Patent Grant
9406185
This application is the national phase of International Application No. PCT/CN2013/073640, filed on Apr. 2, 2013, which claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201210413529.7, entitled “FINANCIAL SELF-SERVICE DEVICE AND BANKNOTE IDENTIFICATION MODULE AND IDENTIFICATION METHOD THEREOF”, filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of PRC on Oct. 25, 2012, which applications are hereby incorporated by reference to the maximum extent allowable by law.
The present invention relates to the field of paper medium processing, and particularly relates to a financial self-service device, a banknote identification module and an identification method thereof.
The recycling machine generally uses a opposite-type photoelectric sensor mounted at a specific location within the banknote identification apparatus, as a trigger mechanism of “starting” and “ending” of data acquisition, counting and banknote testing in a banknote identification system. However, in practice, a paper banknote with a broken hole or a plastic banknote with a transparent window in the transmission path tends to incline excessively or be too close to each other. For a method using signal hopping of a single opposite-type sensor, which is monitored in real time, as a valid trigger, since a hole may lead to a false triggering/leaving event, more than one starting and triggering events may occur for one banknote. For a method that stops after scanning for fixed time duration, two consecutive banknotes being too close to each other may be mistaken as one triggering event. For plastic banknote issued in different countries, the size and position of the window on the plastic banknote vary. Complicated problems as such may bring troubles to normal count determination, data acquisition and flow control in a paper processing apparatus.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an appropriate triggering/stopping mode to effectively solve the problems that due to a hole of a banknote and inclination of a banknote in conveying, a scanned image of the banknote may not be complete to be identified, and the count of the banknotes may be incorrect.
One of objects of the invention is to provide a banknote identification module to effectively monitor a starting event triggered by a banknote and a valid leaving event of the banknote, so as to prevent a false triggering/leaving event, which is caused by banknotes with a hole, from leading to an incomplete image being acquired and subsequent unsuccessful identification of the banknotes.
One further object of the invention is to provide a banknote identification module being able to scan a banknote with an inclination angle to acquire a complete image of the banknote, so as to improve the ability of banknote identification.
Another object of the invention is to provide a banknote identification method executed by the banknote identification module.
The invention further provides a financial self-service device including the banknote identification module.
The banknote identification module includes: a monitoring unit, adapted to monitor in real time a moving state of a banknote in a conveying passage; an acquisition unit, adapted to start or stop acquiring image information of the banknote according to a starting or stopping signal provided by the monitoring unit; a counting unit, adapted to count the number of banknotes according to the times by which the acquisition unit acquires image information; an identification unit, adapted to identify the banknote according to the image data acquired by the acquisition unit and output a final identification result to a main control center for synthetic decision on a destination of the banknote; wherein the monitoring unit includes at least one set of opposite-type sensors, and the set of opposite-type sensors comprises one first sensor and two second sensors; the first sensor is disposed at a central line of the conveying passage, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in a moving direction of the banknote and arranged symmetrically on two sides of the central line of the conveying passage.
Furthermore, the acquisition unit includes an image sensor, disposed at a downstream location from the set of opposite-type sensors in the moving direction of the banknote, and separated from the set of sensors at a distance so as to guarantee the integrity of the scanned image data of the banknote with an inclination angle.
Preferably, the monitoring unit includes two set of opposite-type sensors. The two set of opposite-type sensors are arranged symmetrically at two ends of the acquisition unit, and are adapted to monitor banknotes moving in two opposite directions respectively. This configuration is applicable for a recycling machine, in which a banknote may enter a banknote box from a banknote entrance/exit via the banknote identification module, or inversely, may enter the banknote entrance/exit from the banknote box via the banknote identification module. Therefore, one set of opposite-type sensors are disposed in each of the two moving direction of a banknote, and the sensors in each set of opposite-type sensors are arranged in a certain pattern, that is, each set of opposite-type sensors includes one first sensor and two second sensors. The first sensor is arranged at the central line of a banknote conveying passage, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in the moving direction of the banknote, and arranged symmetrically on two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage. In other words, each set of opposite-type sensors includes three opposite-type sensors, the three opposite-type sensors are arranged in the Δ shape, the sensor disposed at the top of the Δ shape arrangement is the first sensor, which is disposed at the central line of the banknote conveying passage and at a downstream location from the other two sensors in the moving direction of the banknote, therefore, the first sensor is closer to the image sensor than the other two sensors. The other two opposite-type sensors arranged symmetrically at the bottom of the Δ shape arrangement are the two second sensors, which are disposed at the two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage, and at an upstream location from the first sensor in the moving direction of the banknote, therefore, the two second sensors are farther from the image sensor than the first sensor.
The banknote identification method includes: step 1) providing one first sensor and two second sensors at a position where detection is to be performed, wherein the first sensor is disposed at a central line of a banknote conveying passage, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in a moving direction of a banknote and arranged symmetrically on two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage; step 2) monitoring in real time a moving state of the banknote in the banknote conveying passage by the first sensor, and starting an acquisition unit to acquire image data of the banknote when an entering event is triggered by the banknote; step 3) stopping scanning by the acquisition unit when an ending event of the banknote leaving are monitored by all of the first sensor and the two second sensors; and step 4) identifying and verifying, by an identification unit, the banknote according to the image acquired by the acquisition unit through scanning.
Preferably, before step 3), if the latest triggering event does not cause overflowing of an image buffer which forces the acquisition unit to stop scanning, the triggering event of the first sensor is not processed.
Preferably, step 2) is performed again after step 3), to obtain an acquisition starting signal for the next banknote; and step 3) is performed for the next banknote, wherein steps 2) and 3) for the next banknote is performed at the same time as step 4) for the current banknote.
Preferably, step 4) further includes increasing a banknote count by one.
The financial self-service device includes a main control center, an upper mechanism core and a lower mechanism core. The upper mechanism core includes a banknote entrance/exit, a banknote dispensing module, a banknote identification module and a temporary storage module; the lower mechanism core includes a banknote conveying passage and a banknote box; the banknote dispensing module together with the banknote entrance/exit are responsible for receiving a banknote placed at the banknote entrance/exit by a customer and outputting a banknote to be withdrawn by the customer; the banknote identification module receives and processes in real time each banknote separated by the banknote dispensing module; and the main control center returns unqualified banknotes to the banknote entrance/exit, temporarily stores qualified banknotes in the temporary storage module and stores the qualified banknotes into the banknote box after the number of the qualified banknotes is checked; wherein the banknote identification module includes: a monitoring unit, adapted to monitor in real time a moving state of a banknote in the conveying passage; an acquisition unit, adapted to start or stop acquiring image information of the banknote according to a starting or stopping signal provided by the monitoring unit; an counting unit, adapted to count the number of banknotes according to the times by which the acquisition unit acquires image information; an identification unit, adapted to identify the banknote according to the image data acquired by the acquisition unit and output the final identification result to the main control center for synthetic decision on a destination of the banknote; wherein the monitoring unit comprises at least one set of opposite-type sensors, and the set of opposite-type sensors comprises one first sensor and two second sensors; the first sensor is disposed at a central line of the banknote conveying passage, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in a moving direction of the banknote and arranged symmetrically on two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage.
Further more, the acquisition unit includes an image sensor disposed at a downstream location from the set of opposite-type sensors in the moving direction of the banknote and separated from the set of opposite-type sensors at a distance.
Preferably, the monitoring unit includes two set of opposite-type sensors arranged symmetrically at two ends of the acquisition unit and adapted to monitor banknotes moving in two opposite directions.
As the banknote identification apparatus adopts a monitoring unit in which the three opposite-type sensors are arranged in the Δ shape: the first sensor is disposed at the central line of the conveying passage of the banknote, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in the moving direction of the banknote and arranged symmetrically at two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage. With the banknote identification method, whether an entering event triggered by the banknote is monitored by the first sensor is adopted as a condition for determining whether the starting signal of the acquisition unit for image data is valid, and whether the ending event of the banknote leaving is monitored by the three opposite-type sensors including the first sensor and the two second sensors is adopted as the condition for determining whether the ending signal of the acquisition unit is valid, so as to guarantee that one banknote with a hole would not cause a false leaving event and a case of more than one starting and triggering event present for a same banknote. That is, as the first sensor is disposed at a downstream location in the moving direction of the banknote and arranged at the central line of the conveying passage of the banknote, the banknote entering being detected by the first sensor can be adopted as the sufficient condition which allows the banknote to enter into the identification module, and it is reasonable to adopt the trigger of the first sensor as the starting signal of the acquisition unit. As for the case that the banknote leaving is detected by all three sensors the probability of occurrence of holes of one banknote present at the positions of all the three sensors is very small, the banknote leaving being detected by all of the three opposite-type sensors can be adopted as the sufficient condition of the banknote leaving, and it is reasonable and sufficient to adopt the banknote leaving detected by all of the three opposite-type sensors as the ending signal to stop scanning by the acquisition unit. Therefore, compared to a prior art in which the moving state of the banknote is detected by one opposite-type sensor and the signal hopping of the sensor is adopted as a starting or stopping signal of the acquisition unit, the following problems may be solved: due to the false leaving event of a banknote with a hole, the banknote can not be identified and counted correctly.
