JPH04123189A - Storage medium issuing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To issue only storage medium in which information is printed exactly by reading the information on the printed storage medium, and deciding the quality of the information printed on the storage medium by comparing the read information and the printed information. CONSTITUTION:As for a ticket 2 fed out to a carrying line 4, read of format information and read of an unrecorded ticket or not are executed by a first magnetic head 5. Subsequently, in the ticket 2, the ticket kind and the ticket number, etc., are recorded magnetically by a second magnetic head 6. Next, as for these tickets 2, read of information is executed by a third magnetic head 7, whether the information recorded by the magnetic head 6 is recorded correctly or not is recognized, and the ticket number, etc., are printed by a thermal head 8. Thereafter, as for the ticket 2, the quality of printing is decided by a printing quality deciding device 9, and the ticket 2 decided to be good passes through a first distributing device 10a, and is discharged from an issue port 11. In such a way, only the ticket 2 in which the information is printed exactly is issued.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a storage medium issuing device that issues, for example, a prepaid card.

(Prior Art) In recent years, systems for paying tolls using prepaid cards have become widely used in public telephones, railways, expressways, and other fields.

Generally, in such a prepaid card, necessary magnetic information is written on the magnetic card, and necessary characters are printed using a thermal head or the like.

By the way, in the card issuing device that issues such prepaid cards, after writing the necessary information on the magnetic card,
Checks whether information is accurately recorded magnetically on the magnetic card. This is to prevent problems such as not being able to actually use the device when the user uses it.

However, in conventional devices of this type, the printed characters are not checked, so that the printed characters may be handed over to the user with missing parts or the like. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to use it, and there are also problems for the issuer, who manages the information using characters such as a printed serial number.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Conventional card issuing devices that issue prepaid cards, etc., do not check the printed characters, resulting in missing printed characters, etc. It was difficult for the user to use, and there were also problems for the issuer, who managed the system using characters such as a printed serial number.

The present invention was made based on such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium issuing device that issues only storage media on which information is accurately printed.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a recording means for recording predetermined information in a storage section of a storage medium, and the memory recorded by the recording means. A printing means for visually printing the information on a medium, a reading means for reading the information on the storage medium printed by the printing means, and a combination of the information read by the reading means and the information printed by the printing means. and determining means for determining the quality of the information printed on the storage medium by comparison.

(Function) In the present invention, the information on the printed storage medium is read and the quality of the information printed on the storage medium is determined by comparing the read information with the printed information. Only storage media with printed information can be issued.

(Example) Hereinafter, details of embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a card issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is an unrecorded prepaid card (hereinafter referred to as
It's called a ticket. ) 2 is a ticket receptacle in which a large number of tickets are accommodated, and 3 is a bar for sending out unrecorded tickets 2 stored in the ticket receptacle 1 toward a conveyance path 4.

The ticket 2 sent out toward the conveyance path 4 is first read by the first magnetic head 5 for formatting/sorting information and for reading whether or not it is an unrecorded ticket.

Next, on the ticket 2 which has been read, the ticket type, ticket number, etc. are magnetically recorded by the second magnetic head 6.

Information is then read from the magnetically recorded ticket 2 by the third magnetic head 7, and it is confirmed whether or not the information recorded by the second magnetic head 6 has been correctly recorded.

Thereafter, the ticket number and the like are printed on the ticket 2 by the thermal head 8.

Then, the print quality of the ticket 2 with these prints is determined by the print quality determination device 9.

After this, the ticket 2 for which this determination has been made is transferred to the first sorting device 10.
a, and is discharged from the issuing port 11.

Here, the ticket 2 is determined to have not been formatted correctly by the first magnetic head 5, the ticket 2 is determined to be used, and the information is not recorded correctly by the third magnetic head 7. The tickets 2 that have been printed and the tickets 2 that have been determined not to be correctly printed by the print quality determining device 9 are distributed by the first sorting device 10a to the second sorting device 10b.

