JPH0628545A - Paper money discrimination device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a paper money discrimination device which is small, light in weight and portable and by which a person who lost one's eyesight can easily discriminate the denomination of paper money at any time and in any place. CONSTITUTION:The paper money discrimination device 1 is an almost square plane form and it is smaller than paper money and can be portable. A main power switch 3 and a speaker 5 being a denomination notice means are provided for the upper surface part 2 of a main body. A sensor detecting the pattern of the denomination display part 11 of paper money and an electronic controller are incorporated inside. A paper money insertion part 7 is provided for a side part, and paper money is inserted into the paper money insertion part 7. The denomination display part 11 is shifted to the sensor incorporated to the paper money discrimination device 1 and the pattern of the denomination display part 11 is detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bill discriminating apparatus which discriminates and informs the denomination of a bill, and more specifically, it is small, lightweight and portable, and a visually handicapped person can discriminate bills easily. The present invention relates to a bill validator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For persons who are blind and cannot visually determine the denomination of a banknote, as shown in FIG. P
A denomination display portion P5 having a different pattern (number and arrangement) depending on the denomination is provided at the lower end of the 20,000 yen coupon P3. The ring portion P7 of the denomination display portion P5 is a peripheral portion P
8 and the central circular portion P9 is a concave portion having a thinner paper thickness, and the central circular portion P9 is a convex portion with respect to the circular annular portion P7. The visually impaired person discriminates the denomination by identifying the pattern by touching the unevenness of the denomination display portion P5 with a fingertip.

However, the unevenness of the denomination display portion P5 is delicate, and it is not easy for the person who is not sensitive to the feeling of the fingertip to identify it. Further, when the feeling of the fingertip is particularly weakened due to a disease or the like, the denomination display part P5 is more difficult to identify, the denomination of the bill is difficult to distinguish, and the payment of the fee frequently performed in daily life is performed. In that case, it will be a big obstacle.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a bill discriminating apparatus which is small and lightweight, can be carried, and can discriminate the denomination of a bill easily at any time and any place. To aim.

[0005]

The present invention for achieving this object, as illustrated in FIG. 1, includes a sensor M1 for detecting a pattern of a denomination display portion provided on a bill, and a sensor M1 for detecting the pattern. A gist of a bill discriminating device comprising: a bill discriminating means M2 for discriminating a denomination of a bill based on an output; and a notifying means M3 for notifying a denomination discriminated by the bill discriminating means M2. To do.

Here, the denomination display section is provided for the purpose of making it possible to discriminate a bill by a tactile sensation, and for example, a ring-shaped unevenness provided at the lower end of the bill can be mentioned. As the sensor, a sensor including a light emitting unit that irradiates the denomination display unit with light and a light receiving unit that receives transmitted light or reflected light from the denomination display unit can be used. A light emitting element such as a light emitting diode is used as the light emitting section, and a photo diode such as a photo diode or a solid-state image sensor is used as the light receiving section.

Further, as the sensor, it is possible to use a sensor provided with a switch means for opening and closing according to the unevenness of the denomination display part. As the notifying means, a speaker or the like is used when notifying by sound or voice such as a chime. It is also possible to give a notification by touch, for example,
A member that moves according to the determined denomination may be provided outside the denomination determination device, and a notification unit that can determine the denomination by a person touching the member may be used.

[0008]

In the present invention having the above structure, the sensor detects the pattern of the ring-shaped denomination display portion located at, for example, the lower end of the bill, and the bill discriminating means determines the denomination of the bill based on the output of the sensor. To determine. Then, the notifying unit notifies the denomination discriminated by the bill discriminating unit.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In order to further clarify the structure and operation of the present invention described above, preferred embodiments of the bill discriminating apparatus of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 2 is an external view of the bill discriminating apparatus 1 as the embodiment of the present invention.

The bill discriminating apparatus 1 has a substantially square flat plate shape and is smaller than a bill and portable in size.
A main power switch 3 and a speaker 5 as a denomination indicating means are provided on the upper surface 2 of the main body, and a denomination display 11 for bills is provided inside.
And electronic control device (EC
U) 12 (FIG. 4) and the like are incorporated.

A banknote insertion part 7 is provided on the side surface part, and a banknote is inserted into the banknote insertion part 7 and the denomination display part 11 is moved to a sensor incorporated in the banknote discriminating apparatus 1 to transfer the money. The configuration for detecting the pattern of the seed display unit 11 is adopted. Next, a sensor for detecting the pattern of the denomination display portions 11a to 11e (collectively referred to as 11) will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the sensors S1 and S2 are composed of light emitting portions L1 and L2 and light receiving portions R1 and R2 which are arranged so as to face each other. The portions where the light emitting units L1 and L2 and the light receiving units R1 and R2 face each other are the gap portions 33a and 33b into which the banknotes are inserted, and the transmitted light of the light rays applied to the banknotes by the light emitting units L1 and L2, respectively. Light receiving part R
It is incident on 1, R2.

A guide portion 3 is provided near the sensor S1.
1 is provided. This guide portion 31 and the sensor S1,
The positional relationship of S2 is, for example, the lower end side portion 34 of the 5,000 yen ticket K2.
Is moved in the direction of arrow A while being in contact with the guide portion 31, the denomination display portions 11b and 11c of the 5,000 yen ticket K2 are displayed.
However, as shown by the dotted lines, they are arranged so as to pass through the gap portions 33a and 33b, respectively.

The sensors S1 and S2 are light emitting units L1 and L.
The denomination display section is detected by the change of the light transmittance of the light beam applied to the bill from the above item 2. That is, since the annular portions 42b and 42c of the denomination display portions 11b and 11c shown in FIG. 4 have a higher light transmittance than the peripheral portion 44, the denomination display portions 11b and 11c have the light emitting portions L1 and L1. L2 and light receiving parts R1 and R
When it is located in the two gaps 33a and 33b, the light receiving portion R
1, the amount of light reaching R2 increases and the outputs of the sensors S1 and S2 change abruptly.
It is possible to detect 1c.

Next, an electronic control unit (ECU) used as a bill discriminating means in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. This ECU 12 is a well-known CPU 51a, R
An input / output unit 51d configured to have the OM 51b and the RAM 51c as the center of a logical operation circuit and input / output with an external device.
Etc. are connected to each other via a common bus 51e.
Then, the sensors S1 and S are connected to the input / output unit 51d.
2, and the speaker 5 are connected.

Next, the operation of the bill discriminating apparatus 1 of this embodiment will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 6, the central portion of the lower end side portion 63 of the bill is inserted into the bill insertion portion 7 of the bill discriminating apparatus 1 from the direction of the arrow B, and the bill is inserted into the gap portions 33a and 33b of the sensors S1 and S2 (see FIG. 3). ) And contact the guide portion 31. Then, the guide portion 31 has a lower edge portion 63 of the bill.
While keeping the contacting state, the banknote is moved in the direction of arrow C and removed.

Then, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), when the bill is a 1,000-yen bill K1, one denomination display unit 11a indicates the sensor S.
1 through the gap 33a. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7 (b), when the banknote is a 5000-yen banknote K2, the two denomination display sections 11b and 11c simultaneously display the gap 33 between the sensors S1 and S2.
Pass a and 33b. In addition, as shown in FIG.
When the banknote is a 10,000 yen ticket K3, two denomination display units 11
d and 11e pass through the gap 33a of the sensor S1.

Then, as the denomination display section 11 passes through as described above, on / off outputs as shown in FIG. 8 are obtained from the sensors S1 and S2. When the portion of the bill other than the denomination display unit 11 passes through the gaps 33a and 33b of the sensors S1 and S2, the sensor output is off (dark state). On the other hand, when the denomination display portion 11 having a high light transmittance passes through the gap portions 33a and 33b of the sensors S1 and S2, the light emitting portions L1 and L1.
The amount of light that passes through the bill from 2 and reaches the light receiving portions R1 and R2 rapidly increases, and the outputs of the sensors S1 and S2 are turned on (bright state).

That is, as shown in FIG. 8A, when the bill is a 1,000-yen bill K1, the denomination display section 11a only passes the sensor S1 once, and the sensor S1 outputs a pulse in the ON state. Once, the sensor S2 remains off. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8B, when the banknote is the 5,000-yen banknote K2, the pulses in the ON state appear simultaneously from the sensors S1 and S2. Further, as shown in FIG. 8C, in the case of the 10,000-yen ticket K3, the sensor S1 produces a pulse in the on state twice, and the sensor S2 remains in the off state.

The outputs obtained from the sensors S1 and S2 as described above are input to the ECU 12, and the denomination is discriminated and notified by the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. First,
In step 100, it is determined whether or not the sensor S1 is turned on. If a negative determination is made here, that is, if the denomination display unit 11 has not passed the sensor S1 even once, the direction of insertion / movement of a bill is wrong, or a bill other than a bill is inserted. After advancing to step 110 and notifying that the denomination display unit 11 has not been detected, this processing is temporarily terminated. On the other hand, if an affirmative decision is made, the operation proceeds to step 120.

