JPH02128148A - Card printing inspecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inspect decoloring of a pattern and a top-bottom inverted printing automatically in a short time by picking up an image of the perimeter at a position of a mark set by a keying means. CONSTITUTION:A mark is set at a position where an inspection is to be performed only corresponding to the number of printing colors. An image of the perimeter at a position of the mark set is picked up with an ITV from an intermittently feeding machine 2 synchronizing an inspection timing signal 2A to be stored into an RAM within an inspector body 5 with this as reference pattern. Then, as for an image of a card to be inspected picked up with the camera 4, the perimeter of the mark position is compared in patter with a reference pattern stored in an RAM when it is set to determine a similarity. then, a comparison judgement is performed to determine whether this similarity exceeds a fixed value and as a result, when the similarity exceeds the fixed value, printing is determined to be normal while it is determined to be defective when it is below the fixed value. The results of the judgement are displayed on a CRT device 6.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a card printing inspection device that automatically inspects the decolorization of characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface of a card and the upside-down printing. be.

[Prior Art] In recent years, for example, telephone cards have been magnetically recorded with the number of usable telephones on the back, and the front side is blank, with advertising displayed on it, in order for the card to be used as an advertising medium for companies, etc. Commonly known as white cards, which are printed with ``white cards,'' and cards for reprinting, which have general-purpose characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface, and additionally print advertisements on top of them, are issued. On the other hand, in order to print a design on the plain surface of such a white card or the surface of a card for reprinting, one card at a time is placed on the printing cylinder on which the stamp surface was made, and the printed surface of the card is aligned with the stamp surface. We are supplying it to you. However, in this case, the design may be bleached or printed upside down.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] Therefore, in the past, regarding the card after printing was completed,
An inspector visually inspects each sheet to see if the design is bleached or printed upside down. However, such an artificial method not only causes simple inspection errors but also requires a large amount of effort and time for inspection.

The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the characters printed on the surface of the card.

To provide a card printing inspection device capable of automatically and easily inspecting decolorization of designs such as patterns and upside-down printing in a single time without error.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a card printing inspection device that inspects decolorization of characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface of a card and reverse printing. A key input means for setting marks on the inspected part of the card by key operations corresponding to the number of colors to be printed, and an image for capturing an image of the surrounding area of the mark position set by the key input means. a capturing means, a storage means for storing an image of the peripheral part of the mark position captured by the image capturing means as a reference pattern, and an image of the card to be inspected captured by the image capturing means. For 2!, the peripheral part of the mark position is stored in the storage means. A similarity calculation means that calculates the degree of similarity by comparing the pattern with the pattern of the standard, and a comparison and judgment as to whether or not the similarity calculated by the similarity calculation means is greater than or equal to a certain value, and as a result, if the similarity is less than the certain value. The apparatus is configured to include a determining means that determines that printing is defective in certain cases.

(Function) In the card printing inspection apparatus of the present invention, first, the operator sets marks (inspection locations) for the number of colors to be printed using the key input means. Then, an image around the position of the mark set in this manner is captured by the image capturing means, and is stored in the storage means as a reference pattern. Next, in the inspection, the pattern of the image of the card to be inspected captured by the image capturing means is compared between the peripheral part of the mark position and the reference pattern stored at the time of setting to determine the degree of similarity. Then, this similarity exceeds a certain value.
A determining means compares and determines whether or not the value is 2. If the result is above a certain value, printing is normal, and if it is below a certain value, printing is judged to be defective.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a card printing inspection device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a card 1, such as a telephone card, on which characters, patterns, and other designs are printed by a printing machine (not shown) is sent to an inspection location by an intermittent feeding machine 2 with the printed side facing up. This intermittent feeding machine 2 outputs an inspection timing signal 2A each time a card 1 is sent to an inspection location, and when it is given an ejection signal 5A, which will be described later, it flips and ejects the card at that time. ing. On the other hand, the card printing inspection apparatus is composed of a keyboard 3 as a key input means, an ITV camera 4 as an image capturing means, an inspection apparatus main body 5 consisting of a computer, and a CRT device 6 as a display means. .

Here, the keyboard 3 is used to set marks on the inspected portion of the card 1 by key operations corresponding to the number of colors to be printed. In addition, the ITV camera 4 is connected to the keyboard 3.
This is to capture an image around the position of the mark set by .

Furthermore, the CRT device 6 is for displaying the inspection result (normal or defective) of the card 1 by the inspection device main body 5. Furthermore, the inspection device main body 5 is equipped with a RAM, etc., which is a storage means, and has the following functions (a) to (c).

(a) A storage function that stores an image around the mark position captured by the ITV camera 4 in the RAM as a reference pattern.