Then, the tickets 2 that are determined to be defective in terms of magnetic recording are sorted by the second sorting device 10b to the first paste ticket accommodating section 12 side. On the other hand, ticket 2 was found to be defective regarding printing.
are sorted to the second transfer ticket storage section 13 side by the second sorting device 10b. Note that the tickets 2 accommodated in the first ticket accommodating section 12 can be reused.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the printing quality determining device 9. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, 14 is a reading unit that reads the characters (images) printed on the roll by the thermal head 8, and 15 is the reading unit 1.
4, an amplifier that amplifies the image signal read by 4; 16, a transport motor control device that controls the drive of the transport motor 17 on the transport path 4; 18, a RAM that stores the image signal; and 19, an 8-bit controller that controls the entire device. CPU, 20 is CPU
This is a ROM that stores programs necessary for the operations of 19.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the reading section 14.

As shown in the figure, the reading unit] 4 includes a CCD element 21 composed of 1024 pixels, a lamp 22 that irradiates light onto the ticket 2, and condenses reflected light from the ticket 2 onto the CCD element 21. It is composed of a lens 23 that allows

Next, the operation of the print quality determination device 9 configured as described above will be explained.

The ticket 2 printed by the thermal head 8 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3 within the print quality determination device 9.

At that time, the CCD element 21, as shown in FIG.
The image on the ticket 2 is scanned in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction.

The electric signal output from the CCD element 21 is sent to the amplifier 15.
After being amplified, the CPU 19 binarizes the signal by comparing it with a predetermined threshold value and stores it on the RAM 18.

When the scanning for one character is completed, the image for one character on the RAM 18 is divided into two parts vertically in the transport direction and into four parts horizontally in the transport direction, and the number of dots in each divided part is determined.

Second, the contents of the characters printed on the ticket 2 are known in advance because they are the characters printed by the thermal head 8. Therefore, similarly to the above, the dot image of the character is divided into two parts vertically and four parts horizontally, and the number of dots in each divided part is determined.

Then, the number of dots in each divided portion of the image is compared with the number of dots in each divided portion of the character dot image, and the comparison values for each divided portion are totaled.

If the tally result exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the characters printed in the area 2 are missing, for example, as shown in Figure 6, and the threshold is exceeded. If not, it is determined that the characters are printed correctly.

In this way, in the card issuing device of this embodiment, since the quality of printing is determined by the quality of printing quality determination device 9, the ticket 2 with missing printed characters will not be handed over to the user.

In addition, since the image for - characters is divided into two parts in the upper and lower directions in the transport direction and compared with the dot image, the above judgment can be made while controlling the transport speed of the ticket 2 by the transport motor control device 16. I can do it. Specifically, when the conveyance speed of the ticket 2 is faster than the processing speed of the printing quality determination device 9, the character "Y#" shown in FIG. 5 shifts upward. Therefore, the upper comparison value is , the number of dots in the image is greater than the number of dots in the dot image, and in the lower comparison value, the number of dots in the image is less than the number of dots in the dot image.Therefore, find the difference between these upper and lower comparison values. By controlling the drive speed of the transport motor 17 based on the result, the transport speed of the ticket 2 can be controlled.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, information on a printed storage medium is read and the quality of the information printed on the storage medium is determined by comparing the read information with the printed information. Since the information is determined, only storage media on which information is accurately printed can be issued.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a card issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the printing quality determination device shown in FIG. 1, and 3FjgJ is a reading unit shown in FIG. 2. 4, 5, and 6 are diagrams for explaining the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment. 1...Ticket storage section, 2...Prepaid card (ticket),
3... Hopper 4... Conveyance path, 5... First magnetic head, 6... Second magnetic head, 7... Third magnetic head, 8... Thermal head, 9 ...Printing quality determination device, 10a...First sorting device, 10b...
・Second sorting device, 11... issue port, 12... first
Norijikuto ticket accommodating section, 13...Second Norijikuto ticket accommodating part. Applicant: Toshiba Corporation Toshiba Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Agent: Patent Attorney Sasa Suyama −

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A recording means for recording predetermined information in the storage section of a storage medium; a printing means for visually printing the information recorded on the storage medium by the recording means; It comprises a reading means for reading information on the storage medium, and a determining means for determining the quality of the information printed on the storage medium by comparing the information read by the reading means and the information printed by the printing means. A storage medium issuing device characterized by: