Detailed Description
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[ example 1]
Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram schematically showing a mechanism of a banknote sorting apparatus according to embodiment 1 of the present invention. The banknote sorting apparatus 100 shown in fig. 1 is a paper sheet sorting apparatus that performs a reconciliation (verification) process on banknotes as paper sheets and sorts the banknotes into any one of a plurality of categories based on the result of the reconciliation process. The account checking processing comprises counting processing of paper money, authenticity judgment processing, intact defect separation processing and the like.
In fig. 1, the hopper 110, the bill discriminating portion 120, the stacking portions 130A to 130D, the reject stacking portions 140A to 140B, the stacking portion display portions 150A to 150D, the reject stacking portion display portions 160A to 160B, the distribution door 170, and the display operation portion 180 are shown as the mechanism of the bill sorting apparatus 100.
The hopper 110 is an input unit into which the banknotes S are input. The banknotes S put into the hopper (hopper)110 are fed out one by a banknote feeding-out portion 250 described later, and the fed-out banknotes S are sequentially conveyed by a banknote conveying portion 260 described later.
The bill discriminating portion 120 acquires billing information for sorting (billing) the bill S from the bill S conveyed from the hopper 110. In the example shown in the figure, the bill discriminating portion 120 includes a crown-type number reading sensor 121, a number-of-sheets detecting sensor 122, a defective-note bill detecting sensor 123, and scanners 124 and 125.
The serial number reading sensor 121 reads a serial number as identification information for identifying the bill S. The number-of-sheets detection sensor 122 detects the number of sheets of the transported banknotes S. The defective bill detection sensor 123 reads the defective bill rank, which is the damage degree of the bill S. The scanner 124 is the 1 st scanner that acquires reflection images of the front and back sides of the bill S. The scanner 125 is a 2 nd scanner that acquires a transmission image of the bill S. The crown word number, the number of sheets, the defective note grade, the reflection image, and the transmission image are examples of the information for ledger.
The stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B are storage units that store the banknotes S conveyed from the hopper 110. The stacking units 130A to 130D are stacking units that store normal banknotes S, and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B are stacking units that store reject notes such as transport-abnormal notes and counterfeit notes that cannot be stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D due to transport abnormality. In the example shown in the figure, the reject stacking unit 140A is provided at a position behind the stacking units 130A to 130D in the conveyance path T on which the banknotes S are conveyed, and the reject stacking unit 140B is provided at a position ahead of the stacking units 130A to 130D in the conveyance path T.
The stacking unit displays 150A to 150D and the reject stacking unit displays 160A to 160B correspond to the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B, respectively, and are provided in the vicinity of the corresponding stacking units. The stacker display units 150A to 150D and the reject stacker display units 160A to 160B display the number of banknotes S stored in the corresponding stacker. Before the banknotes S are inserted, "0" as an initial value is displayed on the respective stacker display units 150A to 150D and reject stacker display units 160A to 160B.
The distribution gate 170 is a device for distributing the transported banknotes S to any one of the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B. The stacking unit as the distribution destination of the banknotes S is determined based on the result of sorting (tie-out result) of the banknotes S.
The display operation unit 180 has a function as a display unit for displaying various information and a function as an input unit for receiving various information in response to an operation from a user using the banknote sorting device 100. For example, the display operation unit 180 displays the number of banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B. The display operation unit 180 receives a setting request for setting the assignment destination of the banknotes S and the correspondence between the sorting results of the banknotes S (which banknote is assigned to which stacking unit), for example. In this embodiment, the banknotes S to be sorted are banknotes of a specific denomination (hereinafter, denomination a), and the banknote sorting apparatus 100 performs perfect defect sorting in which the banknotes S are sorted into one of perfect banknote banknotes and defective banknote banknotes. The stacking units 130A and 130B are assigned good-note banknotes of denomination a, and the stacking units 130C and 130D are assigned defective-note banknotes of denomination a. Note that the reject stacking unit 140A is assigned a transport-abnormal ticket, and the reject stacking unit 140B is assigned a counterfeit ticket.
