Determining document fitness using sequenced illumination
First Claim
1. A method for determining the physical fitness of documents, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) passing a document past an image sensor;
(b) illuminating said document sequentially using multi-mode illumination, wherein the document is divided into discrete successive sections and a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each section as the document passes said image sensor until the entire document is imaged, producing an interleaved, multi-mode image of the document;
(c) applying a multi-dimensional transformation function to said interleaved, multi-mode image to generate a composite measurement; and
(d) projecting said composite measurement onto an empirically determined fitness vector to yield a scalar fitness value for said document;
wherein the image sensor is a line scan camera and a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each scan line.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method for determining the physical fitness of documents such as bank notes. The method comprises passing a document past an image sensor while sequentially illuminating the document using multi-mode illumination, wherein a predetermined mode of illumination is used for each line scanned by the image sensor, producing an interleaved image of the document. A multi-dimensional transformation function is applied to this interleaved image to produce a composite measurement, which is then projected onto an empirically determined fitness vector to yield a scalar fitness value for the document. This value is compared against empirically prescribed fitness values to determine if the document is fit enough to remain in circulation or should be taken out of circulation and retired (destroyed).
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for determining the physical fitness of documents, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) passing a document past an image sensor; (b) illuminating said document sequentially using multi-mode illumination, wherein the document is divided into discrete successive sections and a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each section as the document passes said image sensor until the entire document is imaged, producing an interleaved, multi-mode image of the document; (c) applying a multi-dimensional transformation function to said interleaved, multi-mode image to generate a composite measurement; and (d) projecting said composite measurement onto an empirically determined fitness vector to yield a scalar fitness value for said document; wherein the image sensor is a line scan camera and a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each scan line. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for determining the physical fitness of documents, comprising:
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(a) an image sensor; (b) at least two different light sources, wherein each light source produces a different illumination mode; (c) means for synchronizing said image sensor with said light sources to sequentially illuminate a document passing in front of the image sensor, wherein the document is divided into discrete successive sections and a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each section until the entire document is imaged, producing an interleaved, multi-mode image of the document; (d) means for applying a multi-dimensional transformation function to said interleaved, multi-mode image to generate a composite measurement; and (e) means for projecting said composite measurement onto an empirically determined fitness vector to yield a scalar fitness value for said document; wherein the image sensor is a line scan camera and wherein a predetermined illumination mode is applied to each scan line. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification