JP2000163620A - Automatic transaction machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic transaction machine which can discriminates the authenticity of money with accuracy and is improved in reliability and a money processing system. SOLUTION: A coin processor is provided with an inspecting section 7 which detects the denomination and authenticity of received and replenished coins. In the first discriminating process of the section 7, the image data of a detected coin fetched by means of an image sensor is collated with the image data of the true coin of the same denomination and the coin is discriminated as the true coin when the degree of similarity between both image data is higher than a first reference value. When the degree of similarity is lower than a second reference value, the detected coin is discriminated as a counterfeit coin. When the degree of similarity falls within the range between the first and second reference values, the image data of the detected coin is collated with previously specified image data and, when the degree of similarity between both image data is high, the detected coin is discriminated as a counterfeit coin and, when the degree of similarity is low, the coin is discriminated as the true coin.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic cash transaction apparatus which is installed in, for example, a financial institution such as a bank and automatically performs money depositing and dispensing processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, financial institutions such as banks have widely used automatic teller machines for handling money such as coins and bills. This type of automatic transaction apparatus incorporates a banknote processing apparatus that automatically performs banknote deposit and withdrawal processing, a circulation type coin processing apparatus that automatically performs coin deposit and withdrawal processing, and the like.

At the time of deposit, the coin processing device accepts the deposited coin, identifies its authenticity and denomination, and stores the genuine coins among the deposited coins in the corresponding denomination safes according to the identification result. , Fake coins will be rejected. At the time of withdrawal, the required number of coins of the required denomination are taken out from the respective denomination safes, and the number of coins is discriminated after identifying the authenticity or the denomination.

[0004] The inspection unit for identifying the authenticity and denomination of the deposited and dispensed coins includes a diameter sensor and a material sensor for physically detecting the outer diameter and material of the coin, and irradiating light to the surface of the coin. An image sensor having an image sensor for optically detecting a pattern on a coin surface from reflected light and having improved rejection performance of a foreign currency, a falsified coin, and the like has been provided. Such an inspection unit is equipped with a high-speed arithmetic processor or the like for processing the image of the coin surface at a high speed, and is considerably more expensive than a conventional inspection unit.

[0005] The image sensor as described above includes a transport surface made of a transparent glass member, an LED for irradiating light on coins transported on the transport surface from below the transport surface, and a coin below the transport surface. Area CC to capture reflected light from
D (charge-coupled device).

[0006] Since coins are circular and rotate 360 °,
It is difficult to specify the position. Therefore, the area where the coin image is captured is specified from all the image data captured by the area CCD (hereinafter, referred to as ticket cutting), and then this area is divided into annular areas having a predetermined width of about 1 mm. Then, an integrated value of density is obtained by binarizing the image data in each divided area. Then, the similarity is obtained by comparing the function (distribution) of the density integrated value of each annular area with each piece of genuine data stored in advance, and when the similarity is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the similarity is detected. The coin is determined to be genuine.

[0007]

However, as described above, in a coin processing apparatus provided with an image sensor in order to improve the exclusion performance of foreign currency, falsified coins, and the like, the detected expensive image data and the image of a genuine coin are detected. When determining the authenticity of a coin by calculating the similarity with the data, if the similarity threshold is set high to improve the accuracy, slight dirt on the coin,
The number of coins that are determined to be counterfeit coins due to contamination on the image sensor side increases, and the number of genuine coins that are rejected increases. For this reason, there is a possibility that the processing efficiency of the automatic transaction apparatus will be reduced and the serviceability to customers will be reduced. Conversely, if the threshold value of the similarity is set low, it becomes difficult to accurately remove counterfeit money, and the reliability is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic transaction apparatus capable of accurately determining the authenticity of money and having improved reliability.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a money storage unit for storing money; a loaded money inserted into the money storage unit; The depositing and dispensing unit for dispensing the money taken out of the storage unit, and a detecting unit for detecting the denomination and authenticity of the money loaded in the money storing unit, and the detecting unit includes an image of the money. Sensor as image data, storage means for storing image data of regular money, and image data of predetermined counterfeit money, and similarity between the image data taken by the image sensor and the image data of regular money And a first determination means for determining the authenticity of the detected currency, a first reference value corresponding to the calculated similarity and a predetermined amount lower than the first reference value by a predetermined amount, and And calculating the similarity between the image data captured by the image sensor and the image data of the counterfeit money. If the similarity is higher than a predetermined value, the detection is performed. It is characterized in that it comprises a second determination means for determining the currency as a counterfeit currency and determining the detected currency as a regular currency when the currency is lower than the predetermined value.

Further, another automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention includes a deposit and withdrawal unit for depositing and dispensing money, a currency storage unit for storing currency, and a currency for depositing and dispensing money from the deposit and withdrawal port. A cash-in / pay-out unit that sends the money taken out of the money storage unit to the money input / output port while sending the money to the money storage unit, and a detection that detects the denomination and authenticity of the money sent to the money storage unit. Means, a notifying means for generating a predetermined notifying signal, and a control unit for controlling the operation of the depositing and withdrawing means, the detecting means, and the notifying means, the detecting means converts the image of the money into image data An image sensor, image data of regular currency, and storage means for storing predetermined false currency image data, and calculate a similarity between the image data captured by the image sensor and the image data of regular currency. A first determining means for determining whether the detected currency is true or false, and a second reference value corresponding to the false currency, wherein the calculated similarity is a first reference value corresponding to regular currency and a predetermined amount lower than the first reference value. If it is between the reference value and the similarity between the image data captured by the image sensor and the image data of the counterfeit money is calculated, and if the similarity is higher than a predetermined value, the detected money is converted to the counterfeit money. And when the value is lower than the predetermined value, a second determining means for determining the detected money as genuine money. The control unit counts the money determined to be a false money by the second determining means. And a notifying unit that operates when the counting result of the counting unit reaches a predetermined value.

