Bank Note. Bill and /or ticket handling Apparatus

The invention to which this application relates is to apparatus for use in the automatic handling of bank notes, bills, tokens and/or tickets, hereinafter referred to in a non limiting manner as bills.

Typically, the payment for services or activities, is achieved by the user paying to the provider, a sum of money. This can be achieved manually by the user physically handing over bills or coins to the provider or, alternatively, and increasingly preferably, apparatus can be provided into which the user places a bill or bills. The apparatus then identifies the bill and the denomination of the same, and, if the bill is valid and accepted, payment is registered and the bill is stored. If the bill is not valid the same may be stored without a payment being registered or, more typically, is returned to the user. Thus, in the use of this type of apparatus, the provider does not need to have a human representative and, instead, payment can be achieved automatically, by the user placing the appropriate bill or bills into the apparatus.

This form of apparatus is becoming increasingly popular for many different types of activities such as, for example, playing of casino games, playing of other activities such as pool, and/or payment for services such as for example, car parking. An attraction of this form of apparatus is that as the provider does not need to provide a human employee to accept the payment, costs are reduced and also the possibility of fraud is reduced.

However, attempts can still be made by the user to defraud the provider, by attempting to overcome security means provided in the apparatus.

One known way in which to attempt to defraud the apparatus is to "strim". Strimming is a term given to an attempt to place a bill into the apparatus, have the bill identified as valid and therefore suitable payment for the activity but then, rather than the bill being allowed to be passed by feed means to a storage location within the apparatus for subsequent retrieval by the provider, the bill is in fact removed by the user via a member attached to the bill and depending from the rear of the same with respect to the direction of insertion, and which member is still accessible by the user. The apparatus then "believes" that it has received a payment and the bill has passed to storage whereas in fact the bill has been removed from the apparatus by the user back through the entry aperture by gripping on the member and payment has not been received.

In practice this strimming is typically achieved by placing the bill into the aperture in the apparatus with the leading side edge being advanced into the apparatus by feed means and therefore moving the remainder of the bill through the aperture and into the apparatus. Within the apparatus, there is a security and analysis check location which the bill is required to reach in order for the same to be registered and validated. However, to the rear edge of the bill, the user has connected a string or other member such as a tape, which, once the bill has reached the security checking location, still protrudes externally of the aperture. This therefore means that once the bill has been security checked and payment accepted, the user can remove the bill back through the aperture by pulling on the string or tape. This therefore prevents the bill from passing to the storage location and prevents the provider from receiving the payment in the form of a bill or bills.

This is a well known problem and apparatus typically includes means to attempt to prevent this form of fraud from occurring

by providing means to detect the presence or otherwise of a member such as a string or tape trailing from the banknote.

One known method of detecting the string or tape, is to provide light sensors in the form of a light emitter and a light receiver. The sensors are positioned at the check and analysis location for the bill. This therefore means that when the bill has been placed into the aperture and into the apparatus, the light path between the light emitter sensor, and the light receiver sensor is broken by the bill. However, when the bill reaches the checking and analysis location, if no strimming is occurring, then as the sensors are positioned to lie to the rear of the trailing edge of the bill so the light path between the sensors will no longer be broken by the bill. However, if there is a string or tape or other member depending from the rear of the bill this will still serve to break the light path. This therefore means that if, when checking and analysing the bill at the appropriate location, the sensors indicate that the light path is still broken, then the bill will be deemed to be invalid and rejected.

This system works well but a problem which is experienced is that the check and analysis location is typically provided within a housing and in order for the light path to be formed, conventionally, the emitter and receiver are required to be provided in line with apertures provided in the side walls of the housing in which the bill is located for the check and analysis to take place. These apertures, provided to allow the passage of the light between the sensors mounted externally of the housing, are susceptible to allowing dust and debris to pas through the same and enter into the housing or indeed the dust and debris can block the apertures. The provision of this dust and debris can cause malfunction of the said sensors or may, when it enters the housing, cause malfunction of other check and analysis apparatus and systems within the housing. This could, for

example, cause every bill to be rejected even though the same may be valid.

An aim of the present invention is to provide means of allowing the use of sensors to detect the presence or otherwise of a bill or strimming member to take place and to do so in an effective manner and at the same time minimise the possibility of ingress of dust or debris into the housing in which the bill check and analysis takes place and therefore avoid the possibility of malfunction.

