EP1391851A1 - Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen - Google Patents

Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1391851A1
EP1391851A1 EP02380182A EP02380182A EP1391851A1 EP 1391851 A1 EP1391851 A1 EP 1391851A1 EP 02380182 A EP02380182 A EP 02380182A EP 02380182 A EP02380182 A EP 02380182A EP 1391851 A1 EP1391851 A1 EP 1391851A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
coin
sensors
data
selection device
path
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Ceased
Application number
EP02380182A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP1391851A9 (de
Inventor
Ibon Cerro Aguirre
Ane Martinez De Guerenu Elorza
Fernando Aritzi Urquijo
Luis S. Echavarri Sanz De Galdeano
José Miguel Garcia Sayés
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Azkoyen Medios de Pago SA
Original Assignee
Azkoyen Medios de Pago SA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Azkoyen Medios de Pago SA filed Critical Azkoyen Medios de Pago SA
Priority to ES201000162A priority Critical patent/ES2380484B1/es
Priority to EP02380182A priority patent/EP1391851A1/de
Publication of EP1391851A1 publication Critical patent/EP1391851A1/de
Publication of EP1391851A9 publication Critical patent/EP1391851A9/de
Ceased legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07D—HANDLING OF COINS OR VALUABLE PAPERS, e.g. TESTING, SORTING BY DENOMINATIONS, COUNTING, DISPENSING, CHANGING OR DEPOSITING
    • G07D5/00—Testing specially adapted to determine the identity or genuineness of coins, e.g. for segregating coins which are unacceptable or alien to a currency
    • G07D5/02—Testing the dimensions, e.g. thickness, diameter; Testing the deformation
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07D—HANDLING OF COINS OR VALUABLE PAPERS, e.g. TESTING, SORTING BY DENOMINATIONS, COUNTING, DISPENSING, CHANGING OR DEPOSITING
    • G07D5/00—Testing specially adapted to determine the identity or genuineness of coins, e.g. for segregating coins which are unacceptable or alien to a currency
    • G07D5/08—Testing the magnetic or electric properties

