JPH0357505B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining whether a vertical bar code or a horizontal bar code is recorded on a medium such as a bankbook and reading the bar code.

In this specification, the vertical direction refers to the relative conveyance direction of the recording medium, and the horizontal direction refers to the direction perpendicular to this direction. Therefore, a vertical barcode consists of a set of bars parallel to the relative conveyance direction of the recording medium, and the bars are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction. A horizontal barcode consists of one or more bars orthogonal to the relative conveyance direction of the recording medium, and these bars are arranged parallel to the conveyance direction. Further, in this specification, front and back refer to the relative conveying direction.

In order to be used in an automatic cash transaction processing device, a normal passbook has a bar code recorded at the upper left of each page to represent this page. The barcode for bankbooks that has been used for a long time is a horizontal barcode, and the page is represented by the number of bars. However, because recent bankbooks have a large number of pages, vertical barcodes have come to be used. Also, a single bankbook may contain both vertical and horizontal barcodes. Because a bankbook contains both vertical and horizontal barcodes, conventional transaction processing devices have been provided with separate sensors for reading each barcode.

The purpose of this invention is to be able to read vertical barcodes and horizontal barcodes with one sensor, and to accurately distinguish and read each barcode without being affected by poor printing of each barcode. The goal is to provide a device that can.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a passbook used in an automatic transaction processing device will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 shows part of a bookkeeping machine that prints transaction data such as deposit amounts, payment amounts, and balances on a passbook. The passbook BN is with the page to be printed open,
It is carried in and out by a conveying device consisting of a pulse motor 4 and a conveying roller 3 driven by the pulse motor 4. A tip sensor 1 for detecting the tip of the passbook and an image sensor 2 for reading the barcode recorded on the passbook are disposed along the passbook transport path. Furthermore, a printing head 5 for printing transaction data on the passbook is arranged on the carry-in side. The print head 5 is movable in a direction perpendicular to the passbook carrying direction Dr.

Figures 2 and 3 show vertical and horizontal barcodes. Vertical barcode BL is the second
It consists of 10 vertical bars as shown in the figure. Four of these bars are thick and represent 1, and the other six are thin bars and represent 0. Each vertical bar is weighted according to its position. The pages of the passbook are represented by codes represented by 10 vertical bars. In this embodiment, the code of the vertical bar is represented by the thickness of the bar, but it may also be represented by the interval between the bars. As shown in FIG. 3, the horizontal barcode BT consists of one or more horizontal bars. Each horizontal bar has the same thickness and mutual spacing, and the number of horizontal bars represents the page of the passbook BN. The maximum number of horizontal bars is predetermined, and in this embodiment, it is five.

FIG. 4 shows the reading area of each barcode. The length 10 measured from a position slightly in front of the tip of the passbook BN is to prevent barcode reading errors from occurring at the tip of the passbook. The vertical barcode reading area 12 is set between a position slightly behind the leading end of the vertical barcode BL and a position slightly forward of the rear end of the barcode BL. The area between areas 10 and 12 is defined as area 11, and the area behind area 12 to an appropriate position is defined as area 13. Area 11,
12 and 13 are horizontal barcode reading areas.

FIG. 5 shows a circuit diagram of the barcode reading device. As shown in FIG. 6, the image sensor 2 consists of n photosensors, for example 256 photosensors, arranged in a line in the horizontal direction. Let L be the detection width of the image sensor. Image sensor 2 is, for example, an n-bit split charge-coupled photosensor array. The timing generation circuit 14 generates a synchronization signal for the image sensor 2,
Scan start pulse ST and synchronized clock pulse
Generates CK. Let Tc be the start pulse ST interval, that is, the scanning period. n clock pulses CK are output in one scanning period Tc. After the output A of the image sensor 2 is shaped by the waveform shaping circuit 15, it is sent to the counters 11, 12 and 13,
The data can be sent to the data input terminal D of the flip-flop 21 via the differentiating circuit 17 and the NOT circuit 18. The output AL of the image sensor along the scanning line SC on the vertical barcode BL and the output AT of the image sensor along the scanning line SC on the horizontal barcode BT are shown in FIG. The output of the sensor detecting each bar in these output signals is L level, which is taken as the black level. On the other hand, the sensor output detecting the portion other than the bar, that is, the white background of the passbook, is at H level, which is taken as the white level. When image sensor 2 is scanning the positions before and after each barcode, and when scanning between horizontal barcodes (the scanning line is indicated by SCO), sensor output A is only at the white level. It becomes a signal.