Furthermore, as the banknote entering being detected by the first sensor disposed at a downstream location and arranged at the central line of the conveying passage of the banknote is adopted as the starting signal of the acquisition unit, the image acquisition is not started until the banknote entering is sufficiently confirmed, so as to prevent acquiring a number of blank regions to occupy the valid buffer reserved for an image of each banknote, which may cause the stored image to be incomplete. Also, when the banknote enters into the identification module obliquely, the inclined part of the banknote already enters into the identification module when the banknote entering is detected by the first sensor. However, as a distance is set between the first sensor and the image sensor, it can be guaranteed that the part of the banknote entering into the identification module does not arrival at the region of the image sensor when the banknote entering is monitored by the first sensor, thereby, the acquisition unit can scan completely the banknote to acquire a complete image of the banknote. Therefore, in the present invention the acquired image may be guaranteed to be complete and the failure or error in identifying the banknote due to the incompleteness of the image may be prevented.
The technical solutions according to embodiments of the invention will be described below in detail and fully in conjunction with the drawings.
First, a financial self-service device according to the embodiment is described by an example of a recycling machine.
The banknote identification module 2 includes a monitoring unit 21, an acquisition unit 22, a counting unit 23 and an identification module 24. The monitoring unit 21 acquires the movement and position information of the banknote by a opposite-type sensor within the monitoring unit 21; The acquisition unit 22 includes a contact image sensor (CIS), a magnetic sensor and related acquisition, control and storage circuits, and is adapted to start or stop acquiring the image information of the banknote according to a starting or stopping signal provided by the monitoring unit; The counting unit 23 counts the valid number of banknotes according to the times of image acquisition; the identification unit 24 identifies the banknote according to the acquired image data and output a final identification result to the main control center 6.
The core part of the monitoring unit 21 is a opposite-type photoelectric sensor, and
An embodiment of the banknote identification method is introduced in detail below.
The banknote identification method according to the embodiment includes: step 1) providing one first sensor and two second sensors at a position where detection is to be performed, wherein the first sensor is disposed at a central line of a banknote conveying passage, and the two second sensors are disposed at an upstream location from the first sensor in a moving direction of a banknote and arranged symmetrically on two sides of the central line of the banknote conveying passage; step 2) monitoring in real time a moving state of the banknote in the banknote conveying passage by the first sensor, and starting an acquisition unit to acquire image data of the banknote when an entering event is triggered by the banknote; step 3) stopping scanning by the acquisition unit when an ending event of the banknote leaving are monitored by all of the first sensor and the two second sensors; and step 4) identifying and verifying, by an identification unit, the banknote according to the image acquired by the acquisition unit through scanning. It is to be noted that, before step 3), if the latest triggering event does not cause the overflowing of an image buffer which forces the acquisition unit to stop scanning, the triggering event of the first sensor is not processed; the triggering event of the first sensor is monitored immediately after step 3) so as to acquire the starting signal for the next banknote. That is, any triggering event of the first sensor caused by a hole is not processed until the current banknote left the position where the detection is to be performed, so as to prevent one banknote from causing multiple triggering events. When the current banknote left the detection position and the stage of image identification is started, i.e., step 4) is performed, the image data acquisition of the next banknote may be started immediately, and the image data acquisition for the next banknote may be performed at the same time as the image identification for the current banknote so as to improve the efficiency of the identification.
Preferably, the triggering event of the first sensor is monitored in real time after step 3), to acquire an acquisition starting signal for the next banknote, and then step 3) is performed once again, to acquire an acquisition stopping signal for the next banknote. The step of monitoring in real time the triggering event of the first sensor to acquire an acquisition starting signal for the next banknote and the step 3) performed once again are performed at the same time as step 4) for the current banknote. That is, the image data acquisition for next banknote is performed at the same time as the image identification for the current banknote, so as to improve the efficiency of the identification.
Preferably, step 4) further includes increasing a banknote count by one.
