Patent Application
20100300829
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bill boxes for bill acceptor and more particularly, to a bill box with wireless memory function, which carries a RFID memory for recording the data of bill storage amount and value by the bill acceptor wirelessly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of technology, the distance among people has been greatly shortened, our mode of living has been changed, and different automatic vending machines are used everywhere to sell different products without serviceman. These automatic vending machines are highly invited for the advantage of saving much labor and bringing convenience to people. For example, a Q-shop has the advantages of scientific intelligence, quick service, and quick finish of payment. A Q-shop may provide automatic vending machines for vending drinks, cigarettes, tickets, ice creams, tickets, memorial coins, key rings, or even hamburgers and noodles. Nowadays, many virtual shops are established to make online shopping, allowing shoppers to shop across millions of products.
An automatic vending machine generally comprises a bill/coin acceptor to recognize the authenticity and value of each inserted bill/coin, and a bill/coin box for storing each received bill/coin. Workers regularly visit installed automatic vending machines to take back the installed bill/coin box from each installed automatic vending machine and to install an empty bill/coin box in each installed automatic vending machine as a replacement. The collected bill/coin boxes are carried back to the company for checking the storage bills/coins. After removal of a bill/coin box from an automatic vending machine, any person of the company does not know the actual total amount of the bills/coins in the bill/coin box, i.e., the company does not know the actual total transaction amount of every automatic vending machine before opening the bill/coin box. This management process cannot prevent workers from stealing money from bill/coin boxes.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is one object of the present invention to provide a bill box with wireless memory function, which carries a RFID memory for recording the data of bill storage amount and value by the bill acceptor wirelessly.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, a bill box comprises a bill acceptor having a RFID read/write module and adapted for receiving bills from the bill acceptor is disclosed to include a housing having a bill inlet, a bill storage chamber and a top bracket with a mounting chamber, and a memory carrier frame mounted in the mounting chamber of the bracket and carrying a RFID memory for recording bill storage data by the wireless read/write module of the bill acceptor wirelessly for speeding bill storage check.
Further, the housing of the bill box comprises an access hole, an access door hinged to one side of the access hole, and a door lock for locking the access door in the close position. The top bracket has a finger slot. The memory carrier frame has a finger strip suspending in the finger slot. When unlocked the door lock to open the access door, a worker can insert the fingers into the finger slot to pull the finger strip and to further remove the memory carrier frame from the top bracket for a maintenance work.
Referring to
The housing 1 comprises a plurality of cover shells 11, a bill inlet 13 defined in a rear side, a bill storage chamber 12 defined therein in communication with the bill inlet 13 for receiving bills been delivered into the bill inlet 13, a bill transferring mechanism 131 arranged at two opposite lateral sides of the bill inlet 13 and adapted to transfer bills from a bill acceptor (not shown) through the bill inlet 13 into the bill storage chamber 12, a bill bearing plate 121 suspending in the bill storage chamber 12 for holding bills in the bill storage chamber 12, a plurality of spring members 122 mounted inside the bill storage chamber 12 and adapted to impart a pressure to the bill bearing plate 121 toward the bill inlet 13, a bill press mechanism 132, which comprises a plurality of links 1321 and a bill press board 1322 movable by the links 1321 to push bills away from the bill inlet 13 to the bill bearing plate 121, a bracket 14 located on the top side, an access hole 15 defined in the bottom side opposite to the bracket 14, an access door 151 hinged to one side of the access hole 15 and adapted to close the access hole 15, a door lock 152 mounted in the access door 15 for locking the access door 15 in the close position, and a handle 16 located on one cover shell 11 at the front side of the housing 1 opposite to the bill inlet 13. The bracket 14 has a mounting chamber 141, a plurality of locating grooves 142 disposed at two opposite lateral sides relative to the mounting chamber 141, a finger slot 143 formed in one locating groove 142, and a plurality of stop grooves 144 formed in front and rear sides in the mounting chamber 141.
