Method and apparatus for improved coin, bill and other currency acceptance and slug or counterfeit rejection

Claim 1

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics of each of a plurality of genuine items of a first type; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points; selecting data points to form a cluster of data points representative of genuine items of a first type; storing the cluster; testing an item and generating a data point corresponding to said at least two characteristics for the item; comparing the data point of the item to the stored cluster; and accepting the item as an item of the first type if its data point matches one of the data points within the cluster.

Claim 2

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics of each of a plurality of genuine items representative of the universe of items to be validated; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points for each item type; selecting data points to form clusters of data points representing each item type; storing the clusters; testing an item and generating a data point corresponding to said at least two characteristics for the item; comparing the data point of the item to the stored clusters; and accepting the item as an item of a particular type if its data point matches that in a cluster corresponding to that type item.

Claim 17

A method of operating a money validation apparatus for discriminating genuine items of different types from counterfeit items, comprising: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics of each of a plurality of genuine items representative of the universe of items to be validated; converting the sensed data into a plurality of vectors for each item type; storing the vectors in a look-up table in memory; calculating a mean vector for each item type; testing an item and generating a vector corresponding to said at least two characteristics for the item; calculating the difference between the item vector and the mean vector for an item type; comparing the difference to a first mean vector tolerance; incrementing an item denomination index, recalculating the difference and comparing the difference to a mean vector tolerance for another item type if the comparison did not fall within the first mean vector tolerance; searching an item type look-up table if the difference falls within the corresponding mean vector tolerance; and accepting the item if its vector is found in a look-up table, or rejecting the item if its vector is not found.

Claim 18

A method as claimed in any preceding claim, when applied to a coin validation for discriminating genuine coins from counterfeit items.

Claim 22

A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20 wherein data points forming a cluster represent an acceptance criteria for a genuine item type, the method further including the step of defining an anti-cheat criteria for each genuine item type, and restricting the acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if an item data point corresponding to an item which has failed to be accepted is within the anti-cheat criteria for that item type.

Claim 23

A method of operating a money validation apparatus which utilizes acceptance criteria to validate genuine items of different types, comprising: defining anti-cheat criteria for each item type; testing an item and generating characteristic data for the item; comparing the item characteristic data to the acceptance criteria; and restricting the acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if a rejected item characteristic data is within the anti-cheat criteria for that item type.

Claim 26

The method of any one of claims 22 to 25, further comprising: setting a cheat mode flag for an item type when its acceptance criteria is modified; clearing a cheat mode counter for that item type; incrementing the cheat mode counter when a valid item is detected and the cheat mode flag is set; clearing the cheat mode flag when the cheat mode counter reaches a predetermined threshold value; and returning the acceptance criteria of the item to its unrestricted position when the cheat mode flag is cleared.

Claim 33

A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20 and 22 to 30, wherein the validation apparatus tests items using acceptance criteria comprised of data having a center point, the method comprising the steps of: setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center data point to a boundary of the acceptance criteria; and modifying the acceptance criteria for an item type by incrementing or decrementing the center data point if enough accepted items of that type had data points within the deviation limit.

Claim 34

A method of operating a money validation apparatus which utilizes acceptance criteria corresponding to genuine items of different types, wherein the acceptance criteria is comprised of characteristic data having a center point, comprising: setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center point to a boundary of the acceptance criteria; testing an item and generating characteristic data for the item; accepting the item as being of a particular type if its characteristic data is within the acceptance criteria corresponding to that type; and, modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center point if enough accepted items had characteristic data within the deviation limit.

Claim 40

A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, 22 to 30 and 33 to 37, including the steps of: measuring a rest value for each sensor; measuring shift values for each sensor corresponding to respective characteristics; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating a data point based on the relative values; comparing the data point of the item to stored acceptance criteria; and accepting the item as an item of a particular type if its data point matches acceptance criteria corresponding to that type of item.

Claim 41

A method for calculating a relative value of an item for comparison to genuine item data in a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, comprising: measuring a rest value of the sensing circuit; measuring a shift value of the sensing circuit caused by the item; calculating an exponentially weighted moving average based on the rest value; and calculating the relative value for the item based on the shift value, the rest value and the exponentially weighted moving average of the rest value.

Claim 52

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics of each of a plurality of genuine items of different item types; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points for each item type; selecting data points to form clusters of data points representing an acceptance criteria for each genuine item type; storing the clusters; defining a center data point for each cluster; defining a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center data point to a cluster boundary data point; defining an anti-cheat criteria for each item type; testing an item and generating a data point for the item; comparing the item data point to the clusters; rejecting the item if its data point does not match any of the clusters and restricting the acceptance criteria by a predetermined amount if the rejected item data point is within the anti-cheat criteria; accepting the item if its data point is within a cluster; and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center data point of a cluster if enough accepted items had data points within the deviation limit.

Claim 54

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having a sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising the steps of: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics from a plurality of genuine items of different item types; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points for each item type; selecting data points to form clusters of data points representing an acceptance criteria for each genuine item type; storing the clusters; defining an anti-cheat criteria for each genuine item type; measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values for each sensor corresponding to said at least two characteristics; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating a data point for the item based on the relative values; comparing the data point of the item to the stored clusters; accepting the item if its data point matches a cluster, or rejecting the item if no match is found; and restricting the acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if a rejected item data point is within the anti-cheat criteria for that item type.

