JPH06176235A - Coin identifying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely detect unevenness at the outer peripheral part of a touched coin by irradiating the outer periphery of the coin with light on the side of a conveyance reference member to which the coin is touched, and receiving the light reflected from the outer periphery of the coin. CONSTITUTION:When a coin C is conveyed in a conveying direction A on a conveying path 4 by a conveyer belt 21, the coin C is detected by a coin detection sensor 23. Thus, a reset circuit 37 resets a counter 36 and a timer 38. The coin C is conveyed while being attracted to the direction of a coin regulating member 22a by a coin attracting device 24. Then, the coin is passed through the parts of slits 27 and 28 provided on the front face of an LCD 29 and a phototransistor 30. When the unevenness exists on the side face of the coin C, concerning the light of the LED 29, the reflected light is scattered by the unevenness of the coin C, and light is reflected to the phototransistor 30. The output of the phototransistor 30 is inputted to a band pass filter 33, and the signal of a required band is provided by this filter 33. Based on this signal output, the presence/absence of unevenness on the outer periphery of the coin is discriminated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to coins (for example, coins).
The present invention relates to a coin identifying device that detects the unevenness formed on the outer periphery of a coin and determines the coin type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a coin processing device has been provided with a coin identification device for identifying the coin denomination, authenticity, and the like. In this coin discriminating apparatus, a method of detecting the magnetic amount of a passing coin by an optical sensor or a magnetic sensor is generally well known.

However, with the recent widespread use of coin processing devices, a lot of foreign currencies have been expected, and in the case of coins having the same outer shape and the same material as domestic coins, optical sensors and In the identification by the magnetic sensor, since the outer shape and the material are the same, there is a problem that they are judged as the same coin.

In particular, the Korean currency of 500 won is 5
It is very similar in material and shape to the 00-yen coin, with a slight difference in thickness of 0.1 mm, and a difference of 500 won in that it has irregularities on the outer circumference.

However, the thickness of coins wears with the use of coins, and the magnetic detection output fluctuates according to variations in the front and back of the coins and the transport position when determining the coins to be transported by restraint. , It is difficult to judge by the thickness of coins.

As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-120694, a device for detecting irregularities on the outer periphery of coins has been devised. In this device, light is guided to the irregularities on the outer periphery of coins by an optical fiber. In addition, since the device becomes large and the detection by the light emitting part and the light receiving part is provided in parallel so as to scratch the uneven part of the coin outer periphery, the uneven part of the coin outer periphery is not formed unless a strong light source is used. It was difficult to reliably detect

[0007]

Therefore, the present invention is
An object of the present invention is to provide a coin identification device that can detect irregularities on the outer peripheral portion of a coin with a simple structure and reliably.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a first aspect of the present invention, in which a transfer means for transferring a coin and a transfer reference with which the outer circumference of the coin is provided on one side of the transfer means. A member, a guide means for guiding the coin to the conveyance reference surface, a light source provided on the conveyance reference member side for irradiating the outer periphery of the coin guided by the guide means, and a reflected light from the outer periphery of the coin. It is provided with a light receiving means for receiving light and a determining means for determining the presence or absence of unevenness on the outer periphery of the coin based on the output of the light receiving means.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transfer reference member is provided along one side of the transfer path along which the coin is transferred, and is in contact with the outer circumference of the coin, and the outer circumference of the coin is provided inside the transfer reference member. And a light receiving means for receiving reflected light from the outer periphery of the coin, and a slit provided on the conveyance reference member for guiding the light of the light source to the outer periphery of the coin.

[0010]

In the present invention, the contacting coin side is provided with the light source for irradiating the outer periphery of the coin with the light source and the light receiving means for receiving the reflected light from the outer periphery of the coin. It is possible to reliably detect irregularities on the outer peripheral portion of the device and to downsize the device.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a coin processing machine for carrying out the present invention.

The coin inserted into the tray 1 is dropped on the feeding portion 2 by the rotation of the tray 1. The coins that have fallen are delivered one by one from the delivery unit 2 and carried to the coin inspection unit 3. The coins that have been inspected are conveyed to the conveyance path 4 and sorted based on the inspection result in the coin inspection unit 3. The selection unit 5 has a shutter 6
It is composed of. The coins selected by the shutter 6 are
The coins are held in the primary holding section 7 at the lower part thereof, and when the transaction is completed, coins are inserted into the denomination safe 8 at the lower part. Then, upon withdrawal, coins are paid out and paid out from the denomination type safe 8. The coins dispensed from the coin safe 8 are transported to the left in FIG. 1 by the horizontal transport path 10 and further transported to the feeding section 2 by the vertical transport 12. The coins carried to the payout section 2 are carried from the payout section 2 through the prosecution section 3 to the vertical transport path 11 from the reject gate 15 at the end of the transport path 4 through the horizontal transport path 9 and then to the tray 1. Be withdrawn. A knurling detection unit 20 as shown in FIG. 2 is arranged in the coin inspection unit 3.

