The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 11, 2014
Filed:
Nov. 30, 2012
Applicant:
Coinstar, Inc., Bellevue, WA (US);
Inventor:
Daniel D. Everhart, Edmonds, WA (US);
Assignee:
Outerwall Inc., Bellevue, WA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G07D 7/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
Systems and associated methods for coin discrimination are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for discriminating coins includes obtaining an electromagnetic sensor signal of a coin, generating a contour signal by digitizing the sensor signal, identifying an active interval in the contour signal by eliminating the segments of the contour signal which are close to zero, and detecting the coin approach, pivot and departure points (coin features) from the contour signal in the active interval. The coin features can be compared to known values for different coins to discriminate the coin.