JP2009282837A - Rewritable card processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rewritable card processor that provides a high reliability for a rewritable process by determining the printed condition of a rewritable card through comparison between the print information of the rewritable card and image data on the card surface of the rewritable card. <P>SOLUTION: The rewritable card processor has: a storage unit 30 for storing print information to be printed on the rewritable card 22; a rewrite printing unit 9 for printing the print information stored in the storage unit 30; a card surface reading unit 10 for reading an image on the surface of the rewritable card 22 that is printed by the rewrite printing unit 9; and a control means for comparing the image data on the surface of the rewritable card 22 read by the card surface reading unit 10 with the print information stored in the storage unit 30 and, if the comparison result indicates a predetermined relationship, determining that the printing of the rewritable card 22 is normal, and making control to issue the rewritable card 22. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a rewritable card processing apparatus, and more particularly to a rewritable card processing apparatus with a built-in magnetism or IC chip that is used as a commuter pass or a boarding ticket in transportation such as railways and buses.

  The rewritable card processing device refers to, for example, when updating the card information of a rewritable card equipped with magnetism or IC chip used as a commuter pass or boarding ticket, after erasing data recorded on the magnetism or IC chip, It is an apparatus that performs processing for updating the printing contents on the front surface and re-recording data.

  The main functions of the rewritable card processing apparatus are an erasing function for erasing printed contents on the card surface and a printing function for printing on the card surface. The erasing function is a function for erasing printed characters and the like by applying a constant temperature (about 130 ° C.) to the card surface by an erasing head composed of a heating resistor and a heating resistor temperature detection thermistor. The printing function is a function for printing characters and the like by giving a constant temperature (about 180 ° C.) for each dot to the card surface by a print head composed of a plurality of heating elements.

  By the way, to erase the printing on the card surface, it is necessary to keep the temperature of the erasing head constant during the erasing operation. For example, when processing a low-temperature card, the temperature of the erase head decreases when the heated erase head touches the low-temperature card, and as a result, the portion of the erase head that does not satisfy the temperature condition necessary for erasure The printed characters cannot be completely erased. In other words, due to a lack of thermal energy (erase energy) necessary for erasing, unerased printing remains on the card surface. Further, even when the number of card rewriting processes is large, when the card surface changes due to wear or the like, and when the erasing energy is insufficient due to hardware factors, the card surface remains unerased. If printing is performed in a state where there is an unerased portion, the printed characters may overlap with the unerased characters, making it difficult to interpret the ticket surface. Patent Document 1 describes a ticket processing apparatus that enables highly reliable rewrite processing by determining whether or not printing remains unerased after erasing operation of card surface printing.

JP 2003-346195 A

  However, in the ticket processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the erasure process is retried even when the rewritable card face has a non-hindered disappearance in actual operation. There is a problem that requires. In addition, since the printing state of the rewritable card immediately before issuance is not confirmed, there is a possibility that a rewritable card that is difficult to read is eventually issued. In recent years, the commuter pass has been shifted to IC cards, so there are more and more opportunities to issue rewritable cards at station counter operations. Are required to reduce processing time and reduce transaction interruption.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a rewritable card processing device with high reliability of rewritable processing by comparing print information of a rewritable card and image data of a rewritable card face to determine a printing state of the rewritable card. It is in.

  In order to achieve the above object, in a preferred example, the rewritable card processing apparatus of the present invention is a rewritable card processing apparatus that prints and issues information on a rewritable card that can rewrite printed information. A storage unit that stores print information to be printed; a printing unit that prints the print information stored in the storage unit; an image reading unit that reads an image on the surface of the rewritable card printed by the printing unit; When the image data of the surface of the rewritable card read by the image reading means and the print information stored in the storage unit are compared and the comparison result has a predetermined relationship, the printing of the rewritable card is And a control means for controlling to issue the rewritable card after judging that it is normal. It is possible.

  In addition, input means for inputting specific information required for issuing the rewritable card is provided, the storage unit stores the print information including the specific information, and the control means extracts the specific information from the image data. The extracted specific information and the print information stored in the storage unit are compared, and if the comparison results match, it is determined that printing of the rewritable card is normal and the rewritable card is It can be configured to control to issue.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a rewritable card processing apparatus with high reliability of rewritable processing by comparing print information of a rewritable card and image data of a rewritable card face to determine a printing state of the rewritable card. Can do.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described based on the following embodiments with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a rewritable card processing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram thereof. The rewritable card processing apparatus 1 includes a main control unit 2, an input / display unit 3, a card hopper unit 4, a card feeding unit 5, a main transport path unit 6, an information reading / writing unit 7, a rewrite erasing unit 8, and a rewrite printing unit 9. , A card surface reading unit 10, a card collecting unit 11, and a card suction / issuing port 12.