Fig. 2 is a front view showing an external appearance of the banknote sorting apparatus 100. As shown in fig. 2, the front surface of the banknote sorting device 100 is provided with openings 130A1 to 130D1 for taking out banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D, and a display operation unit 180. Further, a hopper 110 is provided on a side surface of the banknote sorting device 100. The external appearance shown in fig. 2 is merely an example, and is not limited thereto.
Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control system of the banknote sorting apparatus 100. In fig. 3, a crown-symbol reading sensor 121, a number-of-sheets detecting sensor 122, a defective-note banknote detecting sensor 123, a scanner 124, a scanner 125, a distribution gate 170, a display operation unit 180, a main control unit 200, a rom (read Only memory)210, a ram (random Access memory)220, a communication unit 230, a storage unit 240, a banknote sending-out unit 250, a banknote transport unit 260, and a taking-out sensor 270 are shown as control systems of the banknote sorting apparatus 100.
The main control unit 200 is a control unit that controls each unit of the banknote sorting apparatus 100. The main control unit 200 is a processor such as a cpu (central Processing unit) in the present embodiment, and executes a program for specifying the operation of the processor to perform various processes related to the control of each unit of the banknote sorting apparatus 100.
The ROM210 is a sub storage device that stores programs and the like that define the operation of the main control unit 200. The RAM220 is a main storage device that can read and write control data for the main control unit 200 to control each unit. The program recorded in the ROM210 can also be used by being read out by the main control section 200 and loaded into the RAM 220.
The communication unit 230 is communicably connected to an external device (not shown) such as a host computer, and transmits and receives information to and from the external device.
The storage unit 240 stores various information. In the example shown in the figure, the storage unit 240 stores authenticity judgment reference information 241, good defect separation reference information 242, and banknote image information 243. The authenticity judgment reference information 241 and the intact banknote separation reference information 242 are information indicating a predetermined reference for sorting the banknotes S. Specifically, the authenticity judgment reference information 241 is information indicating a reference for judging the authenticity of the banknote, and the good defect separation reference information 242 is information indicating a reference for judging whether the banknote is a good banknote or a defective banknote. The banknote image information 243 is information related to images (reflection image and transmission image) of the banknote acquired by the scanner 124 and the scanner 125. The storage unit 240 may be realized by the ROM210 or the RAM 220.
The bill feeding unit 250 feeds out the bills S loaded into the hopper shown in fig. 1 and 2 one by one. The bill transport unit 260 transports the bill S sent out by the bill sending unit 250 to any one of the stacking units 130A to 130D and reject stacking units 140A to 140B through the bill discriminating unit 120.
The takeout sensor 270 is a storage detection unit that detects whether or not the banknotes S are stored in each of the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B. Although only 1 extraction sensor 270 is shown in the figure, a plurality of extraction sensors may be provided for each stack portion.
In the banknote sorting apparatus 100 described above, if the operator inserts (loads) the banknotes S into the hopper 110, the banknotes S are separated one by the banknote feeding unit 250, fed out to the transport path T, and then transported to the banknote classification unit 120 by the banknote transport unit 260. The bill discriminating portion 120 acquires the billing information from the bill S. Specifically, the banknote classification section 120 reads the serial number of the banknote S by the serial number reading sensor 121, detects the number of banknotes S by the number-of-banknotes detecting sensor 122, reads the defective note grade of the banknote S by the defective note detecting sensor 123, acquires the reflected image of the front and back surfaces of the banknote S by the scanner 124, and acquires the transmitted image of the banknote S by the scanner 125.
The banknote recognition unit 120 transmits the audit information to the main control unit 200. The main control section 200 performs reconciliation processing on the banknotes S corresponding to the reconciliation information based on the reconciliation information, and the authenticity judgment criterion information 241 and the intact defect separation criterion information 242 stored in the storage section 240, and sorts the banknotes S. In the present embodiment, the main control section 200 determines whether the banknote S is a transport-abnormal banknote based on the number of sheets. The main control section 200 compares the authenticity data obtained from the reflection image and the transmission image included in the ledger information with the authenticity judgment reference information to judge the authenticity of the bill S. Further, the main control section 200 compares the defective note grade included in the audit information with the good defect separation reference information to determine whether the banknote S is a good note banknote or a defective note banknote. The bill identifying section 120 sorts the bills S into any one of the sort categories of the transport-abnormal bill, the counterfeit bill, the good bill and the defective bill based on the determination results.
The main control section 200 uses the distribution gate 170 to distribute the banknotes S to any one of the stacking sections 130A to 130D and the reject stacking sections 140A to 140B according to the sort of the banknotes S. Here, the stacking units 130A and 130B are assigned to good-note banknotes, the stacking units 130C and 130D are assigned to defective-note banknotes, the reject stacking unit 140A is assigned to transport abnormal notes, and the reject stacking unit 140B is assigned to counterfeit notes. In this case, the main control section 200 dispenses the banknotes S to the stacking sections of the sorting type to which the banknotes S are dispensed, among the stacking sections 130A to 130D and the reject stacking sections 140A to 140B. Then, the main control unit 200 generates management information in which the crown word number included in the audit information is associated with the stacking unit number that is the storage unit identification information of the stacking unit to which the banknote S having the crown word number is assigned, and stores the management information in the RAM 220.
The main control section 200 performs the above-described processing for each banknote S, and sequentially stores the banknotes S in the stacking sections 130A to 130D and the reject stacking sections 140A to 140B, and updates the management information. Thus, the management information indicates the crown letter number for each stacking portion that stores the banknotes S identified by the crown letter number. The main control unit 200 counts the number of banknotes S dispensed to each of the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B, and displays the counted number on the display units (the stacking unit display units 150A to 150D and the reject stacking unit display units 160A to 160B) and the display operation unit 180 corresponding to the stacking unit.
In addition to the above-described processing, the main control section 200 may also appropriately perform other processing such as processing for calculating the total amount of the transported banknotes S and processing for storing information based on the ledger information as the banknote image information 243 in the storage section 240.
The upper limit number, which is the upper limit value of the number of banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B, is set in advance. In this embodiment, the upper limit number of sheets is set to 100. In this case, if the number of banknotes S stored in the stacking unit 130A allocated to the good banknote reaches 100, the main control unit 200 allocates the banknote S determined as the good banknote to the stacking unit 130B. Then, the operator takes out all the banknotes S stored in the stacking unit 130A. Then, if the number of banknotes S stored in the stacking unit 130B reaches 100, the main control unit 200 distributes the banknotes S determined as good banknotes to the stacking unit 130A. Thereafter, the banknotes S determined as good banknotes are alternately stored in the stacking units 130A and 130B. Note that the banknotes S determined as defective banknotes are also alternately stored in the stacking units 130C and 130D.
When the banknotes S are taken out from the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B, the takeout sensor 270 detects that the banknotes S are taken out (the banknotes S are not stored any more), and the main control unit 200 associates the time at this time with the crown number of the banknotes S taken out among the management information stored in the RAM220 as the takeout time at which the banknotes S are taken out.
The banknotes S taken out of the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B are set by the operator to a predetermined set position which is usually located in the periphery of the banknote sorting apparatus 100. At this time, the operator may bind the banknotes S into the banknote bundle as needed.
If the banknotes S taken out of the stacking units 130A and 130B corresponding to the good-note banknotes and the banknotes S taken out of the stacking units 130A to 130D corresponding to the defective-note banknotes are mixed, it is not possible to know whether the banknotes S are the good-note banknotes or the defective-note banknotes. Further, if the operator forgets which stacking unit the banknotes S are withdrawn from when the banknotes S are withdrawn from the stacking units, it is impossible to know whether the banknotes S are good-banknote banknotes or defective-banknote banknotes. Therefore, the banknote sorting device 100 is provided with the following confirmation functions: the stack portion of the dispensing destination of the banknotes S taken out of the stack portion is confirmed by displaying the dispensing confirmation information based on the management information stored in the RAM 220.
Fig. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of the confirmation function according to the present embodiment.