In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus for the reception and validation of a bill placed therein as payment, said apparatus including an aperture through which the bill can be placed into the apparatus, feed means to advance the bill into the apparatus to a check and analysis location at which the validity of the bill can be determined, sensors in the form of a light emitter and a light receiver to respectively create and detect the presence, or otherwise, of a light path, said sensors positioned such that the light path is bisected by the path of movement of the bill, and wherein at least a portion of at least one wall of the apparatus is formed of a material of a form which allows the passage of the light path therethrough and the sensors are located such that the said portion of the at least one wall lies between the same.

In one embodiment, all of the said at least one wall is formed of the said material.

Alternatively, only the portion of the at least one wall which is located at the position through which the light path is required to pass, is formed of the said material.

In one embodiment the check and analysis location is within a housing and at least one of the sensors lies externally of said housing and at least one of the walls of the housing is formed of material to allow the light path to pass therethrough.

In one embodiment both of the sensors are located externally of a housing and therefore each of the walls which lie between said sensors are formed with at least a portion of the material to allow the light path to pass therethrough.

In one embodiment, the material is provided so as to effectively be transparent to infra red light which is generated to form the light path.

In one embodiment, the material which is used is substantially opaque to the human eye.

In one embodiment, the side walls are provided in conjunction with a top and base, and end walls, to form a housing into which the bill is received through an entry aperture and leaves through an exit aperture. As no apertures are required for the light path to pass through there is provided, with the exception of bill entry and exit apertures, a substantially enclosed housing in which the check and analysis of the bill can take place.

Thus, in accordance with the invention, there is provided a housing which is only required to have a first aperture at one end to allow the bill to enter there through and a second aperture at the opposing end to allow a validated bill to leave the housing. This means that the risk of ingress of dust and debris into the housing to cause malfunction is greatly reduced.

Typically, the housing in which the check and validation takes place, is located as part of a bill handling apparatus, in which a

validated bill can then be passed to a storage location, typically in the form of a cartridge or cassette which can subsequently be removed for retrieval of bills which have been accepted.

Typically the sensors are located such that when a bill reaches the required location for the check and analysis to take place the light from the emitter can be received by the receiver sensor i.e. the light path is unbroken. This means that only if a member is attached to the rear of the bill will the light path be broken with the bill in this location, which will indicate that an attempt to defraud the apparatus is occurring.

In a further aspect of the invention there is provided apparatus for the processing of a bill placed therein as payment, said apparatus including an aperture via which the bill can be placed into the apparatus, feed means to advance the bill into the apparatus to a check and analysis location and, if validated, onwards to a storage location and wherein, at least one set of sensors are provided, one of said sensors in said set being a light emitter and the other of said sensors being a light receiver, said sensors positioned so as to create a light path across the path of movement of the bill and wherein at least where said sensors are provided, any walls of the apparatus which lie between the sensor and emitter are formed of material which allows the emitted light to pass therethrough and be detected by the light receiver.

In one embodiment, a plurality of sets of sensors are provided and at least one of said sets is provided with at least one wall lying between the same and said wall is formed of a material to allow the emitted light to pass therethrough.

In a further aspect of the invention there is provided apparatus for checking the validity of a bill, said apparatus including a

housing within which a bill can be located to allow means located within the housing to check the validity of the same, and sensing means are provided comprising a first sensor to generate a light path and a second sensor, spaced from the first sensor, to receive the light path and wherein at least one of said sensors is located externally of said housing with any walls of the housing lying between the sensors formed of a material to allow the light path to pass therethrough without significant degradation of the said light path.

In one embodiment both of the sensors lie outside the housing.

In one embodiment the said sensors are located to generate a light path which passes across the feed path of the bill into the apparatus and to be to the rear of the trailing edge of the bill when it is in location to be checked and analysed.

In one embodiment the sensors are provided to detect the presence, or otherwise, of a bill at a predefined location within the apparatus.

In a further embodiment the sensors are provided to detect the presence, or otherwise, of a member attached to a bill at a predefined location within the apparatus.

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:-

Figures I a and b illustrate a conventional prior art apparatus showing the use of a set of sensors to detect the presence or otherwise of a bill within the apparatus in a schematic manner; and

Figures 2a and b illustrate an embodiment of the current invention.