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to coin selectors having an internal path or trajectory along which coins travel between an inlet opening and one or more outlet openings.
  • Selectors of this type are used in machines that operate by inserting one or more coins with sufficient value to obtain the required product or service.
  • Such selectors include sensors along the path of the coins that measure various characteristics of their dimensions (radius, thickness), alloy (weight, hardness) and electric and magnetic properties, thereby allowing to detect the denomination and validity of the coins.
  • European Patent EP-710933-B1 discloses a device for determining predefined characteristics of an object (a coin or token) comprised of two materials with different electromagnetic properties.
  • the device basically consists of a path along which travel the coins, an electromagnetic sensor, two optical walls placed at the sensor input and output and a third optical wall at the centre of the electromagnetic sensor.
  • the rim is measured when the optical wall placed at the centre of the sensor is activated. As the measurement is made at a fixed position, depending on the width of the rim it may be impossible to obtain a measurement that corresponds exclusively to said rim.
  • the centre of the coin is measured by measuring the time during which said coin is blocking the first wall.
  • the measurement of the coin centre with the electromagnetic sensor is made after a time equal to half the aforementioned interval after the second wall is blocked.
  • This method relies on the assumption that the speed of the coin is approximately constant, when it is in fact subjected to a constant acceleration.
  • the first and second walls must be separated by a distance greater than the diameter of the largest coin to be measured, thus reducing the flexibility in the positioning of the walls.
  • German Patent application DE-10003289-A1 which basically describes a method in which the measurements made by a sensor between two specific amplitudes as a coin passes are stored in a memory. Later, the width of the curve is determined to give an approximation of the speed of the coin. As the number of samples taken per unit time is known, a linear correspondence allows estimating which measurements correspond to each area of the coin. However, this method does not consider the fact that the coin motion is accelerated, so that the relationship between time and space is not linear. Thus, for example, measurements at the middle point of the measurement curve with respect to time do not correspond to the central area of the coin.
  • document DE-29720045-U describes the use of phototransistors in coin selectors, describing a configuration in which an equal current is applied to all photodiodes, but with the phototransistors having different operating points.
  • the great manufacturing spread in optoelectronic devices can make it difficult to ensure that all phototransistors operate in the linear region when applying the same current to all photodiodes.
  • the invention relates to a device according to claim 1 and to a method according to claim 7. Preferred embodiments of the device and the method are defined in the dependant claims.
  • the present invention relates to a method that allows improving the quality of any sensor or sensors by allowing to relate the measurements of a coin obtained by said sensors with the relative position between said coin and the sensor with which each measurement was taken.
  • the method allows identifying which measurement corresponds to the coin-sensor relative positions that must be characterised.
  • the centre of the coin and the rim With the coin selector of the invention and according to the method of the invention it is possible to measure both the centre and the rim, determining the measurement corresponding to each position of the coin with respect to the sensor.
  • One of the advantages of the method of the invention with respect to the prior art is that it allows performing measurements in the relative sensor-coin positions that are of greatest interest for characterisation, regardless of the acceleration and speed of the coin. Another advantage is that this is performed regardless of the relative position of the sensors and of the size of the coin.
  • the coin selection device of the present invention comprises a path along which a coin travels between an inlet opening and one or several outlet openings, a first set of sensors and a second set of sensors. For each instant in time the first set of sensors provides a first set of data from which the position of said coin is calculated with respect to the second set of sensors, while the second set of sensors provides data related to one or more characteristic properties of the coin.
  • said first set of sensors is comprised of at least two optical sensors, and more preferably at least three optical sensors, thereby allowing to select measurements that correspond to the most stable part of the coin trajectory.
  • said optical sensors are placed at the same height with respect to the path of the coin. Placing the optical sensors at the same height with respect to the path of the coin (and in the direction of motion of the coin) provides a greater accuracy of the selection device of the invention.
  • the optical sensors may consist, for example, of pairs of photodiodes and phototransistors.
  • a control loop is established between the receiver and the emitter that injects the required current to each photodiode so that all phototransistors are maintained at a common operating point.
  • the second set of sensors can consist of electromagnetic sensors. These can also be magnetic, capacitance, optical or extensometric sensors, or sensors of any type providing one or more characteristic properties of the coin.
  • the coin selection device of the present invention is based on at least two sets of sensors.
  • the first set of sensors determines the position of the coin relative to the second set of sensors at each moment in time, and can also provide data regarding its speed and acceleration.
  • the second set of sensors determines one or several characteristic properties of the coin as the coin passes, also for each moment in time. Thus, as both signals are obtained with respect to time the measurements of the two sets can be related.
  • the second set of sensors may be stored in a memory the measurements of the second set of sensors until the first set provides the position of the coin at each instant in time. This is the case when the two sets of sensors share the same position along the path of the coin. However, if the second set is placed after the first set along said path at a sufficiently large distance it is not necessary to store the measurements taken by the second set of sensors.