As shown in fig. 4, when the main control unit 200 performs the reconciliation process of sorting the banknotes S, the normal counting screen 400 is displayed on the display operation unit 180, and the normal counting screen 400 displays the number of the banknotes S stored in each of the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B. The normal counting screen 400 includes a processed bill confirmation button 401 for executing a confirmation function.
When the operator uses the display operation unit 180 to perform an operation of selecting the processed bill confirmation button 401, the main control unit 200 shifts to a confirmation mode, which is a specific mode for performing the confirmation function, and displays an input screen 410 for inputting the serial number of the bill S on the display operation unit 180. The input screen 410 includes an input box 411 for inputting the crown word size of the bill S and a determination button 412 for determining the crown word size input into the input box 411. When the operator uses the display operation unit 180 to perform an operation of inputting a crown number into the input box 411 and then selecting (pressing) the ok button 412, the main control unit 200 retrieves the input crown number from the crown numbers in the management information stored in the RAM220, and displays a notification screen 420 including a stack part number associated with the retrieved crown number on the display operation unit 180 as assignment confirmation information. The stacking unit number associated with the input crown letter number indicates the stacking unit to which the banknote S identified by the crown letter number is assigned. In addition, when the input crown word is not searched, the main control section 200 may display a notification screen indicating that there is no destination of the banknotes S, that is, that the banknotes S have not been sorted, as the distribution confirmation information on the display operation section 180.
In addition, as long as the bundle of banknotes S (paper bundle) taken out of the stacking unit is not mixed with other banknote bundles, all the banknotes S included in the banknote bundle are taken out of the same stacking unit. Note that, among all the banknotes S included in the banknote bundle, the banknotes S that are easily visible to the operator are the first and last banknotes S of the banknote bundle. Therefore, the main control unit 200 may search for the entered crown word size from the crown word size of at least one of the first and last crown word sizes in the banknote bundle, thereby improving the search speed.
Specifically, the main control section 200 associates each crown word of the management information with sequence information indicating the arrangement order (position) of the banknotes S identified by the crown word in the sheet bundle, based on the detection result of the take-out sensor 270. For example, the main control section 200 associates, for each stacking section, the serial number of the banknote S assigned to the stacking section with the sequence information indicating the sequence assigned to the stacking section, and returns the sequence to the initial value if the withdrawal sensor 270 detects that the banknote S has been withdrawn from the stacking section. Further, if the crown number is input, the main control section 200 retrieves the input crown number from the crown numbers associated with the order information indicating at least one of the top and the bottom of the banknote bundle. The range of the searched prefix number may be specified by the operator.
[ example 2]
In the present embodiment, the process of the confirmation function is different from that of embodiment 1. Hereinafter, the difference from embodiment 1 will be mainly described.
Fig. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of the confirmation function according to the present embodiment.
In the example of fig. 5, the processing until the operator selects the processed bill confirmation button 401 is the same as in embodiment 1. When the processed banknote confirmation button 401 is selected, the main control section 200 shifts to the confirmation mode, and displays a reshuffling screen 500 for performing the billing process for the banknotes S again on the display operation section 180. The resale screen 500 includes a start button 501 for starting the billing process for the banknotes S. Then, the operator inserts the banknotes S of the stacking unit for which confirmation of the dispensing destination is desired into the hopper 110, and operates the selection processing start button 501 using the display operation unit 180. Thus, the banknote sorting apparatus 100 performs the reconciliation process for the inserted banknotes S in the confirmation mode different from the normal mode. At this time, the main control unit 200 searches for the crown number read by the crown number reading sensor 121 during the billing process from among the crown numbers in the management information stored in the RAM220, and displays a notification screen 510 including the stack part number associated with the searched crown number on the display operation unit 180. In addition, when the read crown symbol is not searched, the main control section 200 may display a notification screen indicating that there is no destination of the banknotes S on the display operation section 180 as the assignment confirmation information.
In addition, in the confirmation mode, the main control section 200 distributes the conveyed bill S to, for example, the reject stacking section 140A or 140B. When the total amount of the banknotes S to be transported is calculated, the main control unit 200 does not add the amount of the banknotes S to be transported to the total amount in the confirmation mode.