[0011] According to the automatic transaction apparatus configured as described above, the denomination and the authenticity of the inserted or deposited money are detected by the detecting means. At that time, the detecting means captures the image of the currency as image data by the image sensor, calculates the similarity between the captured image data and the image data of the regular currency, and determines the authenticity of the detected currency by the first determining means. I do. When the calculated similarity is equal to or greater than a first reference value corresponding to regular money, the first determination unit determines that the detected money is regular money, and the similarity corresponds to fake money. If the value is lower than the second reference value, the detected money is determined to be false money.

On the other hand, when the similarity of the image data of the detected currency is between the first reference value and the second reference value, the detecting means detects the image data captured by the image sensor and the false currency. The degree of similarity to the image data is calculated, and if the degree of similarity is higher than a predetermined value, the detected money is determined to be a false money, and if the degree of similarity is lower than the predetermined value, the detected money is determined to be regular money. The money determined to be regular money by the detection means is sent to and stored in the money storage unit,
Money determined to be counterfeit money is rejected.

According to the automatic transaction apparatus having the above configuration, the similarity between the image data of the detected money and the image data of the regular money is at an intermediate level, that is, the similarity is between the first reference value and the second reference value. Even when it is difficult to determine whether the currency is true or false, the similarity with the image data of the predetermined false currency stored in advance in the storage unit is obtained. If the similarity is high, the false currency is used. By doing so, the authenticity of money can be determined with higher accuracy than in the past. Therefore,
It is possible to reduce the number of genuine coins that are erroneously rejected, improve the processing efficiency, and improve the reliability and serviceability for customers.

Further, according to another automatic transaction apparatus according to the present invention, the control unit counts money determined as fake money by the detection means, and notifies the notification means when the counting result reaches a predetermined value. Activate to notify by voice or image display. Thus, it is possible to notify a staff member of a financial institution that a large number of counterfeit moneys are being traded, and to prevent systematic fraudulent operations such as the insertion of a large number of counterfeit moneys.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an automatic transaction apparatus (hereinafter referred to as ATM) according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an ATM which is installed in a branch office of a financial institution and executes self-service for receiving and paying cash, recording in a passbook, etc., has a substantially rectangular box-shaped housing 100. A substantially L-shaped operation unit 102 facing the user is formed on the front surface of the housing 100.

On the horizontal surface of the operation unit 102, a display unit 104 composed of a color liquid crystal display device having a touch panel is provided. The display unit 104 displays operating procedures and other information on a color screen by illustrations, characters or words, and guides the user, and displays the personal identification number, the amount, the account number, the approval, confirmation or cancellation of the transaction, etc. Displays the key corresponding to. When the displayed key is pressed, a touch sensor (not shown)
Detects this, and performs a so-called key input operation of outputting a corresponding signal to the main control unit 11 described later.

On a vertical surface of the operation unit 102, a card insertion slot 106 for inserting a card A in which customer information such as a personal identification number and an account number is recorded, and a passbook B in which customer information is similarly recorded. Passbook insertion slot 10 for inserting
8. A speaker 107 is provided as a sound generator. Note that the card and passbook function as a handling confirmation medium in the present invention.

At the base end of the horizontal part of the customer service panel 102, a bill receiving / dispensing port 10 which can be opened / closed by a door and through which a large number of bills P can be put in or taken out at one time.
9 and a coin depositing / dispensing port 110 for depositing / dispensing coins.
Is provided. The banknote pay-in / pay-out port 109 and the coin pay-in / pay-out port 110 function as a pay-in / pay-out section for receiving and paying money.

In the housing 100, a main control unit 111 for controlling the operation of the whole ATM, a card A inserted from the card insertion slot 106, and customer information such as a personal identification number and an account number are received from a magnetic stripe part on the card. And a passbook printer unit 113 for reading customer information from the magnetic stripe of the passbook inserted from the passbook insertion slot 108 and recording transaction contents on the passbook and journal paper (not shown).
These magnetic card reader unit 112 and passbook printer unit 113 function as a medium processing unit that reads customer information.

In the housing 100, a bill receiving / dispensing port 1 is provided.
The banknote processing device 114 that accepts the paper money P as money inserted into the coin 09 and pays out the paper money P of the designated amount to the pay-out port, and the coins that are thrown into the coin pay-in / pay-out port 110 A coin processing device 115 for receiving the C and paying out a designated amount of coins to a coin depositing / dispensing port;
A customer service unit 116 constituted by the display unit 104,
An internal monitor 118 is provided as a staff operation unit.

Further, in the housing 100, a disk drive 119 for driving a floppy disk 119a as a data file in which information on financial institutions necessary for the transfer transaction, for example, bank branch names are recorded in the order of the Japanese syllabary, A transmission control unit 120 for controlling data transmission between the control unit 111 and a host computer (not shown), and a power supply unit 1
21 are provided.

The main controller 111 is connected to a remote monitor 122 for staff members provided outside the ATM.
Then, the internal monitor 18 and the remote monitor 22 instruct the processing of detecting the presence / absence of the ATM 1, exchanging the safe, refilling the journal, and the like, and function as a display unit for displaying an image as a notification signal described later.