  • the invention also relates to a method for coin selection that comprises:
  • the first set of data is measured with at least two optical sensors.
  • the first set of data is measured with at least three pairs of photodiodes and phototransistors, establishing a control loop between each receiver and emitter that injects a current in each photodiode, such that all the phototransistors operate in the linear region, thereby increasing the stability of the selection method of the invention.
  • the selection method of the invention measures at least one specific property of said second set of data related to one or more characteristic properties of the coin, and said specific property is related to the relative position of the coin and the second set of sensors.
  • Said specific property can consist of exceeding a predefined threshold for said second set of data, or exceeding or matching an extreme, maximum or minimum value for said second set of data.
  • first set of data used to calculate the position of the coin
  • characteristic properties of said coin measured by the second set of sensors
  • the method of the present invention allows improving the quality of any second set of sensors by relating the measurements obtained by the second set of sensors with the relative position of the coin and the second set of sensors, at which each measurement was made.
  • the method also allows the inverse process, so that it is possible to identify to which coin positions correspond certain measurements that are identifiable by a specific characteristic, such as exceeding a predefined threshold or matching extreme values (maximum or minimum).
  • the method of the present invention can be used to improve the quality of discrimination of a sensor of any type, such as electromagnetic, magnetic, capacitive, optical, extensometric, etc.
  • the quality of the measurement is determined not only by the quality of the sensor (of whichever type) per se, but also by the capability of characterising specific areas of the coin independently of the rest of the coin.
  • Figure 1 shows a possible embodiment of the selection device of the present invention.
  • Figure 2 shows several relative positions between the coin and the optical sensors used to calculate the chord and the position of the coin.
  • Figure 3 shows a diagram with two graphs of the relation of the coin position with time and measurements of the coin with time.
  • Figure 4 shows, for a preferred embodiment of the invention, a block diagram of the control loop for maintaining the phototransistors in the same operating point.
  • the preferred embodiment comprises a first optical sensor 2, a second optical sensor 2', a third optical sensor 2" and an electromagnetic sensor 3, placed along the path 4 of a coin 5; the arrow u shows the direction of motion of the coin 5.
  • the set of optical sensors 2, 2', 2" provides an accurate and stable measurement of the coin position with respect to time.
  • the electromagnetic sensor 3 provides one or more characteristic properties of the coin. This electromagnetic sensor can be as described in the documents EP-246993 or EP-936582.
  • the first and second optical sensors 2 and 2' are separated by a distance d1
  • the second and third optical sensors 2' and 2" are separated by a distance d2.
  • the coin 5 has a chord c at the height of the optical sensors.
  • Figure 2 shows the first, second and third optical sensors 2, 2', 2" and the coin at five positions of its path.
  • position P1 the coin is entering the second optical sensor 2'.
  • Said position P1 is fixed as the origin of time and space, so that at this position time t is equal to 0 and the displacement x is 0.
  • the term x 0 of equation [1] is 0.
  • equation [5] is used; in the latter equation [6] is used, obtained by solving for t in equation [5].
  • equation [6] it may be of interest to know the measurement made by the electromagnetic sensor [3] when the coin is at the position P5, which would correspond to a measurement of the rim by said sensor.
  • the equation [6] would be used, where x is the distance travelled by the coin from the position of reference P1 to the position of interest P5.
  • Figure 3 shows a graphical representation of this procedure, relating an area Z of the coin 5 to be identified and the measurements made by the electromagnetic sensor 3. It is assumed that the same coin enters twice with different velocities and accelerations, so that, applying equation [5], two position vs. time graphs E1 and E2 are obtained. For these introductions two possible graphs M1 and M2 of the (electromagnetic) measurements vs. time corresponding to measurements made by the electromagnetic sensor 3 for the coin 5. The graph M1 corresponds to the graph E1 and the graph M2 corresponds to the graph E2.
  • the measurement made by the electromagnetic sensor is the same in the graph M1 as in the graph M2, as they correspond to the same position and thus to the same area Z of the coin; thus, with the present invention it is possible to measure any area of the coin regardless of the size of said coin.
  • the preferred embodiment considers the use of the optical sensors 10, which consist of phototransistors 8, in the linear region, as shown schematically in the block diagram of figure 4.
  • Said figure 4 shows a controlled current source 6, powered at a voltage V dc that feeds a photodiode 7.
  • V dc voltage
  • the level received at the phototransistor 8 is used, by means of a control loop 9, to control the current source 6.
  • the operating point of the receiver is set at the same point for all the optical sensors, regardless of the characteristics of the emitter and the receiver and the temperature and cleanliness conditions at which they operate.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Testing Of Coins (AREA)
EP02380182A 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen Ceased EP1391851A1 (de)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ES201000162A ES2380484B1 (es) 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Dispositivo y metodo selector de monedas
EP02380182A EP1391851A1 (de) 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ES201000162A ES2380484B1 (es) 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Dispositivo y metodo selector de monedas
EP02380182A EP1391851A1 (de) 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1391851A1 true EP1391851A1 (de) 2004-02-25
EP1391851A9 EP1391851A9 (de) 2004-04-28