That is, the transport path 4 is constituted by the transport belt 21 and the coin regulation guides 22a and 22b, and the coin C is transported by the transport belt 21. A coin detection sensor 23 is provided upstream of the transport path 4, and a width-shifting device 24 that guides the coin C toward the coin regulation guide 22a is provided.

Grooves 25 and 26 and slits 27 and 28 are formed in the coin regulation guide 22a at the downstream side of the width-shifting device 24 in the conveying direction, and an LED 29 as a light source is embedded in the groove 25, and the groove 26 has a groove 26. A phototransistor 30 as a light receiving element is embedded. And
Coin regulation guide 22 so that the notch on the side of the coin can be detected
The optical path is set so that the light from the LED 29 is reflected at the portion where a and the coin C are in contact with each other.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views of the notch detecting section 20, and as shown in FIG. 4, they are convex so that a slit 27 is provided at a portion of the conveying path 4 which is slightly higher than the coin conveying surface. The part 31 is provided. The width of the slit 27 is thin enough to detect the knurls of the coin, but the height is configured to correspond to the thickness of the coin C. Although the thickness of the coin C is thinner than that of the coin C in the figure, the thickness of the coin C is thicker than the thickness of the coin C. A groove 25 is provided at the rear of the slit 27.
An LED 29 is fitted in the interior of the. The lid 32 is attached from the upper part to prevent the LED 29 from moving and to shield the light from leaking to the outside. Although the LED 29 has been described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the phototransistor 30 has the same configuration.

FIG. 5 shows an application example of the notch detecting section 20,
A dust prevention plate 33 made of glass is provided at the opening of the slit 27 to the conveyance path. As a result, the dust that blocks the slits 27 such as aluminum powder generated in the transport path is prevented.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the notch detecting section 20, in which the light output from the LED 29 is reflected by the notch on the edge of the coin C and input to the phototransistor 30. The output of the phototransistor 30 is the bandpass filter 3
The signal of the required band is obtained by the band pass filter 33 which is input to the signal line 3.

The output signal of the bandpass filter 33 is amplified by the amplifier 34 and shaped into a square wave by the comparator 35, as shown in FIG. This shaped waveform is input as the count input of the counter 36.

On the other hand, when the coin detecting sensor 23 detects that the coin C has arrived at the coin inspection portion, this output is connected to the reset circuit 37, and its output is the counter 36 and the timer 3.
8 are input to the respective reset terminals. The output of the counter 36 is input to the determination circuit 39, and the reset circuit of the determination circuit 39 is connected to the output terminal of the timer. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

The coin C is conveyed in the direction A along the conveying path 4 by the conveying belt 2.
When the coin C is conveyed by 1, the coin detection sensor 23 detects the coin C. As a result, in the reset circuit 37, the counter 36 and the timer 38 are reset.

The coin C is moved toward the coin regulating member 22a by the coin moving device 24 and conveyed. And LE
D29 and the slits 27 and 28 provided on the front surface of the phototransistor 30 are passed through. When the side surface of the coin C has a notch, the light of the LED 29 is reflected by the notch of the coin C and is periodically reflected to the phototransistor 30.

This optical signal has narrow slits 27, 2
Since it passes through 8, it is very weak and easily affected by noise and the like. Then, it is amplified by the amplifier 34 via the bandpass filter 33. The amplified signal is shaped into a square wave by the comparator 35 having a threshold voltage (Vth) of a constant level. This square wave output is connected to the counting input terminal of the counter 36, and the counter 36 starts counting.

The counter 36 is composed of, for example, four stages of flip-flops, and is configured to stop the input to the count input terminal when the fourth stage is set. That is, the counter is configured to disable the counting when it counts 8 pulses and hold the state.

The counter 36 is a serrated comparator 35.
While counting the square wave output of, the timer 38 measures the time after the coin detection sensor 23 detects the coin C. This time is set to a time long enough for the counter to detect and count the jagged signal of the coin C and shorter than the time when the next coin C is conveyed. When this timer times out, the decision circuit 39 reads the contents of the counter and outputs the contents. FIG. 8 shows an operation in the case of a coin without a knurl such as a 500-yen coin.

