JP2002074260A - Emboss reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make readable a projected emboss character formed on the front surface of a card at a high speed. SOLUTION: The emboss reader is provided with an LED 15 which is arranged in the direction opposite to a card carrying direction with the emboss character 5A of a carried card 5 as a base point, generates read light and radiates it to the emboss character and an LED 16 which is arranged in a direction being symmetrical with respect to the LED 15 in the card carrying direction, generates blue light and radiates it to the emboss character. The LEDs 15 and 16 are made to continuously emit the light and a CCD sensor 18 provided with pixels R and B for respectively detecting the red and blue light beams respectively and independently detects the reflected light beams of the respective irradiation light beams radiated to the emboss character, compares the detection outputs, performs image processing corresponding to the comparison result and generates the image of the emboss character.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an emboss reading device for reading embossed characters formed on the surface of a card such as a bank card or a credit card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a view showing the arrangement of a reading section of a conventional emboss reading apparatus. In the drawing, the reference numeral 5 indicates a card, and the reference numeral 5A indicates an embossed character formed as a projection on the surface of the card 5. In FIG. 6, assuming that the card 5 is conveyed from the left to the right, the reading unit first emits an LED 31 disposed on the opposite side (left side in the figure) of the card conveying direction to emit the card 5.
And the reflected light is condensed by the rod lens 33 and output to the CCD sensor 34. Subsequently, after the reading unit turns off the LED 31, the reading unit emits the LED 32 disposed on the forward side (the right side in the drawing) of the card conveying direction to irradiate the card 5 with an optical signal, and reflects the reflected light to the rod lens 33. And output to the CCD sensor 34.

The CCD sensor 34 generates an output signal as shown in FIG. 7A when detecting the reflected light from the card 5 due to the light emission of the LED 31, and detects the reflected light from the card 5 due to the light emission of the LED 32 as shown in FIG. An output signal as shown in FIG. The reading device recognizes the shading of the embossed characters 5A formed on the card 5 by comparing the waveforms of the output signals shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B.

[0004]

In the conventional emboss reading apparatus, first, the LED 31 on the side opposite to the card conveying direction is illuminated to read the embossed character of the card 5, and then the LE is read.
LED for turning off D31 and in the forward direction of the card transport direction
The two readings are performed by alternately turning on two LEDs 31, 32, that is, reading the embossed character of the card 5 by emitting 32 light. For this reason, there is a problem that it takes a long time to read and high-speed reading cannot be performed.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to enable high-speed reading when a convex embossed character formed on the surface of the card 5 is read.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided an emboss reading apparatus for reading an embossed character of a card on which a convex embossed character is formed and which is conveyed. A first light source disposed on the side opposite to the card conveying direction with respect to the embossed character of the conveyed card and irradiating the first irradiation light having the first wavelength band to the embossed character; A second light source disposed on the side of the card in the transport direction based on the embossed character of the coming card and irradiating the embossed character with second irradiation light having a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, and a second embossed character The first and second detectors can independently detect the respective reflected lights of the first and second irradiation lights irradiated to the first and second irradiation lights.
, A comparison unit that compares the detection outputs of the first and second detection units of the detection unit, and an image that generates an image of the embossed character by performing image processing according to the comparison result of the comparison unit And a processing unit.