Referring firstly to Figures Ia and b, there is illustrated a check and security location housing 2 which is typically provided to be part of a bill payment and validation apparatus in accordance with a prior art embodiment. The housing is provided to be installed as part of the payment apparatus and is formed of side walls 4, 6, a top wall 8, a base 10 and end walls 12, 14. Each of the end walls includes an aperture 16, 18 respectively, one of which, aperture 16, acts as an entry for a bill 20 to enter into the housing as indicated by arrow 32 and the other of which, aperture 18, acts as an exit for a validated bill from the housing for storage. The bill 20 is shown in position in the housing for security checks and analysis to take place. Feed means are provided to allow the bill 20 to be fed into the housing and further feed means can be provided to allow the bill to be fed from the housing, if validated, and into a storage location. Also shown is the fact that the side walls 4, 6 are each provided with an aperture 22, 24 respectively. Mounted in or proximate to the aperture 24, is a light transmitter sensor 26 and, proximate to the aperture 22 is a light receiver sensor 28. The sensors 26, 28 are located such that a light path 30 created from sensor 26, can be received by sensor 28. The sensors 26, 28 are also located such that the light path 30 passes across the path of movement 32 of the bill 20 such that when the bill is positioned between the sensors and moving towards the housing, the light path is broken.

Figure I a illustrates a valid bill insertion in which the rear edge of the bill 34, when the bill is positioned in the security check housing, clears the light path 30 between the sensors 26 and 28 and so the presence of the light path is detected by sensor 28 and that part of the bill validation is clear.

Figure Ib illustrates an invalid or fraudulent attempt having been made to "strim" where there is shown the bill 20 in position in the security housing 2 but, attached to the rear edge 34 there is a member 36 which extends from the rear edge 34 of the bill 20 back to an external input aperture of the apparatus. This means that in use, the bill 20 would be fed into the security location and checked and deemed to be valid but the person would then attempt to remove the bill back in a direction 38 by pulling on the member 36 such that the apparatus believed that suitable payment has been made but the bill does not in fact pass to the storage location for subsequent retrieval. However, in conjunction with the sensors 26, 28 and the light path generated 30, it will be seen how, in Figure Ib, the light path 30 is blocked by the provision of the member 36 and therefore light does not reach the sensor 28. This would then cause an alarm to be generated which would prevent the validation of the bill 20.

The provision of the apertures 22, 24 in the side walls of the housing, is problematic in that it allows ingress of dust and debris in a relatively uncontrolled manner into the interior of the housing. This, in turn, can cause malfunction of the sensors 26 and 28, perhaps causing blockage of the light path, and/or may cause malfunction of other security and check apparatus provided within the housing.

In accordance with the invention, this problem is avoided as now described with reference to Figures 2a and b.

Figures 2a and b show an embodiment of the apparatus in accordance with the invention wherein, once again, there is provided a housing 102 with side walls 104, 106, a top wall 108, base 110 and end walls 112, 114. In this case, the only

apertures in the housing which are provided are the entry- aperture 116 and the exit aperture 118 which operate in the same manner as described with reference to Figures Ia and b.

In this case, the same problem of detecting the presence of a member 136 depending from the rear of the bill 120 is addressed.

However, in this case, the side walls 104 and 106 are formed of material which is effectively transparent to the light which is emitted from the sensor 126. In this case, the light path is infrared light and therefore the material used is transparent to infrared to allow the passage of the lightpath therethrough at least to an extent sufficient to allow the light path to be clearly detected by sensor 128. It is also preferred that the material used is substantially opaque to the human eye. It should be appreciated that although both sensors are shown positioned externally of the housing, in another embodiment only one of the sensors may be positioned externally, with the thither located within the housing.

The ability for the light emitted from sensor 126 to pass through the side walls 104 and 106, means that the light path 130 can pass to the sensor 128 and be detected thereby when there is no bill 120 or member 136 blocking the same. Thus, when a valid bill is positioned as shown in Figure 2a, the light path 130 passes through side wall 106 across and to the rear of the trailing edge of the bill 120, through the side wall 104 and is detected by sensor 128 thereby allowing the validation to be achieved.

In Figure 2b, where there is provided the member 136, the light path 130 is emitted from sensor 126 and passes through the wall 106 until it hits the member 136 at which case the light path is

blocked, the sensor 128 does not receive the light from the emitter 126 and therefore the bill is not valid.

With no apertures provided in the housing at the locations for the light path, so the operation of all of the apparatus within the housing is found to be more efficient while at the same time, ensuring that the operation of the sensors can be achieved and the opportunity for debris causing blockage of the light path is reduced.

Although described with light emitting and receiving sensors to detect the presence of the member 136, it should be appreciated that the use of suitable material to form walls of a housing or other parts of the apparatus to allow light paths to pass therethrough in relation to the locations of other sensor sets within the apparatus is also within the scope of the invention.