JPH09254501A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To verify a printing content whether to be printed essentially. SOLUTION: The printer is equipped with a controller 6 for developing printing data received from a host device 20 to image data, a thermal head for printing and outputting image data developed by the controller 6, and a transportation part for transporting printing paper to the position of the thermal head. Besides, on the transportation part, the there is jointly installed a CCD sensor for image picking up the printing face of recording paper printed with image data by the thermal head. Also, the controller 6 is each provided with a printing content recognition means 10 for recognizing the content of the printing face image-picked up by the CCD sensor 1, and a comparison collating means 11 for collating the printing content recognized by the printing content recognition means 10 with the printing data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device, and more particularly to a printer device for issuing reservation tickets, cash vouchers, and securities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of confirming the printed contents, there is a method of performing printing with a thermal transfer printer and visually observing the thermal transfer film after printing.

[0003]

The first problem is that when the printer is not a thermal transfer system such as a thermal system, a dot impact system, a pubble jet system, or an electrophotographic system, the print content remains on other than the print target paper. Absent. This is because no recording is left on the ink ribbon as in the dot evict method when there is no ink ribbon and when there is an ink ribbon.

The second problem is that although the recording remains on the ink ribbon in the thermal transfer system, it is impossible for the printer itself to confirm the printed contents immediately after printing. This is because the thermal transfer ink ribbon is indirectly checked visually, not by directly reading the print content of the print target paper.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer apparatus which can improve the disadvantages of the conventional example, and in particular can verify that the print contents are the contents to be originally printed. .

[0006]

Therefore, in the present invention, the print contents after printing are read by image input and collated with the print data from the host by the microprocessor. Therefore, it is possible to confirm the print content.

Specifically, a control unit that expands the print data received from the host device into image data, a print head that prints out the image data expanded by this control unit, and a recording sheet up to the position of the print head. And a transport section for transporting. Moreover, in the transport section,
A CCD sensor for capturing an image of the printing surface of the recording paper on which image data is printed by the print head is also provided. Further, the control unit includes a print content recognizing means for recognizing the content of the print surface imaged by the CCD sensor, and a comparison and collating means for collating the print content recognized by the print content recognizing means with the print data. It adopts a configuration called "ta". This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a printer device according to the present invention. The printer device is a higher-level device 2
A control unit 6 that expands the print data received from 0 into image data, a print head (thermal head) 3 that prints out the image data expanded by the control unit 6, and a recording sheet 4 up to the position of the thermal head 3.
And a transport section 7 for transporting.

The thermal head 3 and the transport unit 7 are a control unit 6
The drive is controlled by.

Moreover, the thermal head 3 is provided in the carrying section 7.
The CCD sensor 1 for picking up an image of the printing surface of the recording paper 4 on which the image data is printed is also provided. This CC
The D sensor 1 may be a CCD camera or an image sensor.

Further, the control unit 6 controls the CCD sensor 1
A print content recognizing means 10 for recognizing the content of the print surface picked up by and a comparing and collating means 11 for comparing the print content recognized by the print content recognizing means 10 with the print data are provided.

By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to check whether the actually printed contents match the contents of the print data transmitted from the host device.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, when a roll paper is used as the recording paper and further has a cutter unit 2 for cutting the printed recording paper at a predetermined position, the control unit 6
Is provided with a comparison error processing means 12 for stopping the drive control of the cutter and externally displaying an error when the comparison and collation means 11 determines that they do not match. The cutter unit 2 includes a cutter 2A for cutting a sheet and the cutter 2A.
And a cutter driving unit 2B for driving the motor according to the control of the control unit 6.

In this embodiment, the comparison error processing means 12
By including the above, it is possible to leave the handling of the defectively printed recording paper to the user of the printer device without automatically cutting it. For this reason, it is possible to effectively prevent the defectively printed recording paper from being issued.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the print content may be a character or a bar code. Depending on the role of the printer device, the print content recognizing means 10 has a character recognition function for recognizing a character printed on the print surface or a bar code reading function for reading a bar code printed on the print surface.

Next, the operation will be described.

As shown in FIG.
It is conveyed to the printing position by the roller 5. The thermal head 3 applies heat to the roll paper 4 according to the print content sent from the microprocessor 6. The roll paper 4 is a thermal paper, and the heated dot portion of the thermal head 3 turns black to represent the print content.

The roller 5 continues to carry, and the cutter 2
The roll paper 4 is fed until the print content reaches directly under the CCD camera 1 after passing.

The CCD camera 1 reads the print contents and outputs image data to the microprocessor 6. The microprocessor 6 compares and collates the print data transmitted from the higher-level device 20 with the content recognized from the image data input from the CCD camera 1.

Comparison and collation are performed, and if they match, it is regarded as normal and the cutter 2 is operated to complete the printing and ticket issuing processing. On the other hand, comparison and collation are performed. If they do not coincide, the cutter 2 is not operated and a higher-level device is notified of a comparison and collation error, and the processing is completed as an abnormality.

The print content recognizing means 10 reads the print content by the software OCR function of the microprocessor 6 when the print content is numeric data, and recognizes the bar code by the software when the print content is a bar code.

Therefore, the ticket is issued after inspecting whether or not the print content does not actually function as a bar code.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the print data and the image input data of the print content are collated by the microprocessor, abnormal printing such as defective printing or defective printing can be found.

[0025]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, the print content recognizing means recognizes the content of the print surface picked up by the CCD sensor, and the comparing and collating means recognizes the print content. Since the print content recognized by the recognition means and the print data are collated, it is possible to inspect whether or not the content actually printed is printed with the required accuracy. Since the paper on which the code is printed is not issued, abnormal printing such as defective printing or defective printing can be found. Therefore, by verifying that the print contents are the contents to be printed by the main body, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent printer device capable of improving the reliability of various sheets printed by printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of the printer device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing example with the configuration shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CCD sensor (CCD camera or image scanner) 2 Cutter section 3 Print head (thermal head) 4 Recording paper (roll paper) 5 Roller 6 Control section (microprocessor) 7 Transport section

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A control unit that expands print data received from a higher-level device into image data, a print head that prints out the image data expanded by this control unit, and a recording sheet is conveyed to the position of this print head. In a printer device including a transport unit, a CC for capturing an image of a print surface of a recording sheet on which the image data is printed by the print head, on the transport unit
A D sensor is additionally provided, and the control unit collates the print content recognition means for recognizing the content of the print surface imaged by the CCD sensor with the print content recognized by the print content recognition means and the print data. A printer device comprising a comparison and collation unit. 2. A cutter unit for cutting the recording paper on which the image data is printed by the print head is provided in the conveyance unit, and when the control unit determines that the comparison and collation means do not match each other. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a comparison error processing unit that stops driving control of the cutter unit and externally displays an error. 3. The print content recognizing means has a character recognition function for recognizing characters printed on the print surface or a bar code reading function for reading a bar code printed on the print surface. The printer device according to claim 1.