As shown in FIG. 3, coin processing device 115
Has a rotatable tray 1 provided opposite to the coin depositing / dispensing port 110, and when depositing, the AT is set via the tray 1
A plurality of coins of a plurality of denominations to be processed are input from outside the M, and at the time of withdrawal, coins of various mixed denominations to be paid to the outside of the ATM via the tray 1 are dispensed.

Below the receiving tray 1, there is provided an upper feeding portion 2 of a centrifugal disk structure having a rotating disk 2a, and further below the upper feeding portion there is provided a foreign matter collection box 21 for collecting foreign matter. The tray 1 rotates when a coin is inserted, and the received coin falls onto the rotating disk 2a of the upper feeding portion 2. The upper feeding portion 2 separates coins falling from the tray 1 by using centrifugal force of the rotating disk 2a, and regulates the coins by a height regulating guide (not shown) provided at an outlet of the disc 2a. And feed out one by one.

A pickup roller 3 is provided near the exit of the upper feeding section 2, and a transport mechanism 4 for transporting coins fed by the pickup roller 3 along a predetermined path is provided. This transport mechanism 4
A first transport path 4a extending substantially horizontally from the vicinity of the outlet of the upper feeding section 2, and a second transport path 4b located above the first transport path 4a and extending substantially horizontally to the tray 1.
And a U-turn transport path 4c extending from the end of the first transport path to the beginning of the second transport path.

The first transport path 4a has a first transport surface 5a extending substantially horizontally from the vicinity of the exit of the upper feeding section 2, and a first transport path 5a.
Similarly, the second transport path 4b is defined by a transport belt 5b provided adjacent to and opposed to the transport surface 5a. The transfer belt 6b is provided as an example. The transport belt 5b is wound around a pair of pulleys 11a and 11b separated by a predetermined distance. Further, the U-turn transport path 4c is constituted by a plurality of transport belts and a plurality of pulleys. Then, the transport mechanism 4 transports the coins between the transport surface and the transport belt or between the transport belts.

First and second transfer surfaces 5a, 6a which are substantially horizontal
On one side, that is, on the far side in FIG. 2, a transport reference plane (described later) extending substantially perpendicular to these transport surfaces is formed. The pickup roller 3 is provided slightly inclined in the direction in which coins fed from the upper feeding section 2 are pressed against the transport reference surface. Therefore, the coin fed by the pickup roller 3 is pressed against the transport reference surface and transported while being aligned at a predetermined position on the first transport surface 5a.

The coins taken out to the first conveying path 4a are conveyed one by one at predetermined intervals according to the rotation speed ratio between the pickup roller 3 and the conveying belt 5b. Normally, since the upper feeding portion 2 has a higher coin feeding ability than the pickup roller 3, coins are connected almost continuously before the pickup roller 3. The subsequent coin (outer diameter: D) is driven at the rotation speed of the pickup roller 3, and during the time that the coin advances by its own diameter, the previously extracted coin is driven at the transport speed of the downstream transport path 4, so that the coin is removed. The transport pitch X is as follows: X = (V2 · D) / V1 V1: upstream drive rotation speed (rotation speed of pickup roller 3) V2: downstream drive rotation speed (rotation speed of pulley 11a)

The transport mechanism 4 forcibly transports coins fed from the upper feeding section 2 while pressing the coins onto the first transport surface 5 by the first transport belt 5b, and serves as detecting means disposed downstream. To the inspection unit 7. The inspection unit 7 optically and magnetically identifies the characteristics of the conveyed coin (authenticity, damage, denomination, etc.).

Immediately before the inspection section 7, a pre-inspection sensor 12 having a light emitting element and a light receiving element provided with the first transport path 4a interposed therebetween is provided. The pre-inspection sensor 12 detects passage of the coin by blocking the optical axis between the two with the coin.

The coins passing through the inspection unit 7 are transferred to the first transport path 4
The paper is further conveyed to the downstream through a, and is sent to the sorting unit 8 disposed on the downstream side. Sorting unit 8 that functions as sorting means
Inspects the coins conveyed through the first conveying path 4a.
Are sorted by denomination based on the identification result. The sorting unit 8 is composed of, for example, a plurality of well-known opposed gates 9 and selectively opens and closes the gates 9 to sort coins by denomination.

Below the sorting section 8, a plurality of denomination safes 10 corresponding to the gates 9 are provided. Then, the coins sorted by the sorting unit 8 are put into the corresponding cash-type safe 10, and are sorted and accumulated according to the money type.

The coin identified as a fake coin (rejected coin) by the inspection unit 7 passes through the sorting unit 8 and is guided to the second transport path 4b through the U-turn transport path 4c. Is returned to the pan 1

An overflow box 13 for storing excess coins when the denomination safe 10 is full is provided between the inspection unit 7 and the denomination safe 10, and is provided on the first transport path 4a. Excess coins are thrown into the overflow box through the opposing gate 14.

Further, a loading storage 15 is arranged below the downstream end of the first transport path 4a. When the overflow box 13 is full or the like, the excess coins are loaded into the loading bin 1 by the facing gate 16 provided in the first transport path 4a.
Collect in 5. In addition, when refilling coins from the outside into the coin processing device 115, refill coins are also put into the loader 15.

Below the denomination safe 10, there is provided a lower feeding section 17 having the same centrifugal disk structure as the upper feeding section 2 described above. A pinch-type vertical conveyor 18 for transporting coins fed from the lower feeding section 17 to the upper feeding section 2 is provided on the side of the denomination-type safe 10. The vertical conveyor 18 includes a plurality of flat belts, pulleys, and the like, and forms a part of the transport mechanism 4.

