JP2008012894A - Apparatus and method for discriminating among types of media - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus and a method for discriminating among types of media, which enable high-precision discrimination among a plurality of passbooks or media, different in size. <P>SOLUTION: The width of the medium is detected by an optical reader. A point, where a detection value of brightness, a color, or the like, detected by the optical reader, changed, and set as a point which indicates the width of the medium. Additionally, the longitudinal length of the medium is detected from a time when an optical sensor detects the medium, and a medium feed speed. The type of the medium is determined with reference to a table in which the longitudinal length and width of each medium is stored on the basis of the acquired longitudinal length and width. Furthermore, a printing position is determined from the detection value of the optical reader. For example, a CCD can be used as the optical reader. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medium type determination apparatus and a medium type determination method for a medium such as a passbook or a form, and more particularly to a medium type determination apparatus and a medium type determination method for determining a medium type by an optical reader.

  A conventional medium type discriminating apparatus detects the width of a medium by arranging a plurality of optical sensors in accordance with the width of each medium type. However, as the type of medium increases, the size of the horizontal width also increases, so that a large number of optical sensors must be used, and there is a problem in that it cannot be arranged in one apparatus. In addition, there is a problem that the optical sensor erroneously detects between media having a small width difference.

  Prior art relating to this problem includes the following.

  In Patent Document 1, a plurality of sensors for measuring the distance to the front of the form are arranged above the form stacking unit in the width direction of the form, and when the forms having different widths are stacked stepwise in the width direction, A technique for detecting the position and width of a form by detecting a change point of the distance is described.

However, when a passbook or a form is partially inserted into the medium type discriminating apparatus, there is a problem that it is difficult to detect the width unless a highly accurate sensor is used. In addition, a high-precision sensor is very expensive, and there is a problem in that it increases the manufacturing cost of the medium type discrimination device.
JP 2005-271427 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a medium type determination apparatus and a medium type determination method for accurately determining a plurality of types of media such as passbooks and forms having different sizes. Objective.

  In order to achieve this object, a medium type discriminating apparatus according to claim 1 includes an optical sensor provided at a medium insertion port for detecting the presence or absence of a medium, and the vertical and vertical directions of the medium based on the time and moving speed of the medium passing through the optical sensor. A vertical width detection unit that detects a width; an optical reader that scans a medium to be printed to obtain image information; a horizontal width detector that detects a horizontal width of a medium from a change point in luminance detected by the optical reader; Based on the media size table that stores the relationship between the specific vertical width and horizontal width for each media type, and the media width detected by the vertical width detection unit and the horizontal width of the medium detected by the horizontal width detection unit. It has a control part which distinguishes a medium type with reference, and a printing position detection part which detects a printing position from a change point of luminance detected by an optical reading device.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medium type determining method in which the vertical width detecting unit detects the vertical width of the medium from the time when the medium passes through the optical sensor and the moving speed, and the horizontal width detecting unit is optical. The width detection step for detecting the width of the medium from the brightness change point detected by the reader, and the control unit based on the height of the medium detected by the length detection unit and the width of the medium detected by the width detection unit. A medium determining step for determining the medium type with reference to the medium size table, and a print position detecting step in which the print position detecting unit detects the print position from the change point of the brightness detected by the optical reader. It is characterized by that.

  According to the medium type discriminating apparatus and the medium type discriminating method of the present invention, since the horizontal width of the medium is detected by the optical reading device, the types of the various types of media can be discriminated with high accuracy, and the print position can also be discriminated. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration example of a medium type discrimination device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The medium type discriminating apparatus 101 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a medium insertion port 111, an optical sensor 105 that detects the presence or absence of a medium disposed above the medium conveyance path 112, an optical reader 106 that images the medium, and a medium. , A page turning mechanism 110 for turning a page of the medium disposed above and below the conveyance path, and a magnetic reader 108 for reading a magnetic stripe of the medium below the conveyance path 112. Reference numeral 102 represents a medium, reference numeral 103 represents a medium insertion direction, and reference numeral 104 represents a medium carry-out direction. Although not shown, the apparatus further includes a transport mechanism that transports the medium, a control unit that determines the medium type from the horizontal and vertical widths of the medium, and a print position detection unit that detects the print position.

