JPH1016336A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect accurately a page mark of a medium and the line at which printing is finished by a method wherein an output signal of an image sensor and an output signal of a conveyance detection means are received, and the page mark and the printing finish line are recognized by removing a fluctuated content in conveyance of the medium. SOLUTION: A passbook T is carried with a conveyance part 1. An image sensor 2 arranged on the upper side of the passbook T scans on the passbook T in a specific cycle, takes in a page mark and a data of a printing finish line are taken in, an analogue signal is converted to a digital signal with an A/D conversion part, and inputted to a recognition part 6. Besides, when the passbook is carried under the image sensor 2, a roller 4 starts to be rotated, an encoder 5 connected to the roller 4 is rotated, and outputs an ON/OFF signal. Hereafter, the signal is inputted to the recognition part 6 while the encoder changes a pulse width according to a rotary amount i.e., a conveyance amount of the passbook T until the passbook T passes a detection range of the image sensor 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer having a mechanism for detecting a page mark or a printed line of a medium such as a passbook.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a printer device for printing a date, an amount, a transaction item, and the like on a passbook inserted from an insertion slot is provided inside an automatic teller machine.

A conventional printer is disclosed in, for example,
No. 91983, an image sensor (image scanner) for detecting a printed line, an A / D converter for converting an analog signal of the image sensor into a digital signal, and a digital signal of the converted first line And a count determining unit that counts the number of black dots in the buffer.

[0004] The passbook inserted from the insertion slot is transported to the printer by transport means such as transport rollers, and the printed line is detected by the image sensor. An analog signal from the image sensor is converted into a digital signal by an A / D converter, and the converted digital signal is stored in a buffer. The counting judging section counts the number of black dots in the buffer. If the number is a certain number or more, it is determined that printing has been performed. If the number is less than the certain number, it is determined that printing has not been performed. Then, a portion to be printed is confirmed based on the determination result of the counting determining unit, and printing is performed by the print head.
When printing is completed, the passbook is ejected from the insertion slot.

[0005]

A conventional printer device detects a page mark or a printed line of a medium such as a passbook using only an image sensor. Since the image sensor always scans the medium at a constant cycle, there is no particular problem as long as the medium is transported in a normal state.

However, the medium being transported slips,
If the diameter of the transport roller expands or contracts or the transport belt deforms due to an environmental change such as a temperature change, the transport of the medium fluctuates. Conventional printers do not have a means to detect such fluctuations during the transport of media, so page marks and printed lines are erroneously detected, and as a result, lines are skipped or printed overlaid. And so on.

[0007] It is possible to remove a variation in conveyance from the output signal of the image sensor if only a specific medium on which a mark indicating a line position is printed is handled. However, various types of media such as a passbook printer can be used. However, it has been difficult with a printer device that handles unspecified media.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has been made by detecting a fluctuation during conveyance of a medium.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device capable of accurately detecting a page mark and a printed line of a medium.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer apparatus for conveying a medium, an image sensor for scanning a page mark or a printed line written on the medium, and detecting a change during the conveyance of the medium. And a recognition unit that receives the output signal of the image sensor and the output signal of the conveyance detection unit, removes a variation during conveyance of the medium, and recognizes a page mark or a printed line. It is characterized by the following.

According to the present invention, the output signal of the image sensor and the output signal of the conveyance detecting means are received, and the fluctuation during the conveyance of the medium is removed to recognize the page mark or the printed line. Even if a change occurs during the conveyance of a page, a page mark or a printed line can be accurately detected.

[0011] The printer device of the present invention further comprises a conveying means for conveying the medium, and an image sensor arranged above the medium conveyed by the conveying means for scanning a page mark or a printed line written on the medium. A roller which is arranged below the medium conveyed by the conveying means and which comes into contact with the medium being conveyed so as to rotate along with the movement of the medium, and detects the rotation of the roller to change the medium during conveyance of the medium. And an identification unit that receives an output signal of the image sensor and an output signal of the encoder, removes a variation during conveyance of the medium, and recognizes a page mark or a printed line. It is assumed that.