When a predetermined number of coins are not stored in the cash-type safe 10, the loading storage 1
From 5, coins are replenished to the denomination safe 10. That is, a coin ejecting unit (not shown) constituted by a reciprocating picker or the like provided at the lower part of the loading case 15 is used.
, A specified number of coins are taken out and put into the lower feeding section 17. The lower feeding section 17 feeds out coins thrown out of the loading storage 15 one by one and sends them to the vertical conveyor 18, and conveys the coins to the upper feeding section 2 via the vertical conveyor 18. The coins conveyed to the upper feeding section 2 are fed one by one to the first conveying path 4a in the same manner as described above, and after the authenticity, correctness, denomination and the denomination are identified by the inspection section 7, the coins are determined by the sorting section 8. Is stored in the denomination safe 10.

The coin dispensing process is performed by taking out a coin from the denomination safe 10 corresponding to the designated denomination and paying it out to the tray 1. First, a designated number of coins are taken out of the corresponding denomination safe 10 by a coin dispensing unit 19 composed of a reciprocating picker or the like disposed at the lower part of each denomination safe 10, and below the denomination safe 10. To the lower feeding portion 17 disposed in the first position.

The lower feeding section 17 feeds out coins thrown from the denomination safe 10 one by one and sends them to the vertical conveyor 18, and the coins are conveyed to the upper feeding section 2 via the vertical conveyor 18. . The coins conveyed to the upper dispensing unit 2 are dispensed one by one to the first conveying path 4a as described above, and after checking the denomination and quantity in the inspection unit 7, the coins conveyed to the first dispensing number are counted. It is transported to the lowest point of the road. Subsequently, the coin is guided to the second flow path 4b via the U-turn path 4c, and is discharged to the receiving tray 1 through the second path 4c.

As described above, the above-described upper feeding section 2, lower feeding section 17, transport mechanism 4, and vertical conveyor 18 function as transport means and depositing / dispensing means in the present invention. In addition, below the second transport path 4b, between the tray 1 and the storage box 23, there is provided a temporary storage section 20a for temporarily storing dispensed coins and the like. Is provided with a facing gate 20b.

Next, the configuration of the inspection unit 7 functioning as the detecting means in the present invention and the coin identifying operation by the inspection unit will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 4, the inspection unit 7 includes a transmitted magnetic flux amount detection type material sensor 60 that magnetically detects the material of the coin C, and a diameter sensor 40 that includes a line CCD and optically detects the outer diameter of the coin C. , And area CC
An image sensor 30 which is constituted by D and optically detects a pattern on the surface of the coin C is provided, and these sensors are juxtaposed along the coin C transport direction (the direction of arrow a in the figure). The sensors 30, 40, and 60 are integrally held by the base member 7a, and are integrally detachable from the coin processing device 115. The diameter sensor 40 and the material sensor 60 have opening portions 40a and 60a for inserting and removing the transport belt 5b, respectively.

Note that the diameter sensor 40 is the image sensor 3
In this embodiment, the diameter sensor 40 is used together with the image sensor 30 in order to further enhance the coin identification accuracy in the inspection unit 7, although it is not indispensable because substitution by 0 is possible.
Is also provided.

As described above, the inspection unit 7 including the image sensor 30, the diameter sensor 40, and the material sensor 60 comprehensively determines the detection results of the sensors 30, 40, and 60, and determines the coin denomination, true Identify false, damaged, dirty, etc. The image sensor 30 and the diameter sensor 4 in the inspection unit 7
0 and the arrangement order of the material sensors 60 can be appropriately changed.

Hereinafter, each of the sensors 30, 40 and 60 will be described in detail. First, as shown in FIG. 5, the material sensor 60 has a transparent plate 41 made of transparent and strong sapphire glass. The transparent plate 41 is provided on the first transport surface 5a.
And is located in the same plane as the first transfer surface. The transparent plate 41 extends to a diameter sensor 40 described later, and the coin C is transported on the transparent plate 41. On one side of the sensor 60 along the width direction of the transparent plate 41, an opening 60a for inserting and removing the transport belt 5b is formed.

The material sensor 60 includes a wide primary core 61 extending in the width direction of the first transport path 4 a below the transparent plate 41, and an exciting primary coil 62 wound around the primary core 61. Is wound around the primary coil 62 so that the primary coil 62
Secondary coil 63, which receives electromagnetic induction from the coil, is wound around a wide secondary core 64 and a secondary core 64 extending along the width direction of the first transport path 4a above the transparent plate 41. And a second secondary coil 65 that receives electromagnetic induction from the primary coil 62. The primary coil 62 is excited by a sine wave signal emitted from a sine wave oscillator 66.

The outputs from the first and second secondary coils 63 and 65 are respectively amplified to a predetermined level via an amplifier circuit 67, and then the DC component is cut by a DC component cut circuit 68 comprising a capacitor or the like. , Is subjected to full-wave rectification by the full-wave rectification circuit 69. In addition, these outputs are LPF
(Low-pass filter) 70, which is smoothed and converted into direct current, and supplied to the arithmetic circuit 71 as a first secondary coil rectified output V21 and a second secondary coil rectified output V22.