  The input / display unit 3 includes an input unit in which information necessary for issuance of the rewritable card 22 (for example, information related to update of the deadline, information related to the issuance conditions) is input by the operator, operation guidance, error message, and the like. For example, a touch panel. The card hopper unit 4 is loaded with a new ticket card 13 before information is recorded, and presses the new ticket card 13 against the card feeding unit 5 by the pressing plate 14. The card delivery unit 5 rotates the delivery roller 15 to deliver new ticket cards 13 one by one through the separation gate 16 and sends them to the main transport path unit 6. The main transport path unit 6 includes a transport roller 17, a guide 18, and a transport path sensor 19. The main transport path unit 6 transports the rewritable card 22 and transmits position information of the rewritable card 22 to the main control unit 2.

  The information reading / writing unit 7 writes information necessary for issuing a card to the new card 13. Further, the information of the old card 18 taken in from the card inhaling / issuing port 12 at the time of card update is read, and the old card 18 is written again. The rewritable erasing unit 8 presses a heater composed of a heating resistor and a heating resistor temperature detection thermistor against the surface of the rewritable card 22 and heats it to about 130 ° C., and prints characters printed on the surface of the rewritable card 22. Erase. The heater temperature is controlled by the main controller 2. The rewritable printing unit 9 has a thermal head, and presses the heater unit against the surface of the rewritable card 22 to perform printing on the surface of the rewritable card 22 as instructed from the main control unit 2.

  In the card surface reading unit 10, an optical scanner is installed toward the bill surface of the rewritable card 22, an image on the surface of the rewritable card 22 is read, and the read image data is stored in a storage unit included in the main control unit 2. The card inhalation / issuance port 12 issues a new ticket card 13 having predetermined card information recorded in the storage unit and printed with predetermined information on the surface. 20 insertion ports or discharge ports. The card collection unit 11 collects the old card 20 determined by the main control unit 2 as being unsuitable for use when updating the card.

  The main control unit 2 controls the rewritable card processing apparatus 1 as a whole. Further, the main control unit 2 has a storage unit 30, information relating to the issuance of the rewritable card 22 input by the input / display unit 3, and image data of the bill surface of the rewritable card 22 read by the card surface reading unit 10. Remember.

  The main control unit 2 has the following control means. Recognizing characters included in the image data of the face of the rewritable card 22 stored in the storage unit 30 and extracting information relating to the issuance of the rewritable card 22 from this image data, the information relating to the extracted issuance, and the storage unit The information related to the issuance stored in 30 is compared, and if the comparison result matches, it is determined that the printing of the rewritable card 22 is normal. When it is determined that printing is normal, the rewritable card 22 is issued from the card inhaling / issuing port. On the other hand, when it is determined that the printing is not normal, a predetermined number of retries are performed until it is determined that the printing is normal. When the predetermined number of times is reached, the rewritable card 22 is recovered to the card recovery unit 11, and The card issuing process is performed by the new ticket card 13.

  The main control unit 2 further includes a CPU, and realizes these functions when a predetermined program is executed by the CPU.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining rewrite processing when the expiration date of the rewritable card according to the present embodiment is updated.

  First, the rewritable card 22 as shown in FIG. 2 is taken into the rewritable card processing apparatus 1 from the card inhaling / issuing port 12 (S501). The rewritable card 22 taken into the rewritable card processing apparatus 1 is conveyed to the position of the information reading / writing unit 7 by the main conveying path unit 6, and the information on the card is read by the information reading / writing unit 7 (S502). The position of the rewritable card 22 is controlled by the main control unit 2 based on position information detected by the conveyance path sensor 19 disposed on the main conveyance path. The rewritable card 22 has a non-contact IC chip, and can read and write without contacting the information reading / writing unit 7.

  Next, the card information of the rewritable card 22 is displayed on the input / display unit 3 (S503), and information related to expiration date update is input by the operator through the input / display unit 7 (S504). The card information read by the information reading / writing unit 7 and the information related to the expiration date input from the input / display unit 3 are stored in the storage unit included in the main control unit 2. The rewritable card 22 is conveyed to the rewrite erasure unit 8, and the rewrite erasure unit 8 erases characters printed on the surface of the rewritable card (S505). Note that the erasing head section of the rewrite erasing section 8 is preheated in advance in order to shorten the time for heating to the temperature required for erasing. Furthermore, in order to shorten the processing time, at the time of erasure, the rewritable card 22 is conveyed at a relatively high speed at which the rewritable card 22 having no normal problem can be erased.

  Next, the rewrite printing unit 9 prints the updated content on the surface of the rewritable card 22 (S506). The card surface reading unit 10 reads the surface of the printed rewritable card 22, and the read image data on the surface of the rewritable card 22 is stored in the storage unit of the main control unit 2 (S507). The main control unit 2 performs character recognition from the image data stored in the storage unit, and is based on the contents made up of characters obtained by character recognition, the card information stored in the storage unit, and information related to the expiration date update. Then, it is determined whether or not the printed contents match (S508).

  If the determination result in S508 matches, the information reading / writing unit 7 updates the card information (S509), and the updated rewritable card 22 is issued from the card inhaling / issuing port 12 (S510).

