JPS6132713B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a mark reading device that optically reads a mark recorded at a specific position on a ticket conveyed, for example, in an automatic ticket gate.

Generally, automatic ticket gates use a magnetized ticket on which predetermined information is magnetically recorded, and the automatic ticket gate is operated by reading the magnetically recorded information from the ticket. However, recently, an automatic ticket inspection system has been developed that uses an optical ticket in which predetermined information is converted into an optical mark and is recorded thereon, and the information mark is optically read from the ticket. Tickets used for such automatic ticket gates have an information mark corresponding to the information on the ticket surface recorded on one side of the ticket surface, and identification marks indicating the information area (or the beginning of the information) at both ends of this information mark. recorded. Therefore, the positions of the identification mark and the information mark differ depending on the direction in which the inserted ticket is conveyed. Therefore, when reading information on a ticket, that is, an information mark, in such an automatic ticket gate, the direction of transport of the ticket is determined by detecting the identification mark, and the reading of the information mark is performed according to the determination result. I try to do this.

Hereinafter, a conventional mark reading device will be explained in detail. First, FIG. 1 shows the relationship between a ticket on a conveyance path in an automatic ticket gate, a mark detector, and a mark reader. It is conveyed in the direction of arrow a and led out to a ticket outlet (not shown). The ticket 11 is what is called a Mars ticket, and the information mark 12 and identification mark 13 are recorded on the ticket surface as described above. Further, at a predetermined midway position on the conveyance path 10, detectors 14 and 15 for detecting the identification mark 13 and readers 16 and 17 for reading the information mark 12 are provided. The detectors 14 and 15 are composed of a light emitter that irradiates light onto the ticket 11 and a light receiving element that receives the reflected light. In addition, the reader 1
Reference numerals 6 and 17 are composed of a light emitting body that irradiates light onto the ticket 11 and a so-called line sensor that receives the reflected light. Note that the ticket 11 may be inserted face down, so in reality, the ticket 11 may be inserted face down.
The same detector and reader are provided on the back side of the . The transport direction of the ticket 11 is the first
As shown in the figure, when the identification mark 13 is face up and located on the lower side, it is called the front direction, when it is located on the upper side as indicated by the dotted line, it is called the front and reverse direction, and when it is face down, it is also called the front and back direction. call.

Next, Figure 2 shows a mark reading device.
Each output of the detectors 14 and 15 is connected to a detection circuit 16,
17 respectively. These detection circuits 16 and 17 convert the respective output signals of the detectors 14 and 15 into digital signals.
4 and 15 are the unrecorded portions of ticket 11 (hereinafter referred to as "Ming").
When detecting an object (referred to as "part"), it outputs a "bright" level, that is, a "1" signal, and in other cases, for example, before detecting the ticket 11 or when detecting the identification mark 13, it outputs a "dark" level, that is, a "0" signal. Output. Each output of these detection circuits 18 and 19 is supplied to a selection circuit 20, respectively. This selection circuit 20 alternately outputs the respective outputs of the detection circuits 18 and 19, and outputs "1" and "1" from the NAND circuits 21 and 22.
It is composed of an oscillator 23 that outputs an on-off pulse signal of "0" and an inverter circuit 24. That is, the output of the detection circuit 18 is supplied to the NAND circuit 21 together with the output of the oscillator 23, and the output of the detection circuit 19 is supplied to the NAND circuit 22 together with the output of the oscillator 23 via the inverter circuit 24. The outputs of the selection circuits 20 are each supplied to a direction determination circuit 25. This direction discrimination circuit 25 includes a NOR circuit 26, a flip-flop circuit (hereinafter simply FF
circuit) 27, inverter circuit 28, 2
9 and 30, AND circuits 31 and 32, and FF circuits 33 and 34. That is, the NAND circuit 2 which is the output of the selection circuit 20
Each output of 1 and 22 is supplied to a NOR circuit 26. The output of this NOR circuit 26 is supplied to a set input terminal of an FF circuit 27 via an inverter circuit 29. The set output of this FF circuit 27 is
It is supplied to an AND circuit 31 together with the output of the detection circuit 18 via an inverter circuit 28.
Furthermore, the output of this FF circuit 27 is supplied to an AND circuit 32 together with the output of the detection circuit 19 via an inverter circuit 30. Each output of the AND circuits 31 and 32 is connected to the FF circuit 3.
3 and 34, respectively. Each output of the direction discrimination circuit 25, that is, the set output of the FF circuit 33, is supplied to the AND circuit 35 together with the output of the reader 16 which performs reading in the reverse direction, and the output of the FF circuit 34 is
It is supplied to an AND circuit 36 together with the output of the reader 17 which performs reading in the forward direction. The output of this AND circuit 35 is supplied to an OR circuit 37 together with the output of an AND circuit 36.
The output of 7 is supplied to an identification section 38 that identifies the information mark 12.