In the arithmetic circuit 71, these rectified outputs V2
The output signal Vout is calculated according to the following formula based on 1 and V22. Here, AMP1, AMP2,
And AMP3 are constants. Vout = AMP1 × [AMP2 × V21−AMP3
× V22] Then, this output signal Vout is supplied to A
The signal is input to the / D converter 73, where it is periodically converted to a digital signal and output as a sensor output of the material sensor 60. Then, the maximum value (peak) of this sensor output is recorded in advance in a ROM of a control unit described later with reference to FIG.
The material of the coin C passing through the material sensor 60 is determined by collating with a material detection table as shown in FIG.

That is, when the maximum value of the sensor output matches the output range of any one of the denominations in the material detection table, it is found that the denomination and the material are the same, and the denomination of the denomination is determined. Adopted as data. Here, as shown in FIG. 6C, in the table data of each denomination, when the width between the upper limit and the lower limit of the genuine coin area A is 1.0, for example, the range of 0.2 It is set as a coin area B. When the maximum value of the detected sensor output is located in the genuine coin area A of a certain denomination, it is determined that the coin C is a genuine coin with respect to the material, and the coin C is located in the coin loss area B. In this case, it is determined that the coin C is a damaged coin with respect to the material.

When the maximum value of the sensor output deviates from both the true coin area A and the bad coin area B, the coin C does not correspond to any denomination and the coin is a counterfeit coin. Is identified.

As shown in FIG. 7, the diameter sensor 40 has a transparent plate 41 common to the material sensor 60.
The opening portion 40a for inserting and removing the transport belt 6 is provided on one side along the width direction of the coin C, that is, the direction crossing the transport direction of the coin C. The diameter sensor 40 includes an LED (light emitting diode) array 42 as a light source, which extends in the width direction above the transparent plate 41, a printed wiring board 43 on which the LED array 42 is mounted, and light from the LED array 42. An optical slit 44 for guiding the light to the transparent plate 41, an optical slit 45 disposed below the transparent plate 41, a condensing lens 46 such as a self-fox lens for condensing light passing through the optical slit 45, It includes a CCD line sensor 47 that receives light through an optical lens 46, and a printed wiring board 48 to which the line sensor 47 is attached.

A mask member 49 is provided between the transparent plate 41 and the condenser lens 46. This mask member masks the transport belt 5b and prevents the detection accuracy from deteriorating due to the deflection of the transport belt 5b. Due to the presence of the mask member 49, the optical slit 45 is divided into two along the width direction of the transparent plate 41.

Guide members 51 and 52 for guiding the conveyance of the coin C and defining an effective detection area are provided at both ends in the width direction of the transparent plate 41. In particular, the inner side surface of the guide member 51 constitutes a transport reference plane that defines the transport position of the coin C.

When the coin C is forcibly conveyed on the transparent plate 41 by the conveyor belt 5b, the light emitted from the LED array 42 is blocked by the coin C, and a light / dark signal due to the coin shadow generated at that time is sent to the line sensor 47. Is detected by Then, the maximum value of the sensor output is determined by the RO of the control unit.
By comparing with a diameter detection table as shown in FIG. 6B stored in advance in M, the outer diameter of the coin C is determined, and the denomination of the coin is determined.

Here, similarly to the material sensor 60, in the diameter detection table data of each denomination, as shown in FIG. 6C, the width between the upper limit and the lower limit of the genuine area A is set to 1.0. In this case, for example, a range of 0.2 above and below is set as the loss area B. When the maximum value of the detected sensor output is located in the genuine coin area A of a certain denomination, it is determined that the coin C is a genuine coin with respect to the diameter, and the coin C is located in the coin loss area B. In this case, it is determined that the coin C is a bad coin with respect to the diameter. When the maximum value of the sensor output deviates from both the true coin area A and the bad coin area B, the coin C does not correspond to any denomination with respect to the diameter, and is identified as a fake coin.

Further, the guide member 5 is detected by the diameter sensor 40.
By measuring the length from the effective area defined by 1 to the shadow end of the coin C, the transport position of the coin C, that is, the distance from the guide member 51 to the end of the coin C (the amount of shift) is detected. can do.

As shown in FIG. 8, the control system of the inspection unit 7
Diameter sensor 40 and material sensor 6 as physical quantity sensors
0 and a second inspection side for controlling the image sensor 30.

The control system on the first inspection side includes a control program,
ROM 91a storing material detection table data, diameter detection table data, etc., RAM 92a for temporarily recording various data, CPU 90a for sequentially reading and executing control programs, ICU 93 for interrupt control, clock output from diameter sensor 40 A timer / counter (TCU) 95 for counting data, an SCU 97 for performing a serial interface with the second inspection side, and an A / D converter 73 for sequentially A / D converting and taking in output signals from the material sensor 60 are provided. are doing.

The control system on the second inspection side is a DS for processing an image captured by the image sensor 30 at high speed.
P (Digital Signal Processor) 99, a ROM 91 as storage means for storing a control program, image data of genuine coins described later, image data of counterfeit coins, etc.
b, a RAM 92b for temporarily recording image data captured in one scan, an SCU (serial communication controller) 96 for transmitting and receiving data serially with the first inspection side,
A counter 121 serving as a counting means for counting the number of coins determined to be counterfeit;
It has a PU 90b.

The CPU 90a on the first inspection side and the CPU 90b on the second inspection side are connected to the control unit 120 of the coin processing unit 115, and the operation of the entire coin processing unit including the inspection unit 7 is controlled by this control unit. You. In addition, the coin processing device 115 has a memory 12 as a customer information storage unit.
3, and a switch section S as an input means for setting and changing various operating conditions and the like. This switch section is also connected to the CPUs 90a and 90b of the inspection section 7.

As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the switch section S includes a dip switch S1 consisting of 8 bits which can be turned on / off, and a rotary switchable at four positions A to D along the circumference. Switches S2 and S3 and a push switch S4 are provided. Also, the switch unit S
Is provided with a display section 98 having 7-segment LEDs for displaying the switching state of each switch.

By setting the write address, write data, and the like by operating the switch section S, fake image data in the inspection section 7 can be added, changed, or deleted as necessary. In addition, a first reference to be described later, which serves as a criterion for authenticity determination in the inspection unit 7 via the switch unit S,
The reference value, the second reference value, the threshold, and the like can be arbitrarily changed.

In the inspection section 7, the ROM 91b storing image data of counterfeit coins such as foreign currency and counterfeit coins is stored as:
When a volatile memory such as an EPROM that can be attached to and detached from the substrate is used, by replacing the EPEOM 95, the counterfeit image data can be changed.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the image sensor 30 has a transparent plate 31 of sapphire glass or the like embedded at a substantially central position of the first transfer surface 5a.
The coin C is forcibly transported by the transport belt 5b. Below the transparent plate 31, a pair of LED (light emitting diode) arrays 32 as a light source for irradiating light on the lower surface of the transparent plate 31 from an oblique direction to illuminate the surface of the coin C passing over the transparent plate 31, An area CCD 33 as a photoelectric conversion element for receiving reflected light from the surface of the coin C and converting the reflected light into an electric signal, and a printed wiring board 34 on which the area CCD 33 is mounted are provided. The transparent plate 31, the LED array 32, the area CCD 33, and the printed wiring board 34 are fixed to the base member 7a.

By arranging the LED array 32 obliquely with respect to the transparent plate 31, it is possible to emphasize the shading of the uneven shape of the surface of the coin C passing on the transparent plate 31, and to detect the signal by two times.
It can be easily priced.

As the area CCD 33, for example, 20 to
A 300,000 pixel CCD is used. This area CCD3
3 reads the image (pattern) on the surface of the coin C by turning on the LED array 32 momentarily when the coin C comes to a predetermined position, and transfers the image to the RAM 92b as image data.

Next, the pattern detection processing and the authenticity determination processing of the coin C by the image sensor 30 will be described with reference to FIGS.
0 and FIG. First, when a coin C to be detected is conveyed to a position facing the area CCD 33 of the image sensor 30, as described above, LE
Light is emitted from the D array 32 to the coin surface, and reflected light from the coin surface is received by the area CCD 33. Area C
The sensor output from CD33 is DS
After being converted into a digital value in P99, the digital value is sent to the CPU 90b as image data of the coin C and stored in the RAM 92b (ST1).

When the image data of the coin C is stored in the RAM 92b, the CPU 90b specifies an image area corresponding to the coin C from all the image data stored in the RAM 92b (performs a so-called ticket cutting process). Next, by binarizing the image data of the specified image area,
The feature amount of the image is extracted (ST2). These image processes are performed by high-speed arithmetic processing by the DSP 99.

When the characteristic amount is extracted, the CPU 90b
The extracted feature amount is collated with genuine image data of each denomination stored in the ROM 91b in advance and compared to make a first determination of the denomination and authenticity of the coin C.

Here, generally, the coin C is circular and 3
Rotate 60 degrees. Therefore, it is difficult to specify the direction of the pattern. In addition, when the rotation of the coin C is considered when performing the image processing, a response delay occurs and the processing time becomes impractical. Therefore, it is necessary to extract a feature amount irrelevant to the rotation of the coin C.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
Specifies the area where the image of the coin C is captured (performs so-called ticket cutting processing) from all the image data captured by the area CCD 33, and sets the specified area to a predetermined width (for example,
The image data is divided into a plurality of annular areas (about 1 mm), and in each of the annular areas, the image data is binarized at a predetermined threshold to obtain an integrated value of density (high-level integrated value). Next, the distribution of the concentration integral value in these all annular areas,
A similarity Rk with genuine image data (a reference distribution pattern as reference value data) of each denomination previously stored in the ROM 91b is obtained by the following equation (ST3).

Similarity (Rk) = {(Ai × Bi)}
/ {Ai × {Bi} where Ai indicates the density distribution of genuine coins and Bi indicates the density distribution of the detected coins.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 12 (a), in the first determination processing, the CPU 90b compares the similarity Rk obtained by the above equation with a first reference value R1 (for example, , 0.9) and the second reference value R
2 (for example, 0.8) (ST4, ST5),
When the similarity Rk is equal to or more than the first reference value R1 (Rk ≧
0.9), it is determined that the coin C to be detected is a genuine coin (ST6). The CPU 90b determines that the similarity Rk is the second
When it is lower than the reference value R2 (Rk <0.9), it is determined that the coin C to be detected is a fake coin (ST7).

On the other hand, the similarity Rk with the genuine coin is the first reference value R
1 and the second reference value R2, that is, R1> Rk ≧ R2
Is within the range (gray zone), the CPU 90b
A second determination is made as to whether the coin C is similar to a counterfeit coin such as a foreign currency or a counterfeit coin.

