JPH0486966A - Design deciding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To exactly decide only a prescribed design without fail by deciding the thickness of the design based on an electric signal and deciding the prescribed design according to the thickness. CONSTITUTION:The inverted signal of a black signal shifted by one pulse is compared with time for four master clock pulses. By this comparison, it is decided whether the thickness of the black signal part for postage payment by receiver is prescribed width corresponding to four master clock pulses or not, and when it is the prescribed width, it is decided as a condition 3 whether a pulse interval Y is prescribed width for four master clock pulses or not. When three conditions are satisfied, the design is decided correct for postage payment by receiver.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a design determination device for determining, for example, a design such as postage payable by recipient or postage paid in advance stamped on a postal item.

(Prior art) At the post office, mail items paid for by the postage recipient are
As shown in Figure (b), a black three-bar design is stamped by the mail collection stamping machine.

In order to deliver such mail items for which postage is paid by the recipient separately from regular mail items, it is necessary to determine the design in the delivery classification process at the post office. Conventionally, the design has been determined by simply detecting that three bars are lined up.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In the conventional design determination device, when a design or pattern other than the design to be determined is mixed into the range of the field of view to be detected, it is difficult to find a bar that matches the bar of the design to be determined. If an introductory bar is mixed in and the thickness of the bar to be determined is larger than that of the bar to be determined, there is a problem that these bars may be incorrectly determined.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a design determination device that accurately determines a design without error.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the design determination device of the present invention is a design determination device that determines a design having characteristics in color and thickness, and includes a light source that illuminates the design; a light receiving device that receives reflected light from the design and extracts only light of a predetermined color component;
A photoelectric conversion means converts an optical signal of a predetermined color component extracted by the light receiving device into an electric signal, and a thickness of the design is determined based on the electric signal from the photoelectric conversion means, and a predetermined color component is determined from the thickness. The gist is to have a determination means for determining the design.

(Function) The pattern determination device of the present invention extracts only the light of a predetermined color component from the reflected light of the pattern, converts the extracted optical signal into an electrical signal, and determines the thickness of the pattern based on the electrical signal. judge,
A predetermined design is determined from the thickness.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using the drawings.

FIG. 1(a) is a block diagram showing the configuration of a design determination device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The design determination device shown in FIG. The mail piece 3 stamped with the design 1 is conveyed to the design determining device shown in FIG. 1(a), and the light source 5 illuminates the design 1 on the mail piece being conveyed. The reflected light from the light pattern 1 is separated into each color by a dichroic mirror for blue component separation 7b, green component separation 117g, and red component separation fJA7r, and photoelectric conversion elements 9b, 9g, and 9r. is converted into an electrical signal. Furthermore, the electrical signals from these photoelectric conversion elements 9b, 9g, and 9r are amplified by amplifiers 11b, Ilg, and llr, respectively, and then supplied to the color processing circuit 13.

This color processing circuit 13 extracts a black component signal from the blue component signal, green component signal, and red component signal supplied from each amplifier 11b, 11g, and llr, respectively, and supplies this black component signal to the determination circuit 15. , the determination circuit 15 determines whether the postage is paid by the recipient.

Next, the determination procedure will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

As described above, from the color processing circuit 13 to the determination circuit 15
As shown in FIG. 2(a), the black component signal supplied to Pulses X, Y with a pulse interval Y corresponding to a writing area of 3
This signal is supplied to the determination circuit 15 as a detection bar signal, and an enlarged version of this signal is shown in (a) of FIG. 2(b). Then, a black detection bar signal (pulse
), that is, the black/letter background switching signal, is extracted as condition 1 using the pulse X shown in (a) of FIG. 2(b).

An inverted signal of the detection bar signal Y is created as shown in (b) of FIG. 2(b). Also, (c) in Figure 2(b)
A master clock pulse shown in is generated, and a signal obtained by converting the inverted signal and the detection bar signal into four pulses of the master clock pulse is set. Then, using a register, shift the detection bar signal, which is the black signal, to the right from 1 to 2.
It is created as shown in (d) of Figure (b). This shifted signal is judged and logically ANDed with the signal shown in (e) of Fig. 2(b) which has been shifted by one pulse of the master tarlock pulse, and this results in (g) of Fig. 2(b) A black/letter background switching signal is generated as shown in FIG. 3 (step 110 in FIG. 3).

Next, condition 2 determines whether the pulse width X corresponding to the black part of the postage payee design is within a predetermined pulse width.
1 shown in (e) of Fig. 2(b).
The inverted signal of the pulse-shifted black signal is compared with the time of four pulses of the master clock pulse (step 12).
0), through this comparison, it is determined whether the thickness of the black signal part of the postage payee design is within a predetermined width corresponding to 4 pulses of the master tarok pulse, and if it is within the predetermined width. In the next step 130, it is determined whether the pulse interval Y, that is, the width of the letter area, which is the interval of the black signal of the postage payee design, is a predetermined width of four pulses of the master tarlock pulse. It is determined as condition 3 whether or not. If any of the three conditions described above are satisfied, it is determined that the design is correct for postage to be paid by recipient.

In determining the width as described above, the width is not limited to 4 pulses of the master tarlock pulse, but 4 to 5 (4≦
It may be set to a range of X≦5) or a range of 4±1, thereby reducing misjudgments for thin bars.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, only the light of a predetermined color component is extracted from the reflected light of the design, the extracted optical signal is converted into an electrical signal, and the thickness of the design is determined based on the electrical signal. Since the specified design is determined based on the thickness,
For example, even if the design is similar to the three-bar design for postage recipient payment, or if the design consists of thin bars, it will not be detected incorrectly.
Only predetermined designs can be accurately determined without error.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) are a block diagram showing the configuration of a design determining device according to an embodiment of the present invention, a diagram showing a design for postage paid by the recipient determined by the same design determining device, and FIG. The figure is a waveform diagram of each part showing the operation of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the design determining device of FIG. 1. 1... Design, 3... Mail, 5... Light source, 7b... Mirror for blue component separation, 7g... Mirror for green component separation, 7r... Mirror for red component separation, 9b , 9g, 9r... photoelectric conversion element, 13b, 13g
, L3r--color processing circuit, 15--judgment circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A design determination device that determines a design having characteristics in color and thickness, comprising: a light source that illuminates the design; a light receiving device that receives reflected light from the design and extracts only light of a predetermined color component; A photoelectric conversion means that converts an optical signal of a predetermined color component extracted by the light receiving device into an electric signal, and a thickness of the design is determined based on the electric signal from the photoelectric conversion means, and the thickness of the design is determined based on the thickness. A design determination device comprising: determination means for determining.