In such a configuration, for example, if the ticket 11 is conveyed in the front direction as shown in FIG. detection circuit 1
8 and 19 output a "bright" level, that is, a "1" signal, respectively. These output signals are alternately selected and outputted by the selection circuit 20. That is, when the output of the oscillator 23 is a "1" signal, the output of the NAND circuit 21 is a "0" signal, and the output of the NAND circuit 22 is a "1" signal. Furthermore, when the output of the oscillator 23 is a "0" signal, it is output in the opposite manner to the above. These "1" and "0" level output signals are supplied to the NOR circuit 26. As a result, the output of the NOR circuit 26 becomes a "0" signal, which is inverted by the inverter circuit 29 to become a "1" signal, and the FF circuit 27 is set by this signal. In this state, the detectors 14 and 15 next
When the identification mark 13 is detected, the detection circuits 18 and 19 output signals of "1" and "0", respectively. These output signals are sent to AND circuits 31 and 32 via inverter circuits 28 and 30, respectively.
is supplied to The AND circuits 31 and 32 include
At the same time, since the set output signal of the FF circuit 27 is supplied, a "1" signal is output from the AND circuit 32 when the input conditions are satisfied, and the forward direction is
FF circuit 34 is set. As a result, the set output is output as a front direction discrimination signal,
It is determined that the ticket 11 has been conveyed in the front direction. Therefore, AND circuit 3
6 opens, the output of the reader 17 in the forward direction is selected, and the read signal of the information mark 12 read by the reader 17 is supplied to the identification section 38 via the OR circuit 37. Information mark 1 here
2 is identified and subsequent processing is performed. Then, when the identification of the information mark 12 is completed, the above-mentioned
FF circuits 27, 33, and 34 are reset by a reset signal.

On the other hand, if a ticket 11 with a damaged portion E is transported as shown in FIG. 1, for example, the detector 1
4 and 15 detect portion b, the detection circuit 18 outputs a "0" signal at a "dark" level, and the detection circuit 19 outputs a "1" signal at a "bright" level. Each of these signals is supplied to the selection circuit 20,
The output of this selection circuit 20 is supplied to an FF circuit 27 via a NOR circuit 26 and an inverter circuit 29.
This FF circuit 27 is set. In this state,
Furthermore, when part E is detected by the detector 14,
Since the output of the detection circuit 18 maintains the "0" signal, the AND circuit 31 is established. As a result, the FF circuit 33 for the reverse direction is set, and the direction determination circuit 25
A front/reverse direction determination signal is output from the front/reverse direction, and the output of the reader 16 in the front/reverse direction is selected. That is, since the FF circuit 27 of the direction determining circuit 25 is in the set state no matter which part of the ticket 11 is detected, the FF circuit 27 will make an erroneous detection before the identification mark 13 is detected. Therefore, even though the transport direction is the front direction, it is incorrectly determined that the transport direction is the front direction. This is extremely problematic in practical use as a mark reading device for automatic ticket gates.

Further, in the conventional mark reading device described above, a timer (not shown) is operated at the same time as the identification mark 13 is detected, and reading of the information mark 12 is started after detecting the end of the timer. The reason for this is that if you start reading the information mark 12 at the same time as the identification mark 13 is detected, there is a possibility that the identification mark 13 that has just been detected or noise in the middle may be mistakenly read as the information mark 12. This is particularly likely to occur when the same detector is used to detect the identification mark and read the information mark. However, when the timer is used in this way, there is a big problem that when the distance between the identification mark 13 and the information mark 12 is extremely narrow, the reading of the tip of the information mark 12 is ignored. There is.