Further, the first and second irradiation lights are simultaneously applied to one side and the other side of the embossed character, respectively. When the first irradiation light is applied to one side of the embossed character, the first and second irradiation light are applied to the embossed character. The first reflected light (i.e., the reflected light from the "positive" portion) is reflected from one side, and at the same time, the second reflected light (i.e., the "negative light") having a smaller amount of light from the other side than the first reflected light. Reflected light from the ") part is reflected,
When the second irradiation light is irradiated on the other side surface of the embossed character, the third reflected light (that is, the reflected light from the “positive” portion) is reflected from the other side surface of the embossed character. At the same time, the fourth reflected light (ie, the reflected light from the “shadow” portion) having a smaller amount of light than the third reflected light is reflected from one of the side surfaces, and the comparing unit detects the first and second detecting means of the detecting unit. The detection output is compared, and the detection output of the detection unit that detects the reflected light with a small light amount is selected and output to the image processing unit.
Further, the detecting section is constituted by a light receiving element in which a plurality of sets of at least two pixels capable of detecting different wavelengths are arranged in a line.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an emboss reading device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the present reading apparatus 1 reads an embossed character formed in a convex shape on a card 5, and emits a red (R) light emission signal on the card 5 and an LED 15 on the card 5. B) An LED 16 for irradiating the light emission signal, an LED lighting circuit 17 for continuously lighting the LEDs 15, 16, a CCD having a pixel R for detecting red light, a pixel G for detecting green light, and a pixel B for detecting blue light. A sensor 18 is provided.
Then, an optical signal based on the light emission of the LEDs 15 and 16 is applied to the card 5 and the reflected light is detected by the pixels R and B in the CCD sensor 18 so that the embossed character 5A formed on the card 5 is read. I have to.

In this case, the reading device 1 is a CCD sensor 1
The outputs of the pixels R and B in the pixel 8 are respectively amplified by amplifier circuits 19 and 2
The signal is amplified by 0, the amplified outputs of the amplifier circuits 19 and 20 are compared by a comparator circuit 21, and the comparison result is converted into a digital signal by an A / D converter 22. Then, the digital signal of the comparison result is processed by the image processing circuit 23 to generate embossed characters as image data. When the CPU 11 inputs the image data processed and generated by the image processing circuit 23, the external I / O
The embossed character read out to an external device (not shown) via F14 is output as image data a. The reading apparatus 1 includes a ROM 12 in which a program to be executed by the CPU 11 is stored and a RAM 13 in which data is temporarily stored.
Is provided.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the arrangement of the optical system of the emboss reading device 1. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the LED 15 that emits red light and the LED 16 that emits blue light are arranged symmetrically with respect to the rod lens 25 and in a V-shape such that the emitted optical signals coincide with each other on the card surface. . That is, the embossed character 5 of the card 5 being conveyed
The LED 15 is disposed on the side opposite to the transport direction of the card 5 from the point A, and the LED 16 is disposed at a position symmetrical to the LED 15 on the side of the card transport direction.

The LEDs 15 and 16 are connected to the above-described LE.
The D lighting circuit 17 continuously emits light to emit light. Here, when the card 5 is conveyed from the left to the right in the figure, a light signal (red: R) from the LED 15 is irradiated on the card 5, and the reflected light is condensed by the rod lens 25 and the CCD 5 LE is output to the sensor 18 at the same time as LE
The optical signal (blue: B) from D16 is applied to the card 5, and the reflected light is similarly condensed by the rod lens 25 and output to the CCD sensor 18. The pixels R and B in the CCD sensor 18 detect and output each reflected light from the card 5.

By the way, the light signal of the LED 15 (red:
R) and the optical signal of the LED 16 (blue: B) have different wavelength bands as shown in the wavelength distribution diagram of FIG.
The optical signal of D15 (red: R) has a longer wavelength than the optical signal of LED16 (blue: B).

On the other hand, each pixel R, B in the CCD sensor 18
Is expressed by a graph as shown in FIG.
Reacts with red (R) light but does not react at all with blue (B) light. The pixel B in the CCD sensor 18 reacts to blue (B) light but does not react to red (R) light at all. Therefore, the light emission signals from the LEDs 15 and 16 and
No wavelength interference occurs between the pixels R and B in the CCD sensor 18 for detecting the reflected light, and the pixels R and B in the CCD sensor 18 can independently detect each optical signal. That is, the pixel R of the CCD sensor 18 generates a detection output in response to only the light signal (red: R) from the LED 15, and the pixel B outputs the light signal (blue:
A detection output is generated in response to only B).