  On the other hand, if the determination result in S508 does not match, for example, if the character cannot be recognized or is different from the printed content, the rewritable card 22 is returned to the position of the rewritable erasing unit 8, and the rewritable erasing unit 8 again performs the rewritable card. Characters and the like printed on the surface 22 are erased (S511). Thereafter, the rewrite printing unit 9 prints characters and the like on the surface of the rewritable card 22 (S512), and the card surface reading unit 10 reads the surface of the printed card (S513). If the number of retries is less than the predetermined number, the process returns to S8, and if the determination result matches, the card issuing process from S509 is performed. On the other hand, if the determination result does not match and a predetermined number of retries are performed, the rewritable card 22 is collected by the card collection unit 11 (S515), and the card is issued by a new card (S516).

  In the determination in S508, for example, the determination condition is set at a level that does not hinder visual interpretation, such as allowing printing blur in the transport direction up to 0.5 mm in consideration of missing dots of the print head. The number of stops of the rewritable card processing apparatus 1 can be reduced.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining processing when a new rewritable card according to the present embodiment is issued.

First, when the card issuance conditions are input by the operator through the input / display unit 3 (S601), the card feeding unit 5 feeds one uppermost card to the main transport unit 6 (S602).
Information relating to the issuance conditions input from the input / display unit 3 is stored in a storage unit included in the main control unit 2. While the rewritable card 22 is conveyed by the main conveyance unit 6, the rewritable printing unit 9 prints the contents of the issuance conditions on the rewritable card 22 (S603). Next, the card surface reading unit 10 reads the surface of the printed rewritable card 22, and the read image data on the surface of the rewritable card 22 is stored in the storage unit of the main control unit 2 (S604).

  The main control unit 2 performs character recognition from the image data stored in the storage unit, and is printed based on information composed of characters obtained by character recognition and information related to the issuance conditions stored in the storage unit. It is determined whether or not the contents match (S605).

  If the determination result in S605 matches, the information reading / writing unit 7 writes the card information to the rewritable card 22 (S606), and the rewritable card 22 on which the card information is written is newly issued from the card suction / issuing port 12. (S607).

  On the other hand, if the determination result in S605 does not match, NG processing is performed (S608). The reason why the determination result does not match is that the card has not been erased because a new card is issued. Therefore, in the NG process, the rewritable card processing device 1 is stopped as a device failure of the rewritable card processing device 1 and the input / display unit 3 Display an error message to that effect. Here, when it is not desired to stop the rewritable card processing device 1 as much as possible, as a retry, the printing of the rewritable card 22 is erased and printed again, or the rewritable card 22 is recovered to the card recovery unit 11. A new rewritable card 22 may be reissued.

  In this embodiment, the input operation of information relating to the expiration date update of the rewritable card 22 is performed by the input / display unit 2, but a terminal device having the input unit is connected to the rewritable card processing device 1, and this terminal device It is good also as a structure which controls by the main control part 2 from operation by. If the determination result in S508 does not match, the speed at which the rewritable card 22 is conveyed is slowed down, printing is performed after erasing the specified number of times, the erasing is performed by increasing the temperature of the rewrite erasing unit 8, or the brush is used. It is good also as a structure which erases again after conveying to the provided conveyance path etc. for cleaning.

  According to the present embodiment, when the surface of the rewritable card 22 disappears or printing fails, the rewritable card 22 can be collected and reissued with a new card. Can be prevented. In addition, when the rewritten content is a time limit update for a commuter pass or the like, there is no change in the station name or the like, and therefore it can be determined that there is no problem even if the station name portion disappears. Further, by checking the printing state of the surface before issuing the card, it is possible to prevent the issue of a card with a printing defect (for example, missing dots) due to a problem other than erasure.

The figure which shows the structural example of the rewritable card processing apparatus by a present Example. The figure which shows the example of the rewritable card before an update. The figure which shows the example of the rewritable card which left unprinted. The figure which shows the example of the rewritable card after an update. The figure for demonstrating the retry process at the time of the update of a rewritable card. The figure for demonstrating the process which issues a rewritable card newly. The block diagram which shows the structural example of the rewritable card processing apparatus by a present Example.

Explanation of symbols

1: rewritable card processing device, 2: main control unit, 3: input / display unit, 4: card hopper unit, 5: card feeding unit, 6: main transport path unit, 7: information reading / writing unit, 8: rewrite Erasing part, 9: Rewrite printing part, 10: Card surface reading part, 11: Card collecting part, 12: Card inhaling / issuing port, 22: Rewritable card, 30: Storage part.

Claims (2)

In a rewritable card processing apparatus that prints and issues information on a rewritable card capable of rewriting printed information,
A storage unit for storing print information to be printed on the rewritable card;
Printing means for printing the print information stored in the storage unit;
Image reading means for reading an image of the surface of the rewritable card printed by the printing means;
When the image data of the surface of the rewritable card read by the image reading means is compared with the print information stored in the storage unit, and the comparison result has a predetermined relationship, the printing of the rewritable card A rewritable card processing apparatus, comprising: control means for determining that the card is normal and issuing the rewritable card. Having input means for inputting specific information required for issuing the rewritable card;
The storage unit stores the print information including the specific information, and the control unit extracts the specific information from the image data, and extracts the specific information and the print information stored in the storage unit. 2. The rewritable card processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the comparison result matches, the rewritable card is determined to be printed correctly and controlled to issue the rewritable card.

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