  Here, the medium includes a booklet-like passbook and forms made up of one or a plurality of papers, but also includes other media capable of printing or magnetic writing. The optical sensor may be transmissive or reflective. Furthermore, the print head may be any of a thermal transfer type, a dot impact type, and an ink jet type.

  FIG. 2A is a diagram schematically showing a state in which the medium type discrimination device 201 according to the embodiment of the present invention is viewed from above. In the medium 202, an arrow 203 indicates the length of the medium in the vertical direction, and an arrow 204 indicates the width of the medium. Reference numeral 205 schematically represents the width type of the medium 202. Some of these widths have a difference of only a few millimeters.

Reference numeral 206 denotes a medium carry-in direction, and reference numeral 207 denotes a medium carry-out direction. An optical sensor 208 that detects the presence or absence of a medium is disposed at the medium insertion slot. The optical reader 209 is disposed perpendicular to the medium conveyance direction. The printing unit 211 is provided perpendicular to the medium conveyance direction, and the print head is provided to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the printing unit 211. The vertical width of the medium is the length in the medium transport direction, and the horizontal width of the medium is the length in the direction perpendicular to the medium transport direction.

  FIG. 2B is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which the optical reading device 209 is viewed from the medium side. The optical reading device 209 has a plurality of optical reading elements 210 arranged side by side. A light and a reflecting mirror are provided on the back surface of the optical reading element. For example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Devices) can be used as the optical reading element 209. The optical reader 209 scans the medium and captures reflected light to obtain image information.

  FIG. 3A is a diagram of a passbook and a conveyance path, which are media inserted in the medium type discrimination device 201 according to the embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from above. The conveyance path 301 is painted black. The optical reader 209 scans the margin portion 302 of the passbook. FIG. 3B is a graph showing the results detected by the optical reading device 209 by scanning. The vertical axis 305 indicates the luminance, and the horizontal axis 306 indicates the position in the horizontal width direction. The portion where the passbook is present has a high luminance and is represented by reference numeral 307 in the graph. Since the conveyance path 301 is painted black, the luminance is small. In this way, it is possible to determine the position where the luminance changes, that is, the luminance change point, and detect the width of the medium.

  FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating a result of scanning the line 303 printed on the passbook by the optical reading device 209. Since the printed portion has a low luminance, the graph moves up and down finely as indicated by reference numeral 309 in the graph. When a portion like reference numeral 309 is detected, the control unit determines that the line has already been printed. When a line in which a portion with reduced brightness is not detected as shown in FIG. 3B after the printed line is detected on the medium, it is determined that the line is a printing position. Note that color may be used in place of the luminance for the determination of the print position.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram of elements constituting the medium type discriminating apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The medium type discriminating apparatus in the embodiment includes an optical sensor 403 that detects the presence or absence of a medium, and a vertical width detection unit that inputs a detection value from the optical sensor and determines the vertical width of the medium from the time when the medium is detected and the conveyance speed. 402, a width detection unit 404 that receives a detection value from the optical reading device 405 and detects the width of the medium from luminance or color data, a transport mechanism 406 that transports the medium, and the height of the medium for each type of medium Size is determined by referring to the medium size table 407 based on the medium size table 407 for storing the relationship between the width and the horizontal width, the vertical width determined by the vertical width detection unit 402, and the horizontal width determined by the horizontal width detection unit 404 A control unit 401; a print position detection unit that determines a print position from a change in luminance or color detected by the optical reader; a print unit 410 that performs printing; a print position detection unit 409; Includes a printing control unit 408 for controlling the 0, the.

  The control unit 401 controls the vertical width detection unit 402, the horizontal width detection unit 404, the transport mechanism 406, and the print control unit 408. The transport mechanism 406 can transport the medium line by line in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 401. The medium size table 407 can add a new medium size. The medium size table 407 may be stored in a memory or in an external storage device such as a magnetic disk. The elements constituting the medium type determination device are not limited to these.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of medium type determination processing in the embodiment of the present invention. In step S <b> 501, the vertical width detection unit 402 detects the vertical width of the medium from the time when the optical sensor 403 detects the medium and the conveyance speed, and transmits the detected vertical width to the control unit 401. In step S <b> 502, the control unit 401 refers to the medium size table 407 and determines whether the vertical width of the received medium is stored in the medium size table 407. If the received vertical width is not stored, the process proceeds to step S509, and if stored, the process proceeds to step S503.

