is read and the characters and the areas between the characters are identified. Then, the number of characters is counted, and the counted number of characters and the number of characters to be printed are compared to determine whether they match each other.

[Embodiment of the Invention] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a prepaid card used in a transaction processing system to which an embodiment of the invention is applied.

In FIG. 2, the card 1 is provided with a portion A and a portion B as printing areas.

Part A is printed when the card is issued, and part B is printed each time the card is used. In part A, the card number is printed on the first line, the membership number is printed on the third line, the date of issue and the name of the issuing store are printed on the fifth line, and the date of card issuance is printed on the seventh line. The amount of money representing the value of is printed, and the item name representing the print content printed on the 10th to 19th lines is printed on the 9th line. The date of use and balance of the card are printed on part B, and the left half is printed first, and after the entire left half is printed, the right half is printed.

In this embodiment, the printing status is determined by:
Regarding part B, the printing state may be determined by applying the same method as described below to part A at the time of card issuance.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transaction processing system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In Figure 3, multiple POS
(Point of 5ales) The terminal 2 is connected to the host computer 4 via the inline 3. The PO8 terminal 2 is used to register the product code, product price, quantity, etc. of the products purchased by the customer.

The host computer 4 collects and manages purchase information. A card reader/writer 5 according to an embodiment of the present invention is connected to each PO8 terminal 2 via a cable 6. The card reader/writer 5 reads the amount data from the card 1 shown in FIG.
The area is printed and recorded. Card reader writer 5
has the function of checking printed information.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the card reader/writer shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 4, the card reader/writer 5 is provided with a CPU 11. As shown in FIG. C.P.
A RAMI 2° ROM 1B, a transmission controller 14, and an I10 interface 15 are connected to the UII. The RAMI 2 temporarily stores data read from the card 1 or data written to the card 1. ROM13 is for read/write control of card 1.

It stores various programs for performing input/output control and transmission control. The transmission controller 14 is C
This is for exchanging data between the PUI 1 and the PO8 terminal 2. I10 interface 15 is C
It is used to operate input/output devices according to commands from the PUII and to provide information from the input/output devices to the CPUII.

The I10 interface 15 includes a solenoid 16 for the print head, a motor 17 for moving the print head and the card 1, a magnetic head 18 for reading card data and writing data on the card, and a card can be inserted therein. and a display LED 19 for displaying the transmission status with the PO8 terminal 2, a position sensor 20 for detecting the position of the card, and an optical sensor 21 for detecting the printing status of the card. is connected.

Here, the optical sensor 21 is, for example, a line sensor in which photodiodes are arranged linearly, and for example, one
It is long enough to read two-digit characters.

Figure 5 shows the printed part read from the card shown in Figure 2.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method for recognizing the number of printed characters. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method for recognizing the number of characters. Next, a method for checking the printing status of a card will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

Here, a case will be described in which it is determined whether "0526\100000" printed on the left half of the 10th line of the card 1 shown in FIG. 2 has been printed correctly.

As shown in FIG. 1, characters are printed on the card 1 using a dot matrix. The character string printed on the card 1 is projected onto the optical sensor 21 via the lens system 22, as shown in FIG. Light is reflected at the dot part,
Since no light is reflected in the blank area, each photodiode of the optical sensor 21 outputs a light reception signal according to the dot pattern.

The output of each photodiode of the optical sensor 21 is sequentially read out in the X direction shown in FIG. The output of the optical sensor 21 is given to an amplifier 27. The electrical signal amplified by amplifier 27 is compared with a predetermined threshold voltage by comparator 32. If it is lower than the threshold voltage, a signal corresponding to "0" is output, and if it is higher than the threshold voltage, a signal corresponding to "1" is output. That is, the comparator 32 outputs binarized signals corresponding to black and white. The binarized result is applied to a shift register 34 having the same number of registers as the photodiodes of the optical sensor 21. The electrical signals sequentially output from the optical sensor 21 are binarized and sequentially stored in the shift register 34.

In this way, when scanning is performed once in the X direction shown in FIG. 1, the card 1 is moved in the opposite direction to the Y direction shown in FIG. Then, scanning is performed again in the X direction as shown in FIG. 5, and the binary signals corresponding to the outputs of each photodiode are stored in the shift register 34. At this time, the logical sum of the output value of each photodiode stored during the previous scan and the output value of each photodiode obtained during the current scan is stored in the shift register 34. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 5, an OR circuit 33 is configured to logically OR the output of the shift register 34 and the output of the comparator 32.

In this way, by performing main scanning in the X direction and sub-scanning in the Y direction, and taking the logical sum of the outputs for each photodiode, the pattern data within a certain period is accumulated in the height of the character, One line of string can be white (0) or black (
1) is converted into a sequence of run lengths.

The recognition unit 35 recognizes the number of printed characters by counting the number of these run lengths, using as a factor in determining which half of the card 1, left or right, is currently being read. When reading the character pattern shown in FIG. 1, it can be seen that there are four black run lengths, so the number of characters is four.

On the other hand, the content printed on card 1 is P.

From the S terminal 2 to the card reader/writer 5 via the cable 6
Since the data is transmitted to the CPUI of the card reader/writer 5,
1, the number of characters to be printed can be known in advance. By comparing this number of characters with the number of characters read from the card 1, it is possible to determine whether printing has been performed correctly. If the CPU 1 determines that printing has not been performed correctly, the CPU 1 operates a lever (not shown) provided in the card reader/writer 5 to prohibit the return of the card and print the next line on the card. Print again. The above print check is also performed for the reprinted lines.

In this manner, if printing is not performed correctly, printing is performed again, so that the card will not be returned to the customer with abnormal printing.

Note that the comparator 32. in FIG. The OR circuit 33, shift register 34, and recognition section 35 may be configured by hardware, but may also be configured by software.

In the above-described embodiment, the sub-scanning is performed by moving the card, but the optical sensor may be moved instead of moving the card. Furthermore, although a line sensor is used as the optical sensor, a two-dimensional sensor may also be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the printed characters and the area between the characters are identified, the number of characters is counted, and it is determined whether the number of characters matches the number of characters to be printed. I decided to do this, so
It is possible to prevent cards with incorrect printed contents from being distributed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method of recognizing the number of characters in a card reader/writer to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a prepaid card used in a transaction processing system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transaction processing system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the card reader/writer shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a method for reading the printed portion from the card shown in FIG. 2 and recognizing the number of printed characters. In the figure, 1 is a card, 5 is a card reader/writer, 1
1 is a CPU, 12 is a RAM, 1B is a ROM 114 is a transmission controller, 15 is an I10 interface, 2] is an optical sensor, 27 is an amplifier, 32 is a comparator, 33 is an OR circuit, 34 is a shift register, 35 is a recognition unit show. Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A card processing device that performs necessary processing using a card on which characters are printed and recorded, comprising an identification means for reading a printed portion from the card and identifying characters and an area between characters. , a counting means for counting the number of characters identified by the identification means, and a determining means for determining whether the number of characters counted by the counting means matches the number of characters to be printed. Equipped with a card processing device.