The banknote identification by the banknote identification module is described below in conjunction with the drawings. First, the changing of a level of an opposite-type photoelectric sensor is described by taking SV201 as an example. SV201 includes an emitting end SV201E and a receiving end SV201R. Before a banknote enters the identification module 2, i.e., the banknote does not block the infrared light signal emitted from SV201E to SV201R, the signal output from the receiving end SV201R is a high level; Once the front edge of the banknote arrives at a position between SV201R and SV201E, i.e., the banknote already blocks the infrared light emitted by SV201E, the signal of SV201R hops from the high level to a low level, and the duration of the low level is dependent on the width and speed of the banknote in the moving direction of the banknote, i.e., t=s/v. After the back edge of the banknote leaves SV201E, the signal of SV201R is recovered to a high level. The moving state of the banknote in the conveying passage can be detected according to the change between a high level and a low level at the receiving end, and the subsequent flow of acquisition, counting and identification and so on may be performed accordingly. Apparently, in this embodiment it is not intended to take the level hopping signals of SV201E and SV201R as the signals for starting or stopping the acquisition unit, but only to illustrate the relation between the level hopping of any opposite-type sensor and the block caused by the banknote by taking SV201E and SV201R as an example.
First, step 101 of monitoring in real time, by the monitoring unit, the moving state of the banknote in the conveying passage is performed. Then step 102 of judging whether the receiving end SV202E of the first opposite-type sensor detects a valid low level signal is performed. If the valid low level signal is deterred by the receiving end SV202E of the first opposite-type sensor, the process proceeds to step 103 of determining the banknote triggering in the banknote conveying passage, which cause the acquisition unit to be started; otherwise, the process returns back to step 102 of judging whether the receiving end SV202E of the first opposite-type sensor detects a valid low level signal. After step 103, the process proceeds to step 104 of scanning the image, and then proceeds to step 105 of judging whether all of the three sensors SV201E, SV202E, SV203E hop from a low level to a high level. If all of the three sensors SV201E, SV202E, SV203E hop from a low level to a high level, the process proceeds to step 107 of determining that the banknote already leaves in the conveying passage, which causes the acquisition unit to be stopped, and scanning for a compensation distance, and then the process proceeds to step 108 of ending the scanning; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 106 of judging whether the valid image buffer is overflowing, if the valid image buffer is overflowing, the process proceeds to step 108 of ending the scanning, and if the valid buffer is not overflowing, the process returns back to step 104 of keeping on scanning the banknote. After step 108 of ending the scanning, the process proceeds to step 109 of increasing the banknote count by one and starting the identification unit to identify the legitimacy of the banknote. It should be noted that in the process of scanning the image by the acquisition unit, a new starting signal of the acquisition unit is not generated even if a new triggering event occurs. That is, before the acquisition unit acquires a stopping signal, or in the case that the acquisition unit is not forced to stop scanning due to the overflowing of the valid buffer, in step 102, the new triggering event is still not processed even if a valid low level signal is detected once again by the receiving end SV202E of the first opposite-type sensor, and the triggering event is considered by default to be caused by a hole rather than triggered by a new banknote.
The banknote identification method according to the embodiment adopts a pipeline type process in which the control of the image data acquisition and the banknote identification are performed at the same time. In order to effectively solve the problems brought by a plastic banknote with a hole, with the layout of opposite-type sensors shown in
In this embodiment, the layout of the opposite-type sensors as shown in
According to the rule of taking the case that all of level signals of the three sensors hop to a high level as the end of the banknote leaving, the three sensors are arranged in the Δ shape, and with a compensation scanning performed via software, the end of the inclined banknote can be scanned completely. That is, due to the setting of the distance d0, the scanning of the banknote is not stopped until the banknote leaves the back edge of the image sensor CIS, i.e., travels for the distance of d0 after leaves SV202. When the banknote leaves SV202, the acquisition unit delays the scanning and the acquisition of the banknote by a threshold (e.g., 20 lines for compensation) set by a program, so as to store the image of the sharp corner of the back end of the inclined banknote in the lower half of the image buffer.
In order to normally scan and count for two banknotes which have a too small distance between them, when the monitoring unit detects a valid leaving event of a banknote, the flow of the banknote identification is entered under control, and the triggering event of the first sensor is monitored immediately in real time, so as to store a flag of staring scanning for the next banknote. Such a banknote identification method can solve the problem which can not be processed by a fixed extent scanning.
Particular embodiments of the present invention are disclosed above, which should be interpreted as limiting the protective scope of the present invention. Alternations or modifications made to the technical solutions of the present invention by those skilled in the art without deviating from the technical scope of the invention fall within the protective scope of the invention. Therefore, the protective scope of the invention is defined by the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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| 2012 1 0413529 | Oct 2012 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2013/073640 | 4/2/2013 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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| WO2014/063469 | 5/1/2014 | WO | A |
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