Method and apparatus for discriminating and counting documents

A currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills and rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, said device comprising:

• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• at least one output receptacle adapted to receive said bills after said bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport said bills, one at a time, from said input receptacle to said output receptacle along a transport path;
• a denomination discriminating unit adapted to evaluate said bills, said discriminating unit comprising a processor and two functioning denomination detectors positioned along said transport path between said input receptacle and said output receptacle, said detectors being disposed on opposite sides of said transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of said bills, said detectors being adapted to generate output signals, said discriminating unit counting and determining the denomination of said bills, said output signals being available to said discriminating unit for determining the denomination of said bills;
• and
• means for flagging a bill when the denomination of said bill is not determined by said discriminating unit, wherein said means for flagging causes said transport mechanism to halt.

A currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills and rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, said device comprising:

• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle adapted to receive said bills after said bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport said bills, one at a time, from said input receptacle to said output receptacle along a transport path;
• a denomination discriminating unit adapted to evaluate said bills, said discriminating unit comprising a processor and two functioning denomination detectors positioned along said transport path between said input receptacle and said output receptacle, said detectors being disposed on opposite sides of said transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of said bills, said detectors being adapted to generate output signals, said discriminating unit counting and determining the denomination of said bills, said output signals being available to said discriminating unit for determining the denomination of said bills;
• and
• means for flagging a bill meeting or failing to meet a certain criteria.

A currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills and rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, said device comprising:

• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle adapted to receive said bills after said bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport said bills, one at a time, from said input receptacle to said output receptacle along a transport path;
• a denomination discriminating unit adapted to evaluate said bills, said discriminating unit comprising a processor and two functioning denomination detectors positioned along said transport path between said input receptacle and said output receptacle, said detectors being disposed on opposite sides of said transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of said bills, said detectors being adapted to generate output signals, said discriminating unit counting and determining the denomination of said bills, said output signals being available to said discriminating unit for determining the denomination of said bills;
• and
• means for halting said transport mechanism when said discriminating unit detects a bill meeting or failing to meet a certain criteria.

A document evaluation device for receiving a stack of documents and rapidly evaluating all the documents in the stack, said device comprising:

• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of documents to be evaluated, genuine ones of said documents each having one of a plurality of images thereon, said plurality of images defining a plurality of document types;
• a single output receptacle adapted to receive said documents after said documents have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport said documents, one at a time, from said input receptacle to said output receptacle along a transport path;
• a document type discriminating unit adapted to evaluate said documents, said discriminating unit comprising a processor and two functioning document type detectors positioned along said transport path between said input receptacle and said output receptacle, said detectors being disposed on opposite sides of said transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of said documents, said detectors being adapted to generate output signals, said discriminating unit being capable of distinguishing among said plurality of document types by scanning the image on each of said documents, said discriminating unit counting and determining the document type of said documents, said output signals being available to said discriminating unit for determining the document type of said documents;
• and
• means for flagging a document when the type of said document is not determined by said discriminating unit.

A method of counting and discriminating currency bills of different denominations using a currency evaluation device comprising:

• receiving a stack of bills to be evaluated in an input receptacle of the evaluation device;
• transporting, under control of the evaluation device, the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle to a single output receptacle of the evaluation device along a transport path;
• counting and determining the denomination of the bills under control of the evaluation device using a denomination discriminating unit comprising two functioning denomination detectors positioned along the transport path and disposed on opposite sides of the transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of the bills, the determining the denomination of the bills comprising generating output signals by the detectors and using the signals to determine the denomination of the bills;
• and
• flagging a bill when the denomination of the bill can not be determined under control of the evaluation device.

A method of counting and discriminating documents of different types using a document evaluation device comprising:

• receiving a stack of documents to be evaluated in an input receptacle of the evaluation device, genuine ones of the documents each having one of a plurality of images thereon, the plurality of images defining a plurality of document types;
• transporting, under control of the evaluation device, the documents, one at a time, from the input receptacle to a single output receptacle of the evaluation device;
• counting and determining the type of the documents under control of the evaluation device, the evaluation device distinguishing among the plurality of document types by scanning the image on each side of the documents and using the images to distinguish among the plurality of document types;
• and
• flagging a document when the type of the document can not be determined under control of the evaluation device.

A currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills and rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, the device comprising:

• an input receptacle positioned to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle positioned to receive the bills after the bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism comprising a transport drive motor and transport rollers, the transport mechanism located between the input receptacle and the output receptacle to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle to the output receptacle along a transport path;
• a denomination discriminating unit comprising two denomination detectors positioned along and on opposite sides of the transport path between the input receptacle and the output receptacle and comprising a processor, the detectors generating characteristic information output signals in response to detected characteristic information, the characteristic information output signals being electrically coupled to the processor, the processor receiving the characteristic information output signals and generating a denomination signal in response thereto;
• and
• a flagging device comprising the processor and an encoder linked to the transport mechanism, the encoder producing tracking signals in response to the physical movement of the bills, the processor generating a no call signal when the denomination of a bill is not determined by the processor.

A currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills and rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, the device comprising:

• an input receptacle positioned to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle positioned to receive the bills after the bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism comprising a transport drive motor and transport rollers, the transport mechanism located between the input receptacle and the output receptacle to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle to the output receptacle along a transport path;
• and
• a denomination discriminating unit comprising two denomination detectors positioned along and on opposite sides of the transport path between the input receptacle and the output receptacle and comprising a processor, the detectors generating characteristic information output signals in response to detected characteristic information, the characteristic information output signals being electrically coupled to the processor, the processor receiving the characteristic information output signals and generating a denomination signal in response thereto.

A compact currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills, rapidly evaluating all the bills in the stack, and placing the bills into a single output receptacle, the device comprising:

• an input receptacle adapted to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle adapted to receive the bills after the bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism adapted to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle to the output receptacle along a transport path;
• a denomination discriminating unit adapted to evaluate the bills, the discriminating unit comprising two denomination detectors positioned along the transport path between the input receptacle and the output receptacle, the detectors being disposed on opposite sides of the transport path so as to be disposed adjacent to first and second opposing surfaces of the bills so as to permit scanning opposing surfaces of the bills, the discriminating unit counting and determining the denomination of the bills regardless of whether the bills pass the discriminating unit facing up or facing down, the discriminating unit is adapted to determine the denomination of bills of a plurality of denominations;
• and
• means for flagging a bill when the denomination of the bill is not determined by the discriminating unit.

A compact currency evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills, rapidly evaluating the bills in the stack, and placing the bills into a single output receptacle, the device comprising:

• an input receptacle positioned to receive a stack of bills to be evaluated;
• a single output receptacle positioned to receive the bills after the bills have been evaluated;
• a transport mechanism comprising a transport drive motor and transport rollers, the transport mechanism located between the input receptacle and the output receptacle to transport the bills, one at a time, from the input receptacle to the output receptacle along a transport path;
• and
• a denomination discriminating unit comprising two denomination detectors positioned along and on opposite sides of the transport path between the input receptacle and the output receptacle so as to permit scanning opposing surfaces of the bills and comprising a processor, the detectors generating characteristic information output signals in response to detected characteristic information, the characteristic information output signals being electrically coupled to the processor, the processor receiving the characteristic information output signals and generating a denomination signal in response thereto, the discriminating unit being adapted to determine the denomination of bills having a plurality of denominations regardless of whether the bills pass the discriminating unit facing up or facing down.

A currency counting and evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills, rapidly counting and evaluating all the bills in the stack, and then re-stacking the bills, the device comprising

• a feed mechanism for receiving a stack of currency bills and feeding the bills, one at a time, to a bill transport mechanism;
• the bill transport mechanism transporting bills from the feed mechanism to a stacking station along a transport path, at a rate in excess of about 800 bills per minute;
• a first optical scanning head located on a first side of the transport path between the feed mechanism and the stacking station for scanning a first preselected segment of a central portion of a first side of each bill transported between the stations by the transport mechanism, the first scanning head including at least one light source for illuminating a strip of the preselected segment of a bill, and at least one detector for receiving light from the illuminated strip on the bill and producing a first output signal representing variations in the intensity of the received light;
• a second optical scanning head located on a second side of the transport path between the feed mechanism and the stacking station for scanning a second preselected segment of a central portion of a second side of each bill transported between the stations by the transport mechanism, the second scanning head including at least one light source for illuminating a strip of the preselected segment of a bill, and at least one detector for receiving light from the illuminated strip on the bill and producing a second output signal representing variations in the intensity of the received light;
• means for sampling at least one of the output signals at preselected intervals as a bill is moved across the scanning head, each of the output signal samples being proportional to the intensity of the light received from a different strip of one of the preselected segments of a bill;
• a memory for storing characteristic signal samples produced by scanning the preselected segments of bills of different denominations with the scanning head and sampling the output signal at the preselected intervals, each of the stored signal samples being proportional to the intensity of the light received from a different strip of a preselected segment of a bill;
• and
• signal processing means for receiving the signal samples and (1) determining the denomination of each scanned bill by comparing the stored signal samples with the output signal samples produced by the scanning of each bill with the scanning head, (2) counting the number of scanned bills of each denomination, and (3) accumulating the cumulative value of the scanned bills of each denomination, the signal processing means being adapted to determine the denomination of bills regardless of whether the bills are transported along the transport path in a face-up or face-down manner.