The counters 11 and 12 count how many bits there are at the white level or black level in one scanning period Tc of the image sensor 2. Both counters 11 and 12 are preset counters, with counter 11 set to a preset value n1, and counter 12 set to a preset value n2. The preset value n1 is, for example, (2/5).n, and the preset value n2 is (4/5).n. Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the output A of the sensor 2 is input to the counter 11 via the NOT circuit 16, and the clock input while this signal A is at the L level (i.e., black level) is input to the counter 11.・Count pulse CK. When the counted value exceeds the preset value n1, an output signal BR1 is output. A signal A is input to the counter 12, and a clock signal input while this signal A is at H level (that is, white level)
CK is counted, and when the counted value exceeds a set preset value n2, an output signal BR2 is output. Both counters 11 and 12 are reset by the start pulse ST and start counting from 1 again. Therefore, in one scanning period Tc, if the black level of the signal A is 2/5 or higher, the signal BR1 is output and the flip-flop 22 is set. When the image sensor 2 is scanning the vertical barcode BL and the horizontal barcode BT (when the scanning line is SC), the signal BR2 is output and the flip-flop 22 is reset. ), the black level of the signal A is 2/5 or higher, and the flip-flop 22 is set.In contrast, the image sensor 2 scans before and after each barcode and between the horizontal barcodes BT. (when the scanning line is SCO), the white level of signal A is 4/5 or higher and the flip-flop 22 is reset.If the vertical barcode BL is, the flip-flop 22 is reset only once. The output F2Q of flip-flop 22 when set and then reset
The falling edge where the signal is inverted from the H level to the L level is detected by the differentiating circuit 23 and becomes the signal SYN.
In the case of a vertical barcode BL, only one signal SYN is output. In the case of a horizontal barcode BT, a flip-flop 22 is set for each horizontal bar,
Thereafter, the falling edge of the output F2Q upon being reset is detected by the differentiating circuit 23 and the signal SYN is output. Signal SYN in case of horizontal barcode BT
is output in the same number as the number of horizontal bars. These counters 11 and 12 are used to discriminate between the vertical barcode BL and the horizontal barcode BT, and to prevent misjudgment due to uneven printing or small dust.

Differentiating circuit 17, counter 13 and flip
The flop 21 detects a thick vertical bar representing 1 in the vertical barcode BL. Referring to FIG. 9, the differentiation circuit 17 detects the falling and rising edges of the reading signal AL of the vertical barcode BL by the image sensor 2. The counter 13 is a preset counter, and a preset value n3 for detecting thick vertical bars is set in advance. As shown in FIG. 6, the width t1 of the thick vertical bar is twice the width t2 of the thin vertical bar. Further, the interval t3 between the vertical bars is equal to t2. The preset value n3 is set to a value that counts 2/3 of the width t1 of the thick vertical bar. For example, if t1 corresponds to 18 bits of image sensor 2, n3 is a value that counts 12 bits. In this case, the width t2 of the thin vertical bar corresponds to 9 bits, so n3
is larger than this. Counter 13 is differentiator circuit 1
The signal is triggered by the falling detection signal Dd of 7.
The clock pulse CK is counted while AL is at the black level, and if the counted value exceeds the preset value n3 before being reset by the rising edge detection signal Da of the differentiating circuit 17, a signal BR3 is output. Therefore, the counter 13 outputs the signal BR3 only when the signal AL detects a thick vertical bar. The inverted signal of the signal AL is input to the data input terminal D of the flip-flop 21, and the signal BR3 is input to its trigger terminal T. Therefore, flip-flop 21 is set when signal AL is at black level and signal BR3 is input. This flip-flop is reset every time the rising edge of the signal AL is detected. The output F1Q of the flip-flop 21 is output when a thick vertical bar is detected, and is sent to the shift register 24.

The shift register 24 is a flip-flop 21
It is for serial-to-parallel conversion of the output F1Q of , and is triggered by the rising edge detection signal Da inputted via the AND circuit 27. AND
The gates of circuits 27 and 28 are opened by the output DFQ of flip-flop 26 when it is set, as will be seen below. The vertical barcode data in one scanning period Tc converted into a parallel signal by the shift register 24 is then sent to a first-in-first-out buffer 25 (hereinafter abbreviated as FIFO).
in synchronization with the shift-in synchronization signal SIN.
25 are taken into FIFO. This synchronization signal SIN is
Start pulse input via AND circuit 28
It is ST. The FIFO 25 has a capacity to store vertical barcode data for m scans, which will be described later. The input vertical barcode data is sequentially shifted for each synchronization signal SIN. FIFO25
The data stored in is sequentially read out by a shift-out synchronization signal SOT, which will be described later.

Horizontal barcode BT by image sensor 2
is being read, flip-flop 21 is set only once and shift register 24 is set only once, as shown in FIG.
FIFO2 is shifted only once by Da.
This data is completely different from the read data of the vertical barcode BL stored in 5.

In this embodiment, the barcode reading device is controlled by a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU). The CPU 40 includes a PROM 41 that stores its execution program and a RAM 42 that stores various data. Further, the above-mentioned circuit and the CPU are connected via interfaces 31, 32, and 33. Interface 31 is
This is for reading data from FIFO25.
The interface 32 is connected to the sensor 1 and the differential circuit 2.
Flip-flop 26 reads the output of 3.
It outputs a signal for controlling the FIFO 25 and FIFO25. Further, the drive circuit 6 of the pulse motor 4 is controlled via this interface 32. Interface 33 is used as a counter. Furthermore, the CPU 40 includes a pulse generation circuit 34. The clock generated from this circuit 34
The pulse is sent to the drive circuit 6 and is also input to the interface 33 via the AND circuit 35.

FIG. 11 shows the data area of the RAM 42 and the initial values of data stored therein. Here, CNA is a counter that counts the number of signals SYN indicating the number of barcodes. Cl0, Cl1, Cl
2, Cl3 uses the passbook BN as distance l0, l1, l2,
Pulse motor 4 required to transport l3
It represents the number of clock pulses that should be given to
That area is used as a counter to count clock pulses. m represents the number of scans of the image sensor 2 in the vertical barcode reading area, and this area is used as a counter to count the number of scans. mo indicates the permissible number of matches of vertical barcode reading data. In this embodiment, m=25 and no=20 are set.
K is the maximum number of bars that make up the horizontal barcode + 1
It is. In this example, the maximum number of horizontal bars is 5, so K=6. FL is an image
This is a flag for storing that the position passed through the area 12 when read by the sensor 2. Data DA is
This area represents data read from the FIFO 25, and m=25 read data is stored in this area. The area of the data DB is for storing the checked pattern data of the data DA, and the area used as a counter for counting the number of occurrences of the same pattern data is stored in each pattern data area. provided for each. image·
The scanning speed of the sensor 2 is faster than the transport speed v of the bankbook BN, and L/Tc≫v holds true. Then, while the passbook BN is conveyed a distance of 12, scanning is performed m times.

FIG. 12 shows the procedure of image sensor reading control by the CPU and barcode discrimination processing based on the read data. first
The initial value of the data area of RAM 42 is set (step 101). Next, an instruction signal CON for causing the pulse motor 4 to rotate in the normal direction is output (step 102), a signal for operating the pulse generation circuit 34 is output, and a clock pulse PCK is output from this circuit 34. The signal is sent to the drive circuit 6 (step 103). As a result, the pulse motor 4 is driven to rotate in the forward direction, and the passbook BN is conveyed in the carry-in direction Dr. Subsequently, the flag FL is reset to 0 (step 104). The tip of the passbook BN is sensor 1
When the tip reaches the position, the sensor 1 detects the tip. The detection signal a of the sensor 1 is input to the CPU 40 via the interface 32 (step 105). After detecting the leading edge of the passbook BN, a reading position check process, a vertical barcode data reading process, and a barcode number counting process are performed in parallel.

In the reading position check process, first, a preset value Cl0 is set in the interface 33 which operates as a preset counter, and the AND gate 35 is opened (step 111). As a result, the counter 33 counts the clock pulse PCK input via the AND circuit 35 and calculates the preset value Cl.
Subtract from 0. Counting by the counter 33 continues until the subtraction result becomes 0, and when it reaches 0 (step 112), it means that the bankbook BN has been conveyed a distance of 10, so at this point the image sensor starts reading the barcode by 2. be done. (step
113). Reading by the image sensor 2 may be started by, for example, starting the operation of the timing generation circuit 14, or by providing an AND circuit on the output side of the waveform shaping circuit 15 and opening the gate of this AND circuit. Image sensor 2 output A is
As mentioned above, the counter 1 passes through the waveform shaping circuit.
1, 12, 13, differentiating circuit 17 and flip
It is sent to flop 21.

Next, the preset value Cl1 is preset in the counter 33, and the subtraction operation of the counter 33 is similarly started (step 114). When the subtraction result of the counter 33 becomes 0 (step 115), the reading position by the image sensor 2 has entered the area l2, so a signal for setting the flip-flop 26 is sent to its data input terminal D. (Step 116). This flip-flop 26 is then set when a start pulse ST is input to its trigger terminal T, and the gates of AND circuits 27 and 28 are opened by outputting a signal DFQ. From this point on, the barcode data is input into the shift register 24 times, and every scan
What is stored in the FIFO 25 is as described above. After setting the flip-flop 26, the preset value Cl2 is preset in the counter 33 (step 117), and the counter 33 starts counting the distance l2.

When the subtraction value of the counter 33 becomes 0 (step
118), the input signal to the data input terminal D of the flip-flop 26 is stopped, and the flip-flop 26 is reset (step 119). This completes reading the data in area 12 and sets the preset value Cl.
3 is set in the counter 33, and the counter 33 similarly begins a subtraction operation (step 120).
Then the flag FL is set to 1 (step
121), the reading position check process ends.

In the vertical barcode data reading process,
First, the output DFQ of flip-flop 26 is examined (step 131). This output DFQ is input to the CPU 40 via the interface 32. Flip-flop 26 is set and the signal
When the DFQ is output and the DFQ output stops (step 132), the image sensor has finished reading the area l2, so next
Proceed to the process of reading vertical barcode data from the FIFO 25. First, the first data from the FIFO 25 is sent to the CPU 4 via the interface 31.
0 (step 133), and this read data is stored in data area DA 1 of RAM 42.
stored in the memory location (step 134).
Subsequently, a shift out pulse SOT is output and the FIFO 25 is shifted (step 135). The contents of counter m are then incremented by 1 (step 136), and it is checked whether the contents of counter m have become 0 (step 137). If the contents of the counter m are not 0, the address of the storage location in the data area DA is incremented by 1 (step 138), and the process returns to step 133, where the second data in the FIFO 25 is read in the same way, and the second data in the data area DA is read in the same way. Stored in the second memory location (step 134). In this way, data for each scanning cycle is sequentially read from the FIFO 25 into the data area DA of the RAM 42 by the CPU 40 and stored therein. When all the data of m=25 scans are read, the contents of the counter m become 0 (step 137), and the vertical barcode data reading process ends.