(b) For the image of the card 1 to be inspected captured by the ITV camera 4, the peripheral area of the mark position is stored in the RAM.
A similarity calculation function that performs pattern comparison (matching) with standard patterns stored in , and calculates the degree of similarity.

(c) Compare and judge whether the similarity calculated by the similarity calculation function is above a certain value, and if the result is above a certain value, it is judged that printing is normal, and if it is below a certain value has a judgment function that determines printing defects.

Next, the operation of the card printing inspection apparatus configured as above will be explained using FIGS. 2 to 5.

First, the operator sets a mark (inspection location) at a position to be inspected according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b). That is, the number of colors to be printed (for example, 4 colors) is marked at the position to be inspected (inspection area) using the keyboard 3.
Set. However, in this case, when the set location is extremely pure white, or when the pattern of the location corresponding to the target position of card 1 is similar to the pattern of the location where the mark was set (vertical reverse printing is based on the center of card 1) (The mark is printed at a position rotated 180 degrees, making it difficult to distinguish). Then, an image of the peripheral area (certain value) of the position of the mark set in this way is captured by the ITV camera 4 in synchronization with the inspection timing signal 2A from the intermittent feed machine 2, and this is inspected as a reference pattern. It is stored in the RAM in the device main body 5.

Next, the inspection is carried out according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, with respect to the image of the card 1 to be inspected captured by the ITV camera 4, a pattern comparison (matching) is performed on the periphery of the mark position with the reference pattern stored in the RAM at the time of the above-mentioned setting. , find the similarity. Here, the degree of similarity is determined by the following formula.

Similarity - (Number of pixels where the reference pattern is black and the comparison pattern is black) Then, a comparison is made to determine whether or not this similarity is greater than a certain value, and as a result, it is greater than a certain value. If the value is below a certain value, it is determined that the printing is normal, and if it is less than a certain value, it is determined that the printing is defective. This determination result is displayed on the CRT device 6. Further, when the judgment result is that the printing is defective, the card 1 on the intermittent feeding machine 2 is flipped and ejected by giving an ejection signal 5A from the inspection device main body 5 to the judgment intermittent feeding machine 2.

However, in this case, since there is a limit to the accuracy of the feeding of the intermittent feeding machine 2, it is quite possible that the position may fluctuate to some extent, so even if the patterns are compared, the positional deviation is also taken care of. In other words, as shown in Fig. 5, the similarity is calculated five times when the mark position is not shifted, and when it is shifted upward, downward, left, and right, and the maximum similarity is determined from among them. seek. If this position is not shifted, this position is set as the optimum matching position and the degree of similarity is set as the optimum degree of similarity. Furthermore, if the maximum similarity is obtained by shifting upward, downward, left, or right, the mark position is shifted in that direction and the same operation as described above is performed. If such operations are repeated and the maximum similarity is obtained without shifting, then
The operation is completed with this position as the optimal matching position.

As mentioned above, in the card printing inspection device of this embodiment,
Set marks using the keyboard 3 for the number of colors to be printed, and IT prints the image around the set mark position.
This is captured by the V camera 4 and stored in the RAM of the inspection device main body 5 as a reference pattern, and then the mark position is compared to the image of the card 1 to be inspected captured by the ITV camera 4. When setting the peripheral area, the pattern is compared with the reference pattern stored in the RAM to determine the degree of similarity, and then it is compared and determined whether or not this degree of similarity is greater than a certain value. If the value is below a certain value, it is determined that the printing is normal, and if the value is less than a certain value, it is determined that the printing is defective.

Therefore, it becomes possible to inspect the decolorization of characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface of the card 1 and the upside-down printing in a single time and automatically. Furthermore, unlike conventional manual testing methods, it is possible to perform testing extremely easily and without any testing errors.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the decolorization of characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface of a card and the inspection of upside-down printing can be easily performed in a single time automatically and without errors. It is possible to provide a card printing inspection device that can perform the following tasks.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a card printing inspection device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are diagrams for explaining the operation of the same embodiment. 1...Card, 2...Intermittent feeding machine, 3...Keyboard, 4...ITV camera, 5...Inspection device main body, 6...CRT device. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure (b) Figure

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a card printing inspection device that inspects the decolorization of characters, patterns, and other designs printed on the surface of a card and the upside-down printing, the number of colors to be printed on the inspected portion of the card. a key input means for setting a mark by key operation; an image capture means for capturing an image around the position of the mark set by the key input means; storage means for storing an image of the peripheral part of the marked mark position as a reference pattern; a similarity calculation means for calculating a degree of similarity by performing a pattern comparison with a reference pattern stored in the storage means; and a comparison of whether or not the degree of similarity calculated by the similarity calculation means is greater than or equal to a certain value. A card printing inspection device comprising: determining means for determining a printing defect when the result is less than a certain value.