The memory carrier frame 2 is mounted in the mounting chamber 141 of the bracket 14 and carrying a RFID memory 21, having a plurality first locating lugs 22 located on one lateral side for engaging into the locating grooves 142 at one lateral side in the mounting chamber 141, a springy flange 23 upwardly extended from the other lateral side, two second locating lugs 231 bilaterally protruded from the springy flange 23 for engaging the locating grooves 142 at the other lateral side in the mounting chamber 141, a finger strip 232 protruded from the springy flange 23 between the second locating lugs 231 corresponding to the finger slot 143 of the bracket 14, and a plurality of stop strips 24 respectively located on the front and rear sides for stopping at the stop grooves 144.
Referring to
When a bill is inserted through the bill insertion slot 311 of the bill acceptor 3 into the bill passage 31, the bill delivery mechanism 32 carries the inserted bill forwards to a predetermined position for recognition by the recognition module 33. If the inserted bill is checked to be a counterfeit bill, the bill delivery mechanism 32 reverses the counterfeit bill to the bill insertion slot 311. When the inserted bill is recognized to be a true bill, the bill delivery mechanism 32 immediately delivers the bill to the bill inlet 13 of the bill box at rear end of the bill passage 31, enabling the bill to be carried forwards by the bill transferring mechanism 131 into the inside of the bill inlet 13. At this time, the links 1321 of the bill press mechanism 132 are driven to move the bill press board 1322, causing the bill press board 1332 to push the bill away from the bill inlet 13 to the bill bearing plate 121 in the bill storage chamber 12 against the spring members 122. Thus, the bill is stored in the bill storage chamber 12.
Referring to
The RFID read/write module 341 of the bill acceptor 3 and the RFID read/write module 41 of the display device 4 commonly consist of an antenna and a transceiver and are capable of reading and/or writing to a RFID memory. Because RFID technology is of the known art, no further detailed description in this regards is necessary.
Referring to
Further, the RFID memory 21 of the memory carrier frame 2 is mounted in the mounting chamber 141 of the bracket 14 with its first locating lugs 22 and second locating lugs 231 respectively engaged into the locating grooves 142 of the bracket 14 and its finger strip 232 set in the finger slot 143 of the bracket 14. If the RFID memory 21 fails, a maintenance engineer can insert the hand into the finger slot 143 to elastically temporarily deform the springy flange 23 and to disengage the second locating lugs 231 from the associating locating grooves 142 of the bracket 14, allowing removal of the memory carrier frame 2 from the mounting chamber 141 of the bracket 14 for a repair work. Further, before removing the memory carrier frame 2 from the mounting chamber 141 of the bracket 14, the maintenance engineer must unlock the door lock 152 with a key and then open the access door 151. Because the key is held in the hand of an authorized person and because the RFID memory 21 has recorded therein the total value of the bills stacked in the bill box, the invention effectively prevents any non-authorized person from stealing bills from the bill box or to replace the RFID memory 21.
In conclusion, the invention provides a bill box with memory function that has the following features and advantages:
1. The housing 1 of the bill box has a memory carrier frame 2 with a RFID memory 21 mounted therein. After installation of the bill box in a bill acceptor 3 having a circuit board 34 with a RFID read/write module 341, the RFID memory 21 is kept adjacent to the RFID read/write module 341. Each time the bill acceptor 3 recognized and received a genuine bill, the RFID read/write module 341 writes the related data into the RFID memory 21 wirelessly. Therefore, the RFID memory 21 of the bill box records the face value of each received bill for easy checking.
2. After removal of the bill box from the bill acceptor, the bill box can be attached with the side on which the RFID memory 21 is located to a display device 4 having a RFID read/write module 41, enabling the RFID read/write module 41 to read in storage data from the RFID memory 21 wirelessly for display on the display screen of the display device 4.
3. If the RFID memory 21 fails, a maintenance engineer can get the key from the authorized person and open the access door 151 and then remove the memory carrier frame 2 from the mounting chamber 141 of the bracket 14 for a repair work.
A prototype of bill box with wireless memory function for bill acceptor has been constructed with the features of
Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