This invention was made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to accurately determine the conveying direction of a partially damaged ticket without erroneously detecting it, and to reliably mark the information mark on the ticket. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mark reading device that can read marks and can reliably read even if an identification mark and an information mark are close to each other.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the only difference from the conventional mark reading device shown in FIG. 2 is the configuration of the direction determining circuit, and that part will be described in detail, and other parts will be given the same reference numerals and detailed description will be omitted. That is,
For example, as shown in FIG.
The circuit is composed of R-S type FF circuits 40, 41 and J-K type FF circuits 42, 43, 44, 45.
That is, the respective outputs of the NAND circuits 21 and 22, which are the outputs of the selection circuit 20, are outputted from the FF circuits 40 and 22.
41, respectively. Each set output of the FF circuits 40 and 41 is supplied to each J input terminal of the FF circuits 42 and 43, and each clock pulse (hereinafter simply abbreviated as CP) of the FF circuits 42 and 43 is supplied to each set output of the FF circuits 40 and 41.
The outputs of the detection circuits 18 and 19 are respectively supplied to the input terminals. Further, the set outputs of the FF circuits 42 and 43 are connected to the FF circuits 44 and 43, respectively.
This FF is supplied to each J input terminal of 45
The respective outputs of the NAND circuits 21 and 22 are supplied to the CP input terminals of the circuits 44 and 45, respectively. The set outputs of the FF circuits 44 and 45, which are the outputs of the direction determining circuit 25, are supplied to one input terminal of the AND circuits 35 and 36, respectively. Note that the FF circuit 40,
41 is set when a "0" signal is input, and the FF circuits 42, 43, 4
4 and 45 are set when a "1" signal is supplied to the J input terminal and a "0" signal is supplied to the CP input terminal.

Next, the operation in the above configuration will be explained. For example, if an undamaged ticket 11 is being conveyed in the front direction on the conveyance path 10 as shown in FIG.
The detection circuits 18 and 19 detect the "bright" part.
A "1" signal of "bright" level is output from each of them. These output signals are alternately selected and outputted by the selection circuit 20. That is, when the output of the oscillator 23 is a "1" signal, the output of the NAND circuit 21 is a "0" signal, and the FF circuit 40 is set.
When the output of the oscillator 23 is a "0" signal, the output of the NAND circuit 22 is a "0" signal and the FF circuit 41 is set. In this state, when the detector 15 next detects the C part of the ticket 11, that is, the identification mark 13, the detection circuits 18 and 19 output "1",
A signal of "0" is output respectively. Each of these output signals is supplied to each CP input terminal of FF circuits 42 and 43, respectively. At this time, this FF circuit 42,
Since the set outputs of the FF circuits 40 and 41 are supplied to each J input terminal of the FF circuit 43, the FF circuit 43 whose input conditions are satisfied is set. Furthermore, in this state, when the detectors 14 and 15 next detect the d section, that is, the "light" section of the ticket 11,
The detection circuits 18 and 19 each output a signal of "1", which is supplied to the selection circuit 20. When the selection circuit 20 is in a predetermined state, a "1" signal is output from each of the NAND circuits 21 and 22 of the selection circuit 20. Each of these output signals is FF
It is supplied to each CP input terminal of circuits 44 and 45, respectively. At this time, each J of the FF circuits 44 and 45
Each set output of FF circuits 42 and 43 is supplied to the input terminal. However, since it is the FF circuit 43 that has been set in the previous stage,
The FF circuit 45 that satisfies the input condition is set,
The set output is output as a front direction discrimination signal. Thereby, it is determined that the ticket 11 has been conveyed in the front direction. Therefore, the gate of the AND circuit 36 opens and the reader 1
7 is selected, and the read signal of the information mark 12 read by the reader 17 is sent to the OR circuit 3.
7 to the identification unit 38. The information mark 12 is now identified and further processing is performed. When the identification of the information mark 12 is completed, the FF circuits 40 to 45 are each reset by a reset signal.

On the other hand, if a ticket 11 with a damaged portion E is transported as shown in FIG. 1, for example, the detector 1
4 and 15 first detect part b, and then the detection circuit 18
A “0” signal is output from. Each of these signals is supplied to a selection circuit 20 and alternately selected and output. That is, when the output of the oscillator 23 is a "0" signal, each output of the NAND circuits 21 and 22 is a "1" signal, neither of the FF circuits 40 and 41 is set, and conversely, the output of the oscillator 23 is a "1" signal. When the signal
The outputs of the NAND circuits 21 and 22 become "1" and "0" signals, respectively, and the FF circuit 41 is set. In this state, when the detectors 14 and 15 next detect section C, the detection circuit 18 still outputs a "0" signal, and the detection circuit 19 detects the identification mark 13 and outputs a "0" signal. Output. Each of these output signals is transmitted to the FF circuits 42 and 4.
However, since only the FF circuit 41 was set in the previous state, the FF circuit 43 for which the input condition was satisfied is set. Furthermore, when the detectors 14 and 15 detect the d section of the ticket 11 in this state, the detection circuit 18 still outputs a "0" signal, and the detection circuit 19 outputs a "1" signal. Each of these output signals is output when the selection circuit 20 is in a predetermined state. That is, when the output of the oscillator 23 is a "0" signal, the outputs of the NAND circuits 21 and 22 become "1" and "0" signals, respectively, and these signals are respectively input to the CP input terminals of the FF circuits 44 and 45. supplied,
The FF circuit 45 that satisfies the input conditions is set,
The set output is output as a front direction discrimination signal. Thereby, it is determined that the ticket 11 has been conveyed in the front direction. Therefore, the gate of the AND circuit 36 opens and the output of the reader 17 in the forward direction is selected.
The read signal of the information mark 12 read by the information mark 12 is supplied to the identification section 38 via the OR circuit 37, and the information mark 12 is identified.