[ example 3]
In the present embodiment, the process of the confirmation function is different from that of embodiment 1. Hereinafter, the difference from embodiment 1 will be mainly described.
Fig. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of the confirmation function according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the main control section 200 associates each crown word number in the management information with bundle identification information for identifying a banknote bundle including banknotes identified by the crown word number and sequence information indicating the arrangement order of the banknotes identified by the crown word number in the paper bundle, based on the detection result of the take-out sensor 270. The bundle identification information may be a withdrawal time for withdrawing a banknote bundle from the stacking unit, or may be a bundle number set for each paper bundle.
In the example of fig. 6, the processing until the operator selects the processed bill confirmation button 401 is the same as in embodiment 1. If the processed banknote confirmation button 401 is selected, the main control section 200 shifts to the confirmation mode, and displays on the display operation section 180, based on the management information stored in the RAM220, the assignment confirmation screen 600 including the assignment confirmation table 601, the assignment confirmation table 601 indicating for each bundle identification information: a crown-type number for identifying the banknotes included in the banknote bundle identified by the bundle identification information, and a stacking unit number associated with the crown-type number.
In the example shown in the figure, the allocation confirmation table 601 includes a field 611 for storing the withdrawal time at which the banknote bundle is withdrawn, a field 612 for storing the stack number indicating the stack to which the banknotes S in the banknote bundle are allocated, a field 613 for storing the type of the banknote in the banknote bundle, which is the sorting type, and fields 614 and 615 for storing the serial numbers of the banknotes in the banknote bundle.
The withdrawal timing is an example of bundle identification information for identifying the banknote bundle. In the stack portion number, "1" denotes the stack portion 130A, "2" denotes the stack portion 130B, "3" denotes the stack portion 130C, and "4" denotes the stack portion 130D. In the category, "Fit" indicates a good note and "Unfit" indicates a defective note. As the crown letter number of the banknotes in the banknote bundle, at least one of the crown letter number of the first banknote S of the banknote bundle and the last banknote S of the banknote bundle may be used. In the example of the figure, as the crown-letter number of the banknotes in the banknote bundle, both the crown-letter number of the first banknote S of the banknote bundle and the last banknote S of the banknote bundle are used. Specifically, the field 614 stores the serial number of the first banknote S of the banknote bundle, i.e., the 1 st serial number, and the field 615 stores the serial number of the last banknote S of the banknote bundle, i.e., the 100 th serial number.
[ example 4]
Fig. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control system of the banknote sorting device according to the present embodiment. In the example of fig. 7, the banknote sorting apparatus 100 includes a bundling unit 310 and a printing unit 320 in addition to the configuration shown in fig. 3.
The bundling unit 310 bundles the banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B into a banknote bundle. The printer 320 prints bundle identification information for identifying the bundle of banknotes on the tape on which the bundle of banknotes is bundled by the bundling unit 310. The bundle identification information is, for example, at least one of a bundling time at which bundling is performed and a bundle number set for each paper bundle. The printing unit 320 may print the bundle identification information as it is, or may print a code obtained by encoding the bundle identification information. The code is, for example, a barcode or a two-dimensional code.
The main control unit 200 causes the bundling unit 310 to bundle the banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B into a banknote bundle at a predetermined timing, and causes the printing unit 320 to print bundle identification information. The main control unit 200 associates each crown word size in the management information stored in the RAM220 with bundle identification information for identifying a paper bundle including banknotes identified by the crown word size. The predetermined timing is, for example, a timing when the banknotes S stored in the stacking units 130A to 130D and the reject stacking units 140A to 140B reach the upper limit number.
Further, if the tape identification information is input to the banknote sorting apparatus 100, the main control section 200 may display the stack section number corresponding to the input tape identification information on the display operation section 180, among the management information stored in the RAM 220. The band identification information may be input using the display operation unit 180 by a method similar to the method of inputting the crown word in embodiment 1. When the band identification information is encoded as code information, the band identification information may be input to the banknote sorting apparatus 100 from a reader (not shown) that reads the code information. In this case, for example, the communication unit 230 functions as an input unit that receives the tape identification information from the reader.