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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EP02380182A Ceased EP1391851A1 (de) 2002-08-22 2002-08-22 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zum Prüfen von Münzen

Country Status (2)

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EP (1) EP1391851A1 (de)
ES (1) ES2380484B1 (de)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2107533A2 (de) 2008-03-10 2009-10-07 Azkoyen Medios de Pago, S.A. System und Verfahren zur Münzenauswahl
ES2380484A1 (es) * 2002-08-22 2012-05-14 Azkoyen Medios De Pago S.A. Dispositivo y metodo selector de monedas.

Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3797307A (en) * 1972-01-20 1974-03-19 Little Inc A Coin discriminator
EP0246993A2 (de) 1986-05-21 1987-11-25 Azkoyen Industrial, S.A. Münzbehandlungsvorrichtung
EP0694888A1 (de) * 1994-07-29 1996-01-31 Landis & Gyr Technology Innovation AG Einrichtung zur Prüfung von Münzen oder flachen Gegenständen
EP0818758A2 (de) * 1996-07-11 1998-01-14 Electrowatt Technology Innovation AG Einrichtung zur Prüfung der Echtheit von Münzen,Jetons oder anderen flachen metallischen Gegenständen
DE29720045U1 (de) 1997-11-12 1998-01-22 National Rejectors, Inc. Gmbh, 21614 Buxtehude Schaltungsanordnung für ein an Spannung liegendes lichtempfindliches Element, insbesondere Fototransistor
WO1999012130A1 (es) 1997-09-03 1999-03-11 Azkoyen Industrial, S.A. Procedimiento y aparato para la identificacion de piezas discoidales metalicas
WO1999023616A1 (en) 1997-11-03 1999-05-14 Coin Controls Ltd. Coin acceptor
EP0710933B1 (de) 1994-11-03 2000-04-12 Coin Acceptors, Inc. Münzerfassungsvorrichtung
DE10003289A1 (de) 2000-01-27 2001-08-09 Nat Rejectors Gmbh Verfahren zur Auswertung des zeitlichen Verlaufs einer analogen Signalkurve eines Sensors bei der Prüfung von Münzen
EP1160741A2 (de) * 2000-05-04 2001-12-05 Vesiel S.p.A. Vorrichtung zur Erkennung von Münzen und ähnlichem

Family Cites Families (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
ES2380484B1 (es) * 2002-08-22 2013-04-01 Azkoyen , S.A. Dispositivo y metodo selector de monedas

Patent Citations (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3797307A (en) * 1972-01-20 1974-03-19 Little Inc A Coin discriminator
EP0246993A2 (de) 1986-05-21 1987-11-25 Azkoyen Industrial, S.A. Münzbehandlungsvorrichtung
EP0694888A1 (de) * 1994-07-29 1996-01-31 Landis & Gyr Technology Innovation AG Einrichtung zur Prüfung von Münzen oder flachen Gegenständen
EP0710933B1 (de) 1994-11-03 2000-04-12 Coin Acceptors, Inc. Münzerfassungsvorrichtung
EP0818758A2 (de) * 1996-07-11 1998-01-14 Electrowatt Technology Innovation AG Einrichtung zur Prüfung der Echtheit von Münzen,Jetons oder anderen flachen metallischen Gegenständen
WO1999012130A1 (es) 1997-09-03 1999-03-11 Azkoyen Industrial, S.A. Procedimiento y aparato para la identificacion de piezas discoidales metalicas
EP0936582A1 (de) 1997-09-03 1999-08-18 Azkoyen Industrial, S.A. Verfahren und apparat zum identifizieren von scheibenförmigen metallgegenständen
WO1999023616A1 (en) 1997-11-03 1999-05-14 Coin Controls Ltd. Coin acceptor
DE29720045U1 (de) 1997-11-12 1998-01-22 National Rejectors, Inc. Gmbh, 21614 Buxtehude Schaltungsanordnung für ein an Spannung liegendes lichtempfindliches Element, insbesondere Fototransistor
DE10003289A1 (de) 2000-01-27 2001-08-09 Nat Rejectors Gmbh Verfahren zur Auswertung des zeitlichen Verlaufs einer analogen Signalkurve eines Sensors bei der Prüfung von Münzen
EP1160741A2 (de) * 2000-05-04 2001-12-05 Vesiel S.p.A. Vorrichtung zur Erkennung von Münzen und ähnlichem

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
ES2380484A1 (es) * 2002-08-22 2012-05-14 Azkoyen Medios De Pago S.A. Dispositivo y metodo selector de monedas.
EP2107533A2 (de) 2008-03-10 2009-10-07 Azkoyen Medios de Pago, S.A. System und Verfahren zur Münzenauswahl
ES2346612A1 (es) * 2008-03-10 2010-10-18 Azkoyen Medios De Pago, S.A. Sistema y metodo de seleccion de monedas.

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ES2380484A8 (es) 2012-06-29
ES2380484A1 (es) 2012-05-14
EP1391851A9 (de) 2004-04-28
ES2380484B1 (es) 2013-04-01

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