In this way, in the present invention, "bright", "dark", "bright", that is, "1", "0", "1", which appear sequentially on the ticket 11 in the same direction as the transport direction of the ticket 11.
Ticket 1 is detected by detecting the signals in that order.
Since the conveyance direction of the ticket 11 is determined, the transport direction of the ticket 11, which is partially damaged, such as the section E shown in FIG.
is transported, and even if either of the detectors 14 or 15 detects a damaged part, the above-mentioned "bright", "dark",
Since it does not meet the condition of "bright", there will be no false positives. Therefore, even if the ticket 11 is damaged, the transport direction can be accurately determined, and the information mark 12 can be reliably read. In addition, after detecting the identification mark 13, the subsequent reader is reliably selected and the reading signal of the information mark 12 is output, so the identification mark and information mark can be read reliably, and a timer is not required. There is also the advantage of not being

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, even if a partially damaged ticket is conveyed, as long as the identification mark and information mark are not damaged, the conveyance direction of the ticket will be accurately determined without erroneous detection. To provide a mark reading device that can discriminate the information mark on the face of a banknote and reliably read the information mark on the face of the card, and can also reliably read the information mark even if the identification mark and the information mark are close to each other, thereby improving the reading rate and reliability. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the relationship between the ticket paper on the conveyance path, a detector, and a reader in an automatic ticket gate, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional mark reading device, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of a conventional mark reading device. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example. 10...Conveyance path, 11...Ticket paper, 12...Information mark, 13...Identification mark, 14, 15...Detector, 16, 17...Reader, 18, 19...Detection circuit, 20... ...Selection circuit, 35, 36...AND circuit, 38...Identification section, 40, 41...R-S
Flip-flop circuit, 42, 43...first J
-K flip-flop circuit, 44, 45...second
J-K flip-flop circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information mark corresponding to the information on the ticket face is recorded on one side of the ticket face in the direction of the edge of the ticket, and a bar-shaped identification mark indicating the presence of the information mark is placed on both ends of the information mark and the edge of the ticket. a conveyance path for conveying the tickets, which are recorded so as to have unrecorded portions separated from each other, in the recording direction of the information marks;
The identification mark recorded on the face of the ticket being conveyed is optically provided on both sides of the conveyance path in a direction perpendicular to the face of the ticket being conveyed along this conveyance path and corresponding to the direction of the ticket. multiple detectors to detect,
A plurality of readers are installed downstream of these detectors on both sides of the conveyance path corresponding to the direction of the ticket, and read information marks written on the face of the ticket; A plurality of detection circuits are provided corresponding to each of the detectors and output a signal based on the detection signal of each detector, and a plurality of detection circuits are provided corresponding to each of these detection circuits and output signals from each detection circuit are sequentially selected. A selection circuit that outputs signals from each detection circuit from separate output terminals, and a set output when each output signal of this selection circuit is input to the S terminal and the detector detects a non-recorded part of the edge of the bill. A plurality of R-S flip-flop circuits are provided corresponding to these R-S flip-flop circuits, and the set output of each R-S flip-flop circuit is input to the J terminal, and the output of the above-mentioned detection circuit is input to the CP terminal. a plurality of first input terminals for generating a set output when the identification mark is detected by the detector after an unrecorded portion of the note edge;
and the set output of each first J-K flip-flop circuit provided corresponding to each of the plurality of first J-K flip-flop circuits is input to the J terminal, and the output of the selection circuit is inputted to the J terminal. is input to the CP terminal and the detector detects the unrecorded part of the note edge, the identification mark, and the unrecorded part between the identification mark and the information mark in this order, a plurality of second outputs that produce a set output. a J-K flip-flop circuit, and a plurality of ANDs to which information from both the set outputs of each of these second J-K flip-flop circuits and the reader are inputted to select the output of the reader from which the information mark is to be detected. circuit and
A mark reading device characterized by comprising an identification section that identifies an information mark based on output information from these AND circuits.