Apparatus for and method of discriminating bill

A bill discriminating apparatus comprising:

• sensor means for reading all the printed patterns of a bill to be discriminated and producing discriminated data including bill scale data, the bill scale data representing the tone of the printed patterns;
• a data storage memory for storing the discriminated data including bill scale data detected by the sensor means;
• bill scale data selection means for selecting the bill scale data from the discriminated data and fetching the selected bill scale data from the data storage memory;
• data segmenting means for segmenting the thus selected and fetched bill scale data into a plurality of blocks of data;
• data arithmetic means for subjecting the segmented bill scale data to an averaging process in each block;
• first standard data storage means for storing respective standard data therein for each of a plurality of predetermined notes;
• bill decision means for reading each standard data from the first standard data storage means and comparing the segmented bill scale data which was subjected to the arithmetic averaging process in each block with each standard data and producing bill denomination information;
• histogram data generating means for processing the segmented bill scale data in every block to generate histogram data;
• second standard data storage means for storing predetermined histogram data therein for each of the plurality of predetermined notes;
• and
• bill authenticity decision means for reading the standard histogram data from the second standard storage means on the basis of bill denomination information from the bill decision means and comparing the histogram data in every block area with the standard histogram data to thereby decide the authenticity of the bill to be discriminated.

A bill discriminating apparatus comprising:

• sensor means for reading all the printed patterns of discriminated bill and producing discriminated data, including bill scale data representing the tone of the printed patterns;
• a data storage memory for storing the discriminated data including the bill scale data detected by the sensor means;
• bill scale data selection means for selecting the bill scale data from the discriminated data and fetching the selected bill scale data;
• data segmenting means for segmenting the thus selected and fetched bill scale data into a plurality of blocks;
• data operation means for subjecting the segmented bill scale data to an arithmetic averaging process in each block;
• first standard data storage means for storing standard operation data therein for each of a plurality of predetermined notes;
• bill decision means for reading each standard operation data from the first standard data storage means and comparing the segmented bill scale data which was subjected to the arithmetic averaging process in each block with each standard operation data and producing bill denomination information;
• synthesized scanning line operation means for synthesizing one scanning line data in a plurality of scanning line data to thereby obtain synthesized scanning line data;
• second standard data storage means for storing predetermined standard synthesized scanning line data for each of the plurality of predetermined notes;
• and
• bill authenticity decision means for reading standard synthesized scanning line data on the basis of the bill denomination information produced by the bill decision means, from the second standard data storage means, and comparing the synthesized scanning data calculated by the synthesized scanning line operation means with the standard synthesized scanning line data to thereby decide the authenticity of the bill to be discriminated.

A method of discriminating a bill in a bill discriminating apparatus comprising sensor means for reading all the printed patterns of a discriminated bill and producing discriminated data including bill scale data representing the tone of the printed patterns, and a data storage memory for storing the discriminated data including bill scale data produced by the sensor means, the method comprising the steps of:

• selecting and fetching the bill scale data from the data storage memory with bill scale data selection means;
• segmenting the thus fetched bill scale data into a plurality of block areas with data segmenting means;
• subjecting the segmented bill scale data to an arithmetic averaging process each block area with data arithmetic means;
• and
• comparing the segmented bill scale data which was subjected to an arithmetic averaging process in each block area with standard operation data for each of a plurality of bills previously determined, with bill decision means.