In the barcode number counting process, it is checked whether the falling detection signal SYN is output from the differentiating circuit 23 (step 141), and when the signal SYN is output, the counter CNA in the RAM 42 is
1 (step 142). Then it is checked whether the flag FL is set (step
143). As mentioned above, the flag FL is set to 1 when reading of the barcode data in area 12 is completed (step 121). If the flag FL is not set to 1, the process returns to step 141 and the state of the signal SYN is similarly checked. When the flag FL is set to 1, it is checked whether the subtraction result of the counter 33 has become 0 (step 144). A preset value Cl3 is preset in the counter 33 when the flag FL is set (step 120). The inspection of the state of the signal SYN and the addition to the counter CNA when SYN is output are repeated until the subtraction result of the counter 33 becomes 0. Then, when the subtraction result of the counter 33 becomes 0, the barcode number counting process ends. In this process, the number of barcodes detected while the image sensor 2 is moving over the areas 11, 12, and 13 is counted by the counter CNA. The state of this processing is mainly shown in FIG.

If YES in step 144, the three parallel processes described above are completed, and the contents of counter CNA are then checked (step 151). counter
If the CNA content is 0, it means that no barcode has been recorded on the passbook, and the passbook is discharged as a passbook without a barcode (steps 161 to 163).

If the contents of counter CNA are not 0, then
The contents of CNA are checked to see if they are 1 (step 152). If the content of the counter CNA is not 1, since the content of the counter CNA is a value of 2 or more, it is subsequently checked whether the content of the counter CNA is less than K (step 153). As mentioned above, K is one more than the maximum number of horizontal barcodes BT, so if the number of detected barcodes is less than K, it is determined that it is a horizontal barcode (step
154). If the number of detected barcodes is K or more, this passbook is considered to be a non-standard passbook and is ejected (steps 158 and 159).

Number of barcodes detected, i.e. counter
If the content of CNA is 1, there is a possibility that the read barcode is both a vertical barcode BL and a horizontal barcode BT, so proceed to the data DA check process (step 155).The details of this check process are as follows. It is shown in FIG.

In Fig. 13, first the counter m and the data
An initial value is set to the contents of the address counter of Elijah DA (step 170). And data
The first data of Elijah DA is read out, and 4OUT OF10 is checked for that data (step 171). As mentioned above, the vertical barcode BL consists of 10 vertical barcodes, four of which are thick vertical bars. This 4OUT
In the check of OF10, it is checked whether there are four code 1's in the data of one scanning period Tc. If the 4OUT OF10 check is OK, then the data pattern is checked (step 172). This check is not performed for the first data, and the data for which 4OUT OF10 has been checked is immediately stored in the first pattern data storage location of the area DB of the RAM 42, and the data for which the 4OUT OF10 check has been performed is immediately stored in the first pattern data storage location of the area DB of the RAM 42. The contents of the corresponding counter are incremented by 1 (step
176, 177). Next, from the contents of counter m -1
Then, it is checked whether the contents of the counter m are 0 (step 175), and if the contents of m are not 0, the contents of the address counter of the data area DA are incremented by 1 (step 178), and the address counter of the data area DA is incremented by 1 (step 178).
Return to Similarly, the data in the second storage location of data area DA is read out and 4OUT OF10
A check is performed. In this check
If OK, it is checked whether this second data matches the pattern data stored in the first pattern data storage location of the data area DB (step 172). If both data match, the contents of the counter corresponding to the first pattern data storage location of the data area DB are incremented by 1 (step 173), and the step
After steps 174, 175, and 178, return to step 171. In this way, the 4OUT OF10 check is sequentially performed for all data in the data area DA, and a check is made to see if the pattern data match. If they match, the matched pattern data in the data area DB is checked. The contents of the counter corresponding to the data are incremented by 1. When m=25 checks are completed, the process advances to step 156. In step 156, the pattern data area
It is checked whether the count value of any counter in the DB is greater than mo. mo is set to 20 as described above. If the count value of any counter in the data area DB is greater than mo, it means that the data of at least 20 scans out of the 25 scans stored in the data area DA match. It shows that there is. In this case, the data is determined to be vertical barcode data (step 157). If the count value of the counter is less than or equal to mo, it is determined that the data is a horizontal barcode (step 154). The horizontal barcode data is 4OUT OF1 in step 171.
Since it is judged as NG in the check of 0, the data
Elijah DB's counter will not be incremented by 1.

