Mars, Incorporated

Mei, Inc.

David Michael Furneaux

Richard Douglas Allan

Gaston Daniel Baudat

Thomas E Shuren

Neil Young

Bernard Joseph Campbell

Paul Franklin Steel

Stephen John Dillon

Andrew M Yellop

Karen Aurelius

Gaston Baudat

Replenishing coins in a coin store associated with a coin handling device includes feeding a batch of coins from a bulk coin store to a receptacle near the coin handling device, delivering coins from the receptacle to the coin handling device and routing at least some of those coins from the coin handling device to the coin store associated with the coin handling device.

Batch re-load of coin recycler

A coin sensor performs time-domain eddy-current testing using an inductance in one arm of a Maxwell bridge which is driven by a bipolar square wave having randomly-selected intervals between transitions, the output of the bridge being sampled at a high frequency. A processor stores a model which receives the drive signal and adjusts coefficients of the model so that the output matches the sampled measurements. Acceptance criteria are applied to the adjusted coefficients for coin classification purposes.

Coin sensor

An electrical discharge produces an acoustic impulse, and a reflection of the impulse from the upper coin in a coin stack is sensed so that the level of the coin stack can be determined from the time taken for the reflection to be received. Alternatively, or additionally, the acoustic impulse can be used to detect coin jams, the presence and/or width of a coin store, the state of a coin routing gate or the quantity of a vendible product.

Vending machines and coin handling apparatus

A method of measuring a characteristic of a container in a coin handling apparatus which involves generating a data set from an acoustic pulse reflected by the container and analyzing the data set. The analysis includes comparing the data set to one or more stored data sets. This is used to determine the height of a coin stack in a coin tube and/or to identify the coin tube.

Coin store measurement

A coin validator tests a coin using a pair of coils coupled in an oscillator circuit which is arranged to drive both the coils concurrently at two separate frequencies without interference therebetween, each frequency signal being influenced by the presence of a coin. Preferably, the coils are connected in series in a feedback loop to form a first oscillator, and the second oscillator is coupled to the interconnection between the coils the other ends of which are effectively short circuited at the frequency of the second oscillator.

Oscillator circuit for a validator

A device for validating a coin comprises an electro-magnetic sensor, means for monitoring a first signal generated by the sensor and means for deriving a measurement from a second signal generated by the sensor. The event of the first signal taking a predetermined threshold value is used to derive a measurement from the second signal.

Method and apparatus for validating coins

Coin diameter measurement

An apparatus and method of validating coins involves taking two independent measurements of the tested item, and determining whether both measurements lie within respective ranges for a particular coin type, the range for at least one of the measurements being dependent upon at least one other measurement.

Method and apparatus for validating money

Money validation

Money items are validated by determining whether n measured properties lie within an n-dimensional ellipse associated with a particular money item. The center of the ellipse lies on the statistical mean of the property measurements for that particular item, and each axis is related to the standard deviation for a respective property measurement.

Method and apparatus for coin validation

An apparatus end method of validating coins involves taking two independent measurements of the tested item, and determining whether both measurements lie within respective ranges for a particular coin type, the range for at least one of the measurements being dependent upon at least one other measurement.

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Reading, United Kingdom

David Michael Furneaux