The encoder alternately outputs an ON signal and an OFF signal.
When the N signal and the OFF signal are not output regularly and alternately, it is preferable to recognize that there is a change in the conveyance of the medium.

The medium is, for example, a passbook.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the printer device of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printer of the present invention has a transport unit 1 (transport means) for transporting a medium T such as a passbook.
, Image sensor 2, A / D converter 3, roller 4
, An encoder 5, a recognition unit 6 (recognition unit), a printing unit 7, and a control unit 8.

The transport section 1 includes, for example, a pair of transport rollers 1a arranged vertically and a motor (not shown) for driving the transport rollers 1a to rotate the transport rollers 1a. The medium T is transported by the roller 1a.
Then, the sheet is conveyed in the direction of the arrow. Note that the transport unit 1
Is not limited to the above configuration, and the medium T may be transported by a transport belt or the like.

The image sensor 2 is arranged above the medium T conveyed by the conveyance section 1 and scans a page mark such as a bar code or a printed line written on the medium T at a constant period, and scans the line by line. Output signal.

The A / D converter 3 converts an analog signal output from the image sensor 2 into a digital signal.

The roller 4 is disposed below the medium T conveyed by the conveyance section 1 and comes into contact with the medium T being conveyed so as to rotate as the medium T moves.

The encoder 5 detects the rotation of the roller 4 and outputs an ON signal and an OFF signal alternately at a constant cycle.
This is to detect a change during transport of the medium T.

The recognition section 6 receives the output signal output from the image sensor 2 and converted by the A / D conversion section 3 and the output signal of the encoder 5, and removes the fluctuation during the transport of the medium T. It recognizes page marks and printed lines. When the encoder 5 does not regularly output the ON signal and the OFF signal alternately during a certain period, the recognition unit 6 recognizes that the conveyance of the medium T has a change.

The printing unit 7 has a print head (not shown) and the like, and prints print data stored in a print buffer or a memory on the medium T.

The control unit 8 controls the operation of the printing unit 7 and the transporting unit 1, and outputs a print command signal based on the detection result of the page mark or the printed line recognized by the recognition unit 6. , Or a signal for sending / receiving the medium T to the transport unit 1.

FIG. 2 shows output signals of the encoder 5 and the image sensor 2 during operation of the printer device of the present invention. Since the output signal of the image sensor 2 is an image signal of one line, FIG. 2 shows a scan start timing of one line.

Next, the operation of the printer of the present invention will be described.

The passbook inserted from the insertion slot is transported by the transport unit 1, and the image sensor 2 disposed above the medium T scans the medium T at regular intervals to scan page marks and printed lines. Capture data. The analog signal output from the image sensor 2 is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 3 and input to the recognition unit 6.

On the other hand, when the medium T is conveyed below the image sensor 2, the roller 4 starts rotating, and the encoder 5 connected to the roller 4 rotates to turn ON / OFF.
Output a signal.

Thereafter, until the medium T passes through the detection range of the image sensor 2, the encoder 5 changes the pulse width in accordance with the rotation amount, that is, the conveyance amount of the medium T, while changing the ON / OF.
An F signal is output and input to the recognition unit 6.

The recognition section 6 receives the output signal of the image sensor 2 and the output signal of the encoder 5 and performs a recognition operation based on the received signals.

FIG. 3A shows a printed medium T,
FIG. 3B shows the image sensor 2 during normal conveyance.
FIG. 3C shows the output results of the image sensor 2 and the encoder 5 when there is a change during the transport of the medium T. FIG. In general,
Scan cycle of image sensor 2 and ON of encoder 5
The / OFF cycle is set finer than 1/180 dpi, but here, each cycle is set to one line for easy understanding.

The medium T is printed up to the fourth line as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3B, when the output of the encoder 5 repeatedly outputs the ON / OFF signal regularly, the recognition unit 6 recognizes that the sheet is normally conveyed. According to the output of the image sensor 2,
It is determined that the number of printed lines is four.

The medium T being transported slips, or the diameter of the transport roller expands or contracts due to environmental changes such as temperature changes.
When the transport belt is deformed, the transport of the medium T fluctuates. In such a case, for example, if the slip of the medium T occurs over two lines, the conventional printer device performs recognition only with the output signal of the image sensor 2 and thus erroneously detects the line as six lines. However, in the printer device of the present invention, the recognition unit 6 performs the recognition together with the output of the encoder 5, and therefore, as shown in FIG. If the fourth line to the fifth line have not changed, it is determined that the medium T has not been transported in the same portion, and the printed line can be correctly recognized as the fourth line.

When the recognizing unit 6 recognizes a page mark or a printed line, the control unit 8 operates the printing unit 7 based on the recognition result, and prints print data on the medium T.
When printing is completed, the passbook is ejected from the insertion slot.

The printer device of the present invention receives the output signal of the image sensor 2 and the output signal of the encoder 5 and recognizes a page mark or a printed line by removing a variation during the transport of the medium T. Even if a change occurs during transport of the medium T, a page mark or a printed line can be accurately detected. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a page mark or a printed line from being erroneously detected and to skip a line or to perform printing repeatedly, so that a highly reliable printer device can be provided.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes can be made within the scope of the technical matters described in the claims.

For example, the image sensor of the present invention may scan only the page mark or only the printed line, or may scan both at the same time.

In this embodiment, a line-type image sensor is used for capturing an image of the medium T. However, when the recognition target is limited to only a page mark, a photo sensor is used. You may. In this case, a cheaper system can be configured.

[0038]

The printer device of the present invention receives the output signal of the image sensor and the output signal of the conveyance detecting means, removes the fluctuation during the conveyance of the medium, and recognizes the page mark and the printed line. , Even if a change occurs during the conveyance of the medium T,
Page marks and printed lines can be detected accurately. Therefore, page marks and printed lines are erroneously detected,
Since it is possible to prevent printing by skipping lines and printing by overlapping, a highly reliable printer device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows output signals of an encoder and an image sensor during operation of the present invention.

3A shows a medium printed up to the fourth line, FIG. 3B shows an output result of an image sensor and an encoder during normal conveyance, and FIG. 3C shows a state where the medium is being conveyed. 5 shows the output results of the image sensor and the encoder when a change occurs in the image sensor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 T: medium (passbook) 1: transport unit (transport unit) 2: image sensor 3: A / D converter 4: roller 5: encoder (transport detection unit) 6: recognition unit (recognition unit) 7: printing unit 8: Control unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] A transport unit configured to transport a medium; an image sensor configured to scan a page mark or a printed line written on the medium; a transport detection unit configured to detect a change during transport of the medium; and the image sensor. And a recognition unit that receives the output signal of the medium and the output signal of the conveyance detection unit, and removes a variation during the conveyance of the medium to recognize a page mark or a printed line. 2. A conveying means for conveying a medium, an image sensor disposed above the medium conveyed by the conveying means and scanning a page mark or a printed line written on the medium, and A roller that is arranged below the medium to be conveyed and that comes into contact with the medium being conveyed so as to rotate with the movement of the medium, and detects rotation of the roller to detect fluctuations during conveyance of the medium And an identification unit that receives an output signal of the image sensor and an output signal of the encoder, and that recognizes a page mark or a printed line by removing a variation during conveyance of the medium. Printer device. 3. The encoder outputs an ON signal and an OFF signal alternately, and the recognizing section outputs a signal when the encoder does not output the ON signal and the OFF signal alternately during a predetermined period. 3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the printer recognizes that there is a change in the conveyance of the medium. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the medium is a passbook.