APPARATUS FOR MEDIA RECOGNITION AND METHOD FOR MEDIA KIND DISTINCTION WITH THE SAME

• US 20100135567A1
• Filed: 05/15/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATEC AP Co., Ltd. (ATEC T& Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: LG N-Systems Company Limited (LBHunet Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Han, Seung-Oh, Bang, Young-Sik
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/135
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/1205 Testing spectral properties
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/162 Length or width

Abstract

Disclosed is a medium recognition apparatus for determining the type of a medium by using color information obtained by scanning the inserted medium, as well as a method for determining the type of a medium by using the apparatus. Color information and size information obtained by scanning only a partial region of a medium image, the hue of the medium image scanned by the image sensor, or RGB channel color information scanned by the color sensor is compared with pre-stored reference information to determine the type of the medium. This guarantees that the type of the medium is determined quickly and accurately based on simple comparing results.

Claims

1. An apparatus for recognizing a medium, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor unit for obtaining color information and size information regarding an inserted medium; and

a determination unit for determining the type of the medium based on color information and size information regarding a banknote obtained from the sensor unit.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises:

a first sensor for obtaining color information from a partial region of the inserted banknote; and

a second sensor for obtaining size information regarding the banknote.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the first sensor is a color sensor, and the second sensor is an image sensor.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

an extraction unit for extracting individual color information regarding an identical color from the color information; and

a control unit for controlling the determination unit so as to determine the type of the medium with reference to at least two pieces of information selected from the extracted individual color information'"'"'s size order and range information and size information regarding the medium.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the individual color information is summation information regarding an identical color.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises a color image sensor for scanning the entire region of the medium to obtain color information and size information regarding a scanned medium image.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the determination unit comprises:

a skew correction unit for selectively correcting a skew when the inserted medium is skewed;

a medium image extraction unit for extracting only a medium image after the skew of the medium has been corrected; and

a medium size estimation unit for estimating the size of the medium from the extracted medium image and determining the type of the medium.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises a color sensor for scanning color information regarding the medium.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the determination unit comprises:

a hue calculation unit for calculating a hue of an image scanned by the sensor unit; and

a type determination unit for finally determining the type of the medium with reference to the calculated hue.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a conversion unit for identically converting sensitivity for each channel of color information outputted from the sensor unit; and

a calculation unit for calculating the skew, height, and hue of the medium based on the converted output signal, and

the determination unit is adapted to determine the type of the medium by using the calculated height and hue.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises:

at least two LEDs for emitting light to the medium; and

at least two color sensors arranged side by side at a predetermined distance from each other to scan horizontally symmetric images of the medium reflecting the emitted light.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the LEDs are white LEDs emitting white light so that color information of all RGB channels can be scanned.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a storage unit for storing reference color information and size information regarding respective medium types, and the determination unit is adapted to compare color information and size information obtained from the sensor unit with the reference color information and size information stored in the storage unit, respectively, to determine the type of the medium.

14. A method for determining the type of a medium by using a medium recognition apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

scanning an image of an inserted medium;

comparing color information and size information regarding the scanned medium image with pre-stored reference color information and size information, respectively; and

determining the type of the medium according to the comparison result.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the method further comprises a step of extracting individual color information from a medium image obtained by scanning a predetermined region of the medium in the scanning step, and, in the comparing step, at least two pieces of information selected from the extracted individual color information'"'"'s size order and range information and size information regarding the medium are compared.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the individual color information is summation information regarding an identical color from the color information.

17. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the scanning step comprises the steps of:

obtaining color information regarding the medium image by using a color sensor; and

obtaining size information regarding the medium by using an image sensor.

18. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein, in the scanning step, a color image sensor is used to scan the entire region of the medium and obtain color information and size information regarding the medium.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

selectively correcting a skew of the inserted medium when the medium is skewed; and

extracting only an image of the medium after the skew of the medium has been corrected.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein, in the comparing step, size information regarding the medium estimated from only the extracted medium image is compared with the reference size information.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the method further comprises a step of calculating a hue of the medium from an RGB average value of the scanned medium image, and, in the comparing step, the calculated hue is compared with a pre-stored hue table for each medium type.

22. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein, in the scanning step, at least two color sensors arranged side by side to scan left and right surfaces of the medium, respectively, are used to scan the inserted medium.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

identically converting sensitivity for each channel of color information outputted from the color sensors; and

calculating determination data regarding the medium based on the converted output signal, and

the calculated determination data is compared with pre-stored reference data in the comparing step.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the calculating step comprises the steps of:

calculating the skew of the medium generated during transfer based on the converted output signal;

calculating the height of the medium by using the calculated skew and the difference between entry and exit time points of the medium; and

calculating the hue of the medium based on the converted output signal.