  In step S <b> 503, the horizontal width detection unit 404 detects the horizontal width of the medium by detecting the change point from the luminance or color detected by the optical reading device 405, and transmits it to the control unit 401. In step S504, the control unit 401 determines from the combination of the vertical width received in step S501 and the horizontal width received in this step whether the corresponding medium type is stored in the medium size table. If the medium type is not stored, the process proceeds to step S509, and if it is stored, the process proceeds to step S505.

  In step S505, the control unit 401 determines the print position. Specifically, the control unit 401 determines whether or not the line has been printed from the detection value for each position in the horizontal direction of the luminance or color detected by the horizontal width detection unit 404. The print position detection unit 409 determines whether printing has been performed as follows.

  Luminance or color detection values detected by the optical reading device 405 are sequentially read from the left end. Detection value with high brightness or white color is detected first, then detection value with low brightness or black color is detected, then detection value with high brightness or white color is detected again, and more than a predetermined number of times If these luminance fluctuations are repeated, it is determined that the line has been printed. If only a detection value with high luminance or white color is detected on the medium, it is determined that the line is not printed. These determination procedures are performed up to the last line of the medium, and an unprinted line detected after the printed line is determined as a printing position.

  In step S506, if the control unit detects a printable line in the inserted medium, for example, the corresponding page of the passbook, the control unit performs a printing process in step S508. If no printable line is detected, the process proceeds to step S507. In step 507, the control unit transmits a page turning instruction to the page turning mechanism 106, determines whether there is a printable line after turning the page turning mechanism 106, and if there is a printable line, prints it. An instruction is sent to the transport mechanism 406 to eject the medium, and the transport mechanism 406 ejects the passbook. On the other hand, in step S509, the transport mechanism 406 discharges the medium.

  With this configuration, in the present embodiment, since the horizontal width of the medium is detected by the optical reading device, it is possible to determine the type of many types of media and to determine the printing position. Furthermore, even if the type of medium size increases, the type of medium can be determined with high accuracy.

  The present invention can be implemented with various modifications within the scope of its technical idea.

It is a figure showing the example of composition of the medium classification judging device of a 1st embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which the medium type determination device according to the first embodiment is viewed from above and an optical reading device. It is the figure and graph which looked at the passbook inserted in the medium classification discriminating device in a 1st embodiment, and a conveyance way from the upper part. It is a block diagram of the element which comprises the medium classification discriminating device in a 1st embodiment. It is a flowchart of the medium type discrimination | determination process in 1st Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

101: Medium type discrimination device,
102: medium,
105: Optical sensor,
106: an optical reader;
107: Print head,
110: Page turning mechanism,
401: control unit,
402: Vertical width detection unit,
404: width detection unit,
407: Medium size table.

Claims (4)

An optical sensor provided at the medium insertion port for detecting the presence or absence of the medium;
A vertical width detection unit that detects the vertical width of the medium from the time that the medium passes through the optical sensor and the moving speed;
An optical reader that scans a medium to be printed and obtains image information;
A width detection unit for detecting the width of the medium from the change point of the brightness detected by the optical reader;
A media size table storing the relationship between the vertical and horizontal widths specific to each media type;
A control unit that determines the medium type by referring to the medium size table based on the vertical width of the medium detected by the vertical width detection unit and the horizontal width of the medium detected by the horizontal width detection unit;
A print position detection unit for detecting a print position from a change point in luminance detected by the optical reader;
A medium type discriminating apparatus comprising: The horizontal width detection unit detects the horizontal width of the medium from the color change point detected by the optical reader,
2. The medium type discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print position detecting unit detects a print position from a color change point detected by the optical reading device. The vertical width detecting unit detects the vertical width of the medium from the time and the moving speed of the medium passing through the optical sensor;
A width detecting step in which the width detecting unit detects a width of the medium from a change point of luminance detected by the optical reader;
A medium determination step for determining a medium type by referring to the medium size table based on the vertical width of the medium detected by the vertical width detection unit and the horizontal width of the medium detected by the horizontal width detection unit;
A printing position detection step in which the printing position detection unit detects a printing position from a luminance change point detected by the optical reader;
A medium type determination method characterized by comprising: In the width detection step, the width detection unit detects the width of the medium from the color change point detected by the optical reader,
4. The medium type discriminating method according to claim 3, wherein, in the print position detecting step, the print position detecting unit detects a print position from a color change point detected by the optical reading device.

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