Asahi Seiko Company Ltd.

Asahi Seiko Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroshi Ohtomo

Koji Sano

Shigeki Takayama

Yukinari Matubara

Hiroshi Banno

A coin discrimination system eliminates the task of visiting the location of an existing coin depositing/dispensing machine to exchange an existing coin discrimination apparatus incorporated in the machine for a new one and the task of additionally setting a new coin discrimination criterion manually to the existing apparatus. Pieces of specific information from pieces of sensor information are compared with pieces of current discrimination criterion information, conducting authenticity and denomination discrimination of coins. New discrimination criterion information setting coins are selected through judgement on whether the denomination of each coin is consistent with a target denomination and judgement on whether each coin is suitable for generating new discrimination criterion information while conducting the authentication and denomination discrimination. A piece of new specific information is extracted from the pieces of sensor information about the setting coins. The piece of new discrimination criterion information is set using the piece of new specific information.

Method, system and computer readable medium for coin discrimination

A method for setting discrimination criterion information pieces for one or more additional denominations in a coin discrimination apparatus is provided, which eliminates the task of visiting the installation location of an existing coin discrimination apparatus to exchange this apparatus for a new one including discrimination criterion information pieces for one or more additional denominations and the task of setting discrimination criterion information pieces for the one or more additional denominations manually in the apparatus. A target denomination is designated from current denominations whose discrimination criterion information pieces are stored in a coin discrimination apparatus. Then, discrimination criterion information pieces for an additional denomination are calculated based on discrimination criterion information pieces for the target denomination, target denomination standard information pieces corresponding to the discrimination criterion information pieces for the target denomination, and additional denomination standard information pieces corresponding to the discrimination criterion information pieces for the additional denomination.

Method, system, and computer readable medium for setting discrimination criterion information

A coin discrimination apparatus capable of discriminating the denomination and authenticity of coins including bimetallic coins. A first coin detection sensor, located near a guide, obtains a physical characteristic of a peripheral part of a coin moved on a carrying path. A second coin detection sensor, located apart from the guide, obtains a physical characteristic about a central part of the coin. A third coin detection sensor, located on a downstream side of respect to the first sensor, obtains a physical characteristic about the peripheral part of a coin. A fourth coin detection sensor, located downstream of the second sensor and apart from the guide, obtains a physical characteristic about a central part of the coin. An additional physical characteristic about the peripheral part of the coin is obtained by cooperation of the second and third sensors when the coin reaches the third sensor.

Coin discrimination apparatus

A coin identifying sensor and a coin identifying apparatus has coin detecting sections (X andZ) that are formed by relatively disposing a group of coin identifying sensors (A,B,C andD) with each group provided with three aligned and integrated coin sensors. Each, of the sensors has a core wound with a coil. The sensors are disposed in a coin path in a direction crossing a movement direction of a coin. The first and second coin detecting sections are sequentially disposed on a coin path () to determine whether a coin is real or not using detection data of diameter, material and thickness of the coin based upon detection outputs sequentially obtained from the coin detecting sections.

Coin identifying sensor and a coin selector with coin identifying apparatus

A coin selector assembly includes a coin passageway having at least a pair of thickness sensor unit operatively positioned along the coin passageway to provide respective measurements of the thickness of the coin. A comparing unit compares the respective thickness signals with corresponding stored standard values representative of a genuine coin to determine the authenticity of the coin. Additional sensor unit can be positioned along the coin passageway and excited with different frequencies. Thus, a material sensor unit and a diameter sensor unit or a pair of diameter sensor unit can also be utilized.

Coin selector for bimetal coins

A coin sensor is provided for more accurately assessing the authenticity of a coin passing through a vertical channel where the channel is sized to accommodate different diameter coins. In the present invention, magnetic coils are deployed on the side of the channel to measure magnetic flux, which is converted to digital signals and compared to stored values to assess the diameter, thickness, and material of the coin. To reduce the tolerances associated with the varying path of the coin, the sensors have been provided with cores having generally straight and parallel upper and lower surfaces aligned perpendicular to the path of the coin to remove the variances in the overlapping coin area as the coin.

Coin sensor

A device and method are set forth for determining the authenticity of a coin or token which includes a housing defining a passageway to pass the coin to be tested. Coils are disposed about the housing to generate magnetic flux lines at the passageway. Detection circuits detect changes in amplitudes of the frequencies generating the flux and signals are created corresponding thereto. These signals are compared at a processor to stored data corresponding to amplitude changes for an authentic coin to determine if the coin is authentic.

Device and method for discriminating a circular plate body such as a coin

A low-cost, high-performance coin sorting machine is provided by providing a plurality of coils which sense coins concurrently and using a simple oscillation circuit to provide oscillation signals at different frequencies, thereby reducing the size of the coin sorting machine. Right and left pairs of sensor coils are composed of inner and outer coils. When either of the connections between one inner coil and other inner coil, and between one outer coil and the other outer coil, is made in a cumulative mode, the other connection is made in a differential mode. The relationship between the oscillation frequencies is set so that one of the frequencies is greater than twice the other.

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Saitama, Japan

Hiroshi Ohtomo