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:
May. 19, 2015
Filed:
Jun. 05, 2012
Jeffrey A. Borg, Newcastle, WA (US);
Douglas A. Martin, Woodinville, WA (US);
Timothy P. Harrington, Sammamish, WA (US);
Jeffrey A. Borg, Newcastle, WA (US);
Douglas A. Martin, Woodinville, WA (US);
Timothy P. Harrington, Sammamish, WA (US);
Outerwall Inc., Bellevue, WA (US);
Abstract
Systems and associated methods for optical coin discrimination are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for discriminating coins includes obtaining a digital image of a coin, identifying the outline of the coin using a suitable algorithm, and determining the diameter of the coin using the outline of the coin. The method of this embodiment further includes generating a rectangular image of the coin using, for example, a log-polar transform, generating a series of, for example, Fourier transforms from the rectangular image, and identifying spectral peak locations and intensities in the Fourier transform results. The diameter of the coin, spectral peak location, spectral peak intensity of the coin and/or other aspects of the coin can then be compared to known values for different coins to discriminate the coin.