In step 120, it is judged whether or not the sensor S1 has been turned on for the second time. If an affirmative determination is made here, the routine proceeds to step 130, where it is notified that the denomination is 10,000 yen, and the processing ends. On the other hand, when a negative determination is made, the routine proceeds to step 140, where it is determined whether or not the sensor S2 is in the ON state. If an affirmative determination is made here, the process proceeds to step 150 to notify that the denomination is 5,000 yen, and if a negative determination is made, the process proceeds to step 160 to notify that the denomination is 1,000 yen, and once. This process ends.

The notification of the above denomination is made by voice from the speaker 5. For example, if the denomination is determined to be 1,000 yen, the speaker 5 informs the synthesized voice that it is "1,000 yen", and even a visually handicapped person can easily know the denomination. It should be noted that this notification need not be a synthetic voice, and various means can be used as long as the voice is distinguished by the voice, such as sounding a chime sound or a buzzer sound a different number of times depending on the denomination. .

As described above, the denomination discriminating apparatus 1 of the present embodiment employs a structure for discriminating the denomination by detecting the pattern of the denomination display section 11 located at the lower end portion of the banknote. It is possible to reduce the size and weight. Therefore, a visually handicapped person can carry and use the bill discriminating apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, and the remarkable effect that the denomination of bills can be discriminated easily at any time and in any place as needed.

As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in various modes within the scope of the gist thereof. For example, as a sensor for detecting the pattern of the denomination display part, as shown in FIG.
The individual sensors S3, S4, S5 are arranged in an L-shape, and the sensor S3 is used for a 1,000-yen ticket, and the sensor S is used for a 5,000-yen ticket.
It is also possible to determine the denomination by detecting the denomination display section by the sensors S3 and S5 in the case of a 10,000-yen ticket by S3 and S4. In this example, it is not necessary to move the bill with respect to the sensors S3 to S5.

Further, as shown in FIG. 11, a solid-state image sensor 91 such as a CCD may be used as a light receiving part of a sensor for detecting the pattern of the denomination display part. In this case, the banknote denomination display unit 97 is inserted between the light emitting unit 93 and the solid-state image sensor 91, and the image 99 is read to determine the denomination. Therefore, it is not necessary to move the bill with respect to the sensor.

Further, in the sensor of the above embodiment, the reflected light of the light beam applied to the bill from the light emitting portion may be incident on the light receiving portion. On the other hand, instead of the sensor that utilizes light as described above, a sensor that includes a switch unit that opens and closes according to the unevenness of the denomination display unit may be used. For example, it is possible to use a sensor that includes a contact member that comes into contact with the surface of a bill, and that opens and closes a switch to generate an on / off signal when the contact member moves up and down according to the unevenness of the denomination display unit. it can.

In addition, as the denomination notifying means, in addition to means for notifying by voice using a speaker or the like, notifying by tactile sensation is also possible. For example, a member that moves according to the determined denomination, such as a protruding member that is raised by a different number depending on the denomination, is provided outside the denomination determination device, and the denomination can be known by touching this member. You may use the notification means which can.

[0028]

As described in detail above, the denomination discriminating apparatus according to the present invention employs a structure for discriminating the denomination by detecting the pattern of the denomination display section provided on the bill. The size and weight of the device can be reduced. Therefore, even if a visually handicapped person cannot touch the denomination display section to discriminate the denomination of the banknote, by carrying and using the banknote discriminating apparatus of the present invention, any time, any place as necessary. There is a remarkable effect that the denomination of the bill can be easily discriminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a bill discriminating apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of a sensor of the bill discriminating apparatus in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a detection principle of a denomination display unit in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration in this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a movement of a bill in this embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a pattern detecting operation of the denomination display portion in the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a signal waveform diagram showing an output of the sensor in the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a denomination determination process in the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of a sensor according to another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure and operation of a sensor according to another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Banknote discriminating device 5 ... Speaker S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 ... Sensor L1, L2 ... Light emitting part R1, R2 ... Light receiving part 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d, 11e ...

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sensor for detecting a pattern of a denomination display section provided on a bill, a bill discriminating means for discriminating a denomination of a bill based on an output of the sensor, and a discriminated by the bill discriminating means. A bill discriminating apparatus comprising: an informing unit for informing a seed. 2. The sensor includes a light emitting unit that irradiates the denomination display unit with light and a light receiving unit that receives transmitted light or reflected light from the denomination display unit. The bill discriminating apparatus according to Item 1. 3. The bill discriminating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sensor includes a switch means that opens and closes in accordance with the unevenness of the denomination display portion.