If there is no knurl, the coin is knurled by the knurl detector 2.
When it reaches 0, the light is reflected and the phototransistor
Receive light. However, since there is no knurl, light is continuously received until it passes. The bandpass filter 33 is
Since the low frequency range is cut, the output of the comparator 35 generates a pulse only when a coin is inserted.

Although this pulse is counted by the counter 36, since it never counts the total 8 counts, the judgment circuit
Contrary to the above, the reset state of the counter 36 is detected. That is, it is detected that there is no serration. In the above embodiment, the case where the presence or absence of the knurls on the outer circumference of the coin is detected has been described, but it is also possible to check the width and interval of the knurls on the outer circumference of the coin. That is, FIG. 9 is an operation flow in the case of checking the width of the notch on the outer periphery of the coin, and the determination circuit calculates the output pulse width of the comparator and sequentially adds and stores the pulse widths. Then, when the timer counts up or when the counter 36 counts eight, the average pulse width is calculated, and the average value of the pulse width is compared with a reference value to determine the denomination and the like. That is, the width of the notch on the outer circumference of the coin is checked.

FIG. 10 is an operational flow for further checking the cycle (interval) of the coin outer circumference. Since the cycle of the output pulse of the comparator is interlocked with the interval of the slit and becomes a substantially constant interval, this pulse is used. Is measured and the period of the pulse interval is sequentially added and stored in the counter value storage unit. Then, at the time when the timer counts up or when the counter 36 counts eight, the average value of the pulse period is calculated by dividing the counter value storage by the number of times of the jaggedness.

Then, as a result of comparing this cycle with a reference value of a predetermined coin, if it is within a certain value, it is judged as jagged. still,
Although the determination is made based on the average value of several times, the determination can be performed by using the value once.

Although the embodiments have been described above, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, cds can be used instead of the phototransistor, and if only 500 yen and 500 won are determined. Since the transport path 4 is formed in accordance with the maximum coin of 500 yen, the regulation member 22
There is no need to shift to a.

The present invention does not require a lens or the like of an optical system for generating a point light source, such as using a laser as is conventionally seen in this type of invention, and uses a relatively simple element. Therefore, it is possible to reliably detect the knurls.
Further, the received light signal of the phototransistor is a small signal, and by shielding the phototransistor, the serrated signal can be detected more reliably.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, a light source for irradiating the outer circumference of a coin with a light source and a light receiving means for receiving the reflected light from the outer circumference of the coin are provided on the side of the conveyance reference member with which the coin comes into contact. By providing the above, it is possible to reliably detect the unevenness of the outer peripheral portion of the coin which is in contact, and it is possible to miniaturize the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a circulation type coin processing machine.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a notch detector 20. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a notch detector 20.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of a serrated portion 20.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an application example of the notch detector 20.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a notch detector 20.

FIG. 7 is an output waveform diagram of the notch detector 20.

FIG. 8 is an output waveform diagram of the notch detecting section 20 when a coin having no notches is used.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing another determination method.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing another determination method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 ... Jig detecting part 21 ... Conveying belt 22a ... Coin regulation guide 22b ... Coin regulation guide 23 ... Coin detection sensor 24 ... Alignment device 25 ... Groove 26 ... Groove 27 ... Slit 28 ... Slit 29 ... LED 30 ... Phototransistor 32 ... Lid 33 ... Bandpass filter 34 ... Amplifier 35 ... Comparator 36 ... Counter 37 ... Reset circuit 38 ... Timer 39 ... Judgment circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A transporting means for transporting coins, a transporting reference member provided on one side of this transporting means and in contact with an outer periphery of the coin, a guiding means for guiding a coin to this transporting reference surface, and a transporting reference member. A light source for irradiating the outer circumference of the coin guided by the guiding means and a light receiving means for receiving the reflected light from the outer circumference of the coin, and the presence or absence of unevenness on the outer circumference of the coin based on the output of the light receiving means. And a discriminating means for discriminating the coin discriminating device. 2. A conveyance reference member provided along one side of a conveyance path along which a coin is conveyed and in contact with an outer circumference of the coin,
A light source that is provided inside the conveyance reference member and emits light to the outer periphery of the coin, and a light receiving unit that receives reflected light from the outer periphery of the coin; A coin identification device comprising a slit that guides a portion.