As described above, the present invention includes the following matters.
The paper sheet sorting apparatus 100 according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a conveying section 260 that sequentially conveys the paper sheets S; a plurality of storage units 130A to 130D and 140A to 140B for sequentially storing the paper sheets conveyed by the conveying unit; an identification unit 120 that acquires identification information for identifying each of the paper sheets conveyed by the conveyance unit; and a control unit 200 that allocates each of the sheets conveyed by the conveying unit to one of the plurality of storage units according to a predetermined reference, generates management information indicating identification information for each of the storage units that store the sheets identified by the identification information, and displays allocation confirmation information based on the management information. Thus, the assignment confirmation information based on the management information indicating the identification information for identifying the paper sheet for each storage section storing the paper sheet is displayed. Therefore, it is possible to confirm which paper sheet is allocated to which storage section, and therefore, the efficiency of the sorting operation can be improved.
The paper sorting device further includes an input unit 180 for receiving identification information. The control unit displays, as the assignment confirmation information, information indicating the storage unit corresponding to the identification information received by the input unit, based on the management information. Therefore, it is possible to easily confirm which paper sheet is allocated to which storage section.
The paper sheet sorting apparatus further includes a storage detection unit 270 that detects, for each storage unit, that the paper sheets stored in the storage unit are taken out as a bundle of paper sheets. The control unit associates each piece of identification information in the management information with sequence information indicating a position of a sheet identified by the identification information in the sheet bundle, retrieves the identification information received by the input unit from the identification information associated with the sequence information indicating at least one of the top and bottom of the sheet bundle, and displays information indicating the storage unit associated with the retrieved identification information as the assignment confirmation information, based on a detection result of the storage detection unit. Therefore, the speed of searching for the identification information can be improved.
In the specific mode, when the identification information is acquired by the identification unit, the control unit displays information indicating the storage unit corresponding to the identification information in the management information as the assignment confirmation information. Therefore, it is possible to easily confirm which paper sheet is allocated to which storage section.
The paper sheet sorting apparatus further includes a storage detection unit that detects, for each storage unit, that the paper sheets stored in the storage unit are taken out as a bundle of paper sheets. The control unit associates each piece of identification information in the management information with bundle identification information for identifying a paper bundle including the paper sheets identified by the identification information, based on the detection result of the storage detection unit, and in a specific mode, displays, as the distribution confirmation information, a distribution confirmation table indicating, for each bundle of identification information, the identification information for identifying the paper sheets included in the paper bundle identified by the bundle of identification information and the storage unit corresponding to the identification information, based on the management information. Therefore, it is possible to easily confirm which paper sheet is allocated to which storage section.
The control unit associates each piece of identification information included in the management information with sequence information indicating the position of the sheet identified by the identification information in the sheet bundle, based on the detection result of the storage detection unit, and uses the identification information of at least one of the first and last sheets of the sheet bundle as the identification information indicated by the assignment confirmation table. Therefore, since the identification information of at least one of the first and last sheets of the sheet bundle, which is easily visible to the operator, is displayed, it is possible to easily confirm which sheet is assigned to which storage section.
Further, the paper sheet sorting device includes: a bundling unit 310 that bundles the paper sheets stored in the storage unit into a bundle of paper sheets at a predetermined timing; a printing unit 320 that prints bundle identification information for identifying the bundle of paper sheets on the tape on which the bundle of paper sheets is bundled; and input units 180, 230 to which bundle identification information is input; when the bundling unit bundles the paper sheet bundle, the control unit associates each piece of identification information in the management information with bundle identification information for identifying the paper sheet bundle including the paper sheet identified by the identification information, and displays, as the assignment confirmation information, assignment destination information indicating the storage unit corresponding to the bundle identification information received by the input unit, based on the management information. It is possible to easily confirm which paper sheet is assigned to which storage section.
The embodiments of the present invention described above are illustrative for the description of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited to these embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in other various forms without departing from the scope of the present invention.