In the second determination, the CPU 90b calculates the image data of the coin C and the ROM 91b by the following equation.
The degree of similarity Ri of the main foreign currency and counterfeit coins stored therein with the counterfeit image data is calculated (ST8). Similarity (Ri) = {(Ci × Bi)} / {Ci
× {Bi} Here, Ci indicates the density distribution of the fake coin, and Bi indicates the density distribution of the detected coin.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 12 (b), the CPU 90b compares the similarity Ri obtained by the above equation with a preset threshold A (for example, 0.
8) (ST9), and when the similarity Ri is greater than or equal to the threshold value A (Rk ≧ A), the coin C to be detected has a high similarity to the counterfeit coin and is determined to be a counterfeit coin as a whole. (ST1
0). When the similarity Ri is lower than the threshold A (Ri <A), the CPU 90b determines that the coin C to be detected is not a fake coin, that is, is a genuine coin (ST11).

As described above, the CPU 90b functions as the first determining means and the second determining means in the present invention. Then, by the above processing operation, the inspection unit 7 identifies the denomination and the authenticity of the coin received through the receiving tray 1 and the coin replenished from the loading storage 15. As shown in FIG. 1, a coin determined to be a genuine coin is stored in the corresponding denomination-type safe 10 according to the denomination by the above-described processing.
The coin determined to be counterfeit is returned to the saucer 1.

On the other hand, the control unit 120 of the coin processing device 115
Performs a counterfeit payment notification process and a transaction stop process in accordance with the number of counterfeit coins detected by the inspection unit 7 for each coin deposit transaction. That is, as shown in FIG. 13, when the coin depositing process is started, the counter 121 of the inspection unit 7 for counting the number of counterfeit coins is cleared (ST1), and then the first determination and the second determination described above are performed by the inspection unit 7. 2 is executed to discriminate the authenticity of the deposited coin (ST2).

If there is a coin determined to be counterfeit (ST3), the control section 120 counts up the number of counterfeit coins input by the counter 121 (ST4). And
It is determined whether or not coins remain in the upper feeding portion 2 of the coin processing device 115 (ST5), and the above steps 2 to 4 are repeated until no coins are left in the upper feeding portion.

After the coins in the upper dispensing section 2 are exhausted and all the deposited coins have been judged, the control section 12
In the case of 0, the number of fake coins counted by the counter 121 is compared with a predetermined value set in advance (ST6).
To invalidate the deposit transaction (ST7),
A counterfeit money input notification process is executed (ST8).

In the fake money input notification processing, the control unit 120
Transmits, as a notification signal, voice information urging a staff member at a counter of a financial institution or the like to confirm the insertion of counterfeit money, and transmits the ATM housing 100
The display information generated by the speaker 107 provided in the ATM and prompting the attendant to confirm the insertion of counterfeit money is displayed on the ATM display unit 104, the internal monitor 118, and the remote monitor 122.
Display on any or all of.

Further, when the number of fake coins is larger than the predetermined value, the control unit 120 fetches the customer information read from the card A or the passbook B by the magnetic card reading unit 112 or the passbook printer unit 113 and inputs the fake money. It is stored in the memory 123 that the customer has performed the transaction (ST9), and it is confirmed whether or not the same counterfeit money input transaction by the same customer has been performed a predetermined number of times (ST1).
0). Then, if the customer has performed the fake money input transaction a predetermined number of times or more, the control unit 120 functions as a stopping means and registers in the memory 120 that the transaction with the customer will be stopped thereafter (ST11).

According to the ATM according to the present embodiment configured as described above, when the inspection unit 7 of the coin processing device 115 determines the authenticity of a coin, the first determination processing is performed on the coin to be detected. The image data and the genuine image data are collated to determine genuine and fake coins, and coins whose authenticity is difficult to determine in the first determination process, that is, the similarity with the genuine image data is equal to the first reference value. For coins in the gray zone between the second reference value, the image data of the coin to be detected and the image data of the counterfeit coin are compared to determine the similarity to the counterfeit coin, and based on this similarity, By making the determination, an accurate true / false determination can be made for these coins. Therefore, it is possible to provide an ATM in which the number of regular coins erroneously rejected is reduced even when the accuracy of the authenticity determination is increased, the processing efficiency is improved, and the customer reliability and serviceability are improved.

According to the ATM, when a predetermined number of fake coins are inserted in a coin deposit transaction,
By generating a notification signal by voice or a screen through a speaker, a display unit, an internal monitor, a remote monitor, or the like, it is possible to notify a staff member that a fake coin has been inserted. Thereby, the attendant can perform an appropriate process such as confirmation of the inserted coin, prevention of a large amount of foreign currency or altered currency being inserted.

At the same time, according to the ATM, when a predetermined number or more of fake coins are inserted, all the deposited coins are returned to the deposit / withdrawal slot. Can be prevented.

Further, according to the ATM, when a predetermined number or more of fake coins are inserted, the customer information of the customer who made the fake coin insertion transaction is stored, and the same fake coin insertion transaction by the same customer is performed a predetermined number of times. Confirm whether or not the transaction has been performed, and if the customer has performed the counterfeiting transaction more than a predetermined number of times, stop the transaction with the customer at all, and then enter the counterfeit money It is possible to prevent transactions with potential customers and prevent the systematic input of counterfeit money.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified within the scope of the present invention. For example, the reference value of the similarity, the threshold value, and the like, which are the criterion of authenticity of coins in the inspection unit, can be changed as necessary.

In the above embodiment, the coin processing apparatus for processing coins as money has been described in detail, but the present invention may be applied to a banknote processing apparatus for processing bills as money.

Further, as shown in FIG.
A money processing system may be configured by installing a plurality of ATMs 1 to n having the same configuration as M and connecting these ATMs to the central management unit 124. Then, the central management unit 1 stores the image data of the specific counterfeit coin used for the authenticity judgment of the money.
24 to each ATM by communication means, etc.
A configuration in which counterfeit image data in M is updated, added, or deleted may be adopted.