FIG. 4 is a view showing an output image obtained by the CCD sensor 18. As shown in FIG. When an embossed character 5A as a convex portion as shown in FIG.
The shadow of the optical signal emitted from 15 to the projection (the embossed character 5A) is generated on the surface (the “shade” portion) opposite to the irradiation surface (the “positive” portion) as shown in FIG. Similarly, the shadow of the optical signal emitted from the LED 16 to the convex portion is the surface (the “shadow” portion) opposite to the irradiation surface (the “positive” portion) as shown in FIG.
Occurs. For this reason, the output level of the pixel R of the CCD sensor 18 becomes a level corresponding to the shade of the convex portion as shown in FIG. 4C, while the output level of the pixel B of the CCD sensor 18 is similarly shown in FIG. The level is in accordance with the yin and yang of the projection as shown in FIG. Therefore, for example, as for the character A which is the output image of the pixel R, an image corresponding to the two levels of the positive and negative as shown in FIG. 4D is obtained, and the character A which is the output image of the pixel B is also obtained.
An image corresponding to the two levels of yin and yang as shown in FIG.

The outputs of the pixels R and B of the CCD sensor 18 are supplied to the amplifier circuits 19 and 20 shown in FIG.
Amplified by Here, the CCs in the amplifier circuits 19 and 20 are used.
The reason for amplifying the output of each of the pixel R and the pixel B of the D sensor 18 is that the light output is different for each of the LEDs 15 and 16 and the relative sensitivity is different for each of the pixels R and B of the CCD sensor 18. This is to correct the error. Therefore, when the card 5 is plain white and has no irregularities on the surface, the amplified output level of the amplifier circuit 19 and the amplified output level of the amplifier circuit 20 become the same level.

The detection outputs of the pixels R and B of the CCD sensor 18 amplified by the amplification circuits 19 and 20, respectively, are compared by the comparison circuit 21 of FIG. 1 as described above. Comparison circuit 21
Selects an output of a lower level (that is, an optical signal having a reduced amount of light generated by a "shade" portion of a convex portion indicating the embossed character 5A), and the A / D converter of FIG. 2
2 and converted into a digital signal. The image processing circuit 23 in FIG. 1 receives this digital signal and performs image processing. That is, the image processing circuit 23 performs the image processing based on the low-level pixel output of the detection output of the pixels R and B of the CCD sensor 18 which detects the "shade" portion of the above-mentioned convex portion. Then, after the data of the processing result is temporarily stored in the RAM 13, the data is output to an external device by the CPU 11 for display and the like.

As described above, according to the present invention, when there is unevenness on the surface of a card, image processing is performed by selecting the output of a pixel that has received a reduced amount of light due to the shading.
It is possible to generate an image including a shadow on both sides of the unevenness, and thus obtain image data in which a “shadow” portion (shadow) is enhanced (that is, unevenness is enhanced) as shown in FIG. Can be.

The present invention also relates to a single LED (monochromatic light L
When the embossed character is read from the reflected light by irradiating the card 5 with light by ED), a drop-out phenomenon that a character having the same color as the emission color of the LED cannot be read can be improved. Also, it is possible to read designs and images by color printing, and the quality of read data is improved.

In this embodiment, an example is described in which the wavelength of the "red" light and the wavelength of the "blue" light are used as the wavelength of the light source. Not limited. Further, a wavelength of invisible light such as infrared light or ultraviolet light can be used as the wavelength of the light source. Further, in the present embodiment, the CCD sensor as the light receiving element is described as a line sensor arranged one-dimensionally, but the same effect can be obtained by using a two-dimensionally arranged area sensor.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, in an emboss reading device for forming a convex embossed character on the surface and reading the embossed character of a card to be conveyed, the first wavelength band is set to a predetermined value. A first light source for irradiating the embossed character with a first irradiating light, a second light source for irradiating the embossed character with a second irradiating light having a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, and an embossed character. A detecting unit having first and second detecting means capable of independently detecting each of the reflected light of the first and second irradiating lights applied to the character, and Since the detection output is compared and the image processing is performed in accordance with the comparison result to generate the embossed character image, when reading the embossed character on the card surface, two LEDs (light sources) are used as in the related art.
Can be read at once with the first and second light sources continuously turned on without performing the reading twice by alternately turning on the light sources, thereby enabling high-speed reading.

When the first optical signal is applied to one side of the embossed character, the first reflected light is reflected from one side of the embossed character and the first reflected light is reflected from the other side. When the second reflected light having a smaller amount of light is reflected, and the second optical signal is applied to the other side surface of the embossed character, the third side light is reflected from the other side surface of the embossed character.
At the same time as reflecting the fourth reflected light having a smaller amount of light than the third reflected light from one side surface, and performing image processing by detecting the reflected light having the smaller amount of light. Therefore, it is possible to generate the image data in which the shading of the embossed character is emphasized. In addition, the detection unit is provided with at least two detectors capable of detecting different wavelengths.
Since a plurality of pixels are constituted by a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a line, an embossed character can be accurately read with a simple structure and displayed as an embossed character image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an emboss reading device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an arrangement configuration of an optical system of the emboss reading device.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a wavelength distribution of an optical signal of each LED constituting the emboss reading device and a relative sensitivity of each pixel of the CCD sensor.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an output level and an output image of a CCD sensor.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an image processed based on an output level of a CCD sensor.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an arrangement configuration of an optical system of a conventional emboss reading device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an output waveform of a reading unit of a conventional emboss reading device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Emboss reading device, 5 ... Card, 5A ... Embossed character, 11 ... CPU, 15, 16 ... LED, 17 ... LED
Lighting circuit, 18: CCD sensor, 19, 20: amplification circuit, 21: comparison circuit, 22: A / D converter, 23: image processing circuit.

Continuation of the front page F term (reference) 2C005 HB09 JA08 LB15 5B029 AA05 BB04 BB05 BB06 5B072 AA01 CC02 CC12 CC26 DD02 DD21 LL11 LL13 LL18 LL19

Claims (3)

[Claims] An embossed reading device having a convex embossed character formed on a surface thereof and reading the embossed character of a card to be conveyed, wherein the embossed character of the conveyed card is used as a base and opposite to the card conveyance direction. A first irradiating light having a first wavelength band and irradiating the embossed character with a first wavelength band,
And irradiating the embossed character with a second irradiation light having a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, the second irradiation light being arranged on the card conveyance direction side with the embossed character of the conveyed card as a base point. A second light source, a detecting unit having first and second detecting means capable of independently detecting each of the reflected light of the first and second irradiation light applied to the embossed character, and A comparison unit that compares the detection output of the first detection unit of the unit and compares the detection output of the second detection unit; and performs image processing in accordance with the comparison result of the comparison unit to perform an image of the embossed character. And an image processing unit for generating an image. 2. The embossed character according to claim 1, wherein the first and second irradiation lights are simultaneously applied to one side and the other side of the embossed character, respectively, and the first irradiation light is applied to one side of the embossed character. Then, the first reflected light is reflected from one side surface of the embossed character, and at the same time, the second reflected light having a smaller amount of light than the first reflected light is reflected from the other side surface. When the irradiation light is applied to the other side of the embossed character, a third light is applied from the other side of the embossed character.
The reflected light is reflected at the same time as the fourth reflected light having a smaller amount of light than the third reflected light is reflected from one side surface, and the comparing section compares the detection output of the first detecting means of the detecting section. And select reflected light with a small amount of light.
An emboss reading device, wherein the reflected light having a smaller light amount is selected by comparing the detection outputs of the detecting means, and the image processing section performs image processing based on the selected reflected light. 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit is a light receiving element in which at least two pixels capable of detecting different wavelengths are arranged in a plurality of rows. Emboss reader.