In the above embodiment, the image sensor 2 is fixed and the bankbook BN is transported, but the image sensor 2 may be moved while the bankbook is fixed. It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to barcodes recorded on recording media other than passbooks.

As described above in detail, the barcode reading device according to the present invention includes an image sensor that scans in the horizontal direction to read the bar, a moving means that relatively moves the image sensor and the recording medium in the vertical direction,
A number detecting means for obtaining a signal indicating the presence or absence of a bar from the output of the image sensor for each scan, and detecting the number of bars based on a change in the signal in the movement direction, and a change in the output of the image sensor in the scanning direction. code discrimination means for discriminating the code represented by a bar for each scan based on the number of bars detected by the number detection means; If the same code that satisfies the code format is output a predetermined number of times or more, it is determined to be a vertical barcode, and the same code that has been output a predetermined number of times or more is a vertical barcode reading output. When the number of bars detected by the code determining means and the number detecting means is one and the output of the code determining means does not satisfy the above conditions, and when the number of detected bars is two or more. A horizontal barcode determining means is provided which determines that the barcode is a horizontal barcode and uses the output of the number detecting means as a horizontal barcode reading output.

Therefore, a single image sensor can separately detect a vertical bar code and a horizontal bar code, and read the code represented by them. In addition, since it determines whether it is a vertical barcode or a horizontal barcode based on the number of detected bars and an inspection of the data representing the code, there are no false positives due to bar printing defects or the presence of small dust, and the accuracy is accurate. It is possible to perform barcode determination.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the passbook transport mechanism and image sensor of the bookkeeping machine, Figures 2 and 3 are diagrams showing the vertical barcode and horizontal barcode recorded on the passbook, respectively. The figure shows the barcode reading area, Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the electric circuit of the barcode reading device, Figure 6 is a diagram showing how the barcode is read by the image sensor, and Figures 7 and 8. The figure is a time chart, No. 9, which mainly shows the operation of the circuit for detecting the number of bars.
Figure 1 and Figure 10 are time charts showing the operation of the circuit that reads barcode data.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the contents of the RAM, and FIGS. 12 and 13 are flowcharts showing the procedure of barcode reading and barcode determination processing by the CPU. 2... Image sensor, 3... Conveyance roller, 4...
Pulse motor, 11, 12, 13... counter,
14...Timing generation circuit, 15...Waveform shaping circuit, 17...Differentiating circuit, 21, 22, 26...Flip-flop, 23...Falling differentiation circuit, 24...Shift register, 25...FIFO, 40...CPU, 42
…RAM, BN…passbook, BL…vertical barcode, BT
...horizontal barcode.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A device for determining whether a vertical barcode or a horizontal barcode is recorded on a medium and reading the barcode, comprising: an image sensor that reads bars by scanning in the horizontal direction;・A moving means for relatively moving the sensor and the medium in the vertical direction; a signal indicating the presence or absence of bars is obtained from the output of the image sensor for each scan, and the number of bars is determined based on the change in this signal in the above-mentioned movement direction. code determining means for determining the code represented by the bar for each scan based on changes in the output of the image sensor in the scanning direction; code determining means for determining the code represented by the bar for each scan based on a change in the output of the image sensor in the scanning direction; In the case of a book, if the code discrimination means outputs the same code that satisfies the format of a vertical barcode a predetermined number of times or more in multiple scans, it is determined to be a vertical barcode and outputs the same code a predetermined number of times. Vertical bar code determination means that reads the same code as the vertical bar code reading output, and the number of bars detected by the number detection means is one and the output of the code determination means meets the above conditions. horizontal barcode determination means for determining that the barcode is a horizontal barcode when the above conditions are not satisfied and when the number of detected bars is two or more, and for determining the output of the number detection means as a horizontal barcode reading output. Code reader.