[0090]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the image data of the currency to be detected and the image data of the regular currency are collated to determine whether the currency is true or false. For difficult coins, an ATM with improved reliability for accurate authenticity judgment without lowering processing efficiency by performing authenticity judgment by collating with image data of counterfeit money.
Can be provided.

Further, according to the present invention, in a deposit transaction, when the number of deposited false money reaches a predetermined value, this is notified to thereby prevent an automatic transaction in which a large amount of foreign currency or falsified money can be prevented. An apparatus can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an ATM according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the entire ATM.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a coin processing device in the ATM.

4A is a plan view, FIG. 4B is a side view, and FIG. 4C is a cross-sectional view showing an inspection unit incorporated in the coin processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a material sensor in the inspection unit.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a material detection table, a diameter detection table, and a set area width used for identifying coins in the inspection unit.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a diameter sensor incorporated in the inspection unit.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a control system of the inspection unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing a switch unit of the coin processing device.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing coin identification processing by the inspection unit.

FIG. 11 is a view for explaining a method of identifying coins by an image sensor incorporated in the inspection unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a similarity to a genuine coin and a reference value of the similarity to a counterfeit coin used for authenticity judgment by the inspection unit.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing counterfeit money input processing and transaction stop processing in the ATM.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram schematically showing a money handling system provided with an ATM according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Receiving tray 2 ... Upper feeding part 4a ... 1st conveyance path 4b ... 2nd conveyance path 4c ... U-turn conveyance path 6 ... Conveyor belt 7 ... Inspection part 10 ... Cash-type safe 17 ... Lower feeding part 30 ... Image sensor 33 ... Area CCD 40 Diameter sensor 60 Material sensor 90a, 90b CPU 107 Speaker 111 Main control unit 112 Magnetic card read unit 113 Passbook printer unit 114 Banknote processing unit 115 Coin processing unit 120 Control unit C coin

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 3E002 AA01 AA06 AA13 BC03 BD01 CA06 CA12 CA14 CA20 DA04 3E040 AA01 AA04 AA07 AA08 BA08 CA14 CB04 DA03 DA04 FA03 FA04 FA05 FA09 FA10 FC06 FD01 FD08 FE01 FG03 FG05 FB1 A03A03

Claims (8)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A money storage unit for storing money, and the inserted money is loaded into the money storage unit.
The depositing and dispensing unit for dispensing the money taken out from the currency storing unit, and a detecting unit for detecting a denomination and authenticity of the currency loaded in the currency storing unit, the detecting unit includes the currency An image sensor that captures the image as image data, image data of regular currency, and storage means that stores predetermined false currency image data, and image data captured by the image sensor and image data of the regular currency. First determining means for calculating the similarity and determining the authenticity of the detected money; a first reference value corresponding to the calculated similarity and a predetermined reference value lower than the first reference value corresponding to the normal money; Is calculated between the image data of the counterfeit money and the image data captured by the image sensor,
When the similarity is higher than a predetermined value, the detected money is determined to be false money, and when the similarity is lower than the predetermined value, second detection means for determining the detected money to be normal money is provided. And automatic transaction equipment. 2. A deposit and withdrawal unit for depositing and dispensing money, a currency storage unit for storing money, and sending the money received from the deposit and withdrawal port to the currency storage unit and storing the money in the currency storage unit. Depositing and dispensing means for dispensing the money taken out of the section from the depositing and dispensing port, detecting means for detecting the denomination and authenticity of the money sent to the money storing section, and a notification for generating a predetermined notification signal Means, a control unit for controlling the operation of the depositing and dispensing means, the detecting means, and the notifying means, the detecting means, an image sensor for capturing the image of the money as image data, and image data of regular money And storage means for storing image data of a predetermined counterfeit money, calculating the similarity between the image data captured by the image sensor and the image data of the regular money, and determining the authenticity of the detected money. 1 Determining means for determining whether the calculated similarity is between a first reference value corresponding to regular money and a second reference value corresponding to counterfeit money lower than the first reference value by a predetermined amount. Calculate the similarity between the image data captured by and the image data of the fake money,
When the similarity is higher than a predetermined value, the detected money is determined to be fake money, and when the similarity is lower than the predetermined value, the detected money is determined to be normal money. Has a counting means for counting the money determined to be false money by the second determination means, and activates the notification means when the counting result by the counting means reaches a predetermined value. Automatic transaction equipment. 3. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said notifying means includes a voice generating unit for generating a voice notification signal. 4. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said notification means includes a display unit for displaying a notification signal based on an image. 5. The control section, when the counting result by the counting means reaches a predetermined value, returns the deposited money to the deposit and withdrawal port by the deposit and withdrawal means, and deposits and withdraws the money. 5. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a stop unit for invalidating the transaction. 6. A medium processing unit for receiving a transaction confirmation medium on which predetermined customer information is recorded and reading the customer information, and a customer information storage unit for storing the customer information read by the medium processing unit. When the depositing / dispensing transaction invalidated by the stopping means is repeated a predetermined number of times, the control means determines that the depositing / dispensing transaction with respect to a transaction confirmation medium having the same customer information as the customer information stored in the storage means. 6. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the transaction is disabled. 7. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data of the counterfeit money includes image data of a foreign currency and image data of a counterfeit money. 8. The automatic transaction apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an input unit capable of changing image data of counterfeit money in said storage unit.