Claim 56

A method in an item validation apparatus having a sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising the steps of: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics from a plurality of genuine items of different item types; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points for each item type; selecting data points to form clusters of data representing an acceptance criteria for each genuine item type; storing the clusters; defining a center data point for each cluster; setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center data point to a cluster boundary data point; measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values for each sensor corresponding to said at least two characteristics; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating a data point for the item based on the relative values; accepting the item as being a particular type if its data point is within a cluster corresponding to that type; and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center data point of a cluster if enough accepted items of that type had data points within the deviation limit.

Claim 58

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, for discriminating genuine items from counterfeit items, comprising: sensing data characteristic of at least two characteristics of each of a plurality of genuine items of different item types; converting the sensed data into a plurality of data points for each item type; selecting data points to form clusters of data points representing an acceptance criteria for each genuine item; storing the clusters; defining a center data point and an anti-cheat criteria for each cluster; setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center data point to a cluster boundary data point; measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values for each sensor corresponding to said at least two characteristics; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on rest values; calculating relative values for the unknown item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating a data point for the item based on the relative values; comparing the item data point to the stored clusters; rejecting the item if its data point does not match any of the clusters and restricting the acceptance criteria of an item type by a predetermined amount if the rejected item data point is within the anti-cheat criteria for that item type; accepting the item if its data point is within a cluster; and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center data point of a cluster if enough accepted items of that type had data points within the deviation limit.

Claim 60

A method of operating a money validation apparatus which utilizes acceptance criteria to validate genuine items of different types, wherein the acceptance criteria is comprised of characteristic data having a center point, comprising: setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center point to a boundary of the acceptance criteria; testing an item and generating characteristic data for the item; comparing the data point of the item to the acceptance criteria; restricting the acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if a rejected item characteristic data is within the anti-cheat criteria for that item; accepting the item if its characteristic data is within acceptance criteria corresponding to that type; and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center point if enough accepted items had characteristic data within the deviation limit.

Claim 64

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, which utilizes acceptance criteria corresponding to genuine items of different types, comprising: measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values of the sensors; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the unknown item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating characteristic data for the item based on the relative values; comparing the item characteristic data to the acceptance criteria; and restricting acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if a rejected item characteristic data is within the anti-cheat criteria.

Claim 66

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, which utilizes acceptance criteria corresponding to genuine items of different types, wherein the acceptance criteria is comprised of characteristic data having a center point, comprising: setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center point to a boundary of the acceptance criteria; defining an anti-cheat criteria; measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values of the sensors; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the item based on the shift values, the rest values, and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating characteristic data for the item based on the relative values; comparing the characteristic data of the item to the acceptance criteria; rejecting the item if its characteristic data is outside the acceptance criteria, and restricting acceptance criteria for an item type by a predetermined amount if the rejected item characteristic data is within the anti-cheat criteria; and accepting the item if its characteristic data is within an acceptance criteria and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center point if enough accepted items had characteristic data within the anti-cheat criteria.

Claim 67

A method of operating a money validation apparatus having at least one sensor circuit and a processing and control circuit, which utilizes acceptance criteria corresponding to genuine items of different types, wherein the acceptance criteria is comprised of characteristic data having a center point, comprising: setting a deviation limit which is small in comparison to the distance from the center point to a boundary point of the acceptance criteria; measuring a rest value for each sensor; testing an item by measuring shift values of the sensors; calculating exponentially weighted moving averages based on the rest values; calculating relative values for the item based on the shift values, the rest values and the exponentially weighted moving averages; generating characteristic data for the item based on the relative values; accepting the item as being of a particular type if its characteristic data is within the acceptance criteria corresponding to that type; and modifying the acceptance criteria by incrementing or decrementing the center point if enough accepted items had characteristic data within the deviation limit.

Claim 70

A method of validating items of currency, in which n independent measurements of the item are made, where n is an integer greater than 1, so as to define a vector in n-dimensional space, and wherein a stored look-up table is checked to determine whether the vector is stored therein, the method comprising the step of deeming the item genuine in dependence on the result of that determination.

Claim 71

A method in a coin, bill or currency item validation apparatus for establishing an item acceptance cluster for distinguishing between a genuine item of a specified denomination and non-genuine items, comprising the steps of: establishing a first acceptance limit for a first item characteristic; establishing a second acceptance limit for a second item characteristic; defining a two dimensional spatial item acceptance cluster for the specified item denomination based on the first acceptance limit and the second acceptance limit; and selectively modifying the item acceptance cluster to exclude known non-genuine items.

Claim 72

A method in a coin, bill or other currency item validation apparatus for establishing an item acceptance cluster for distinguishing between a genuine item and a non-genuine item, comprising the steps of: establishing a first acceptance limit for a first item characteristic; establishing a second acceptance limit for a second item characteristic; establishing a third acceptance limit for a third item characteristic; defining a three dimensional spatial item acceptance cluster for the specified item denomination based on the first acceptance limit and the second acceptance limit and the third acceptance limit; and selectively modifying the item acceptance cluster to exclude known non-genuine items.

Claim 75

A method in a coin, bill or other currency item validation apparatus for changing item acceptance criteria in response to certain types of non-valid items, comprising the steps of: establishing a first acceptance limit for a first item characteristic; sensing a first characteristic of an unknown item; producing a first output signal in response to the sensing of the first characteristic of the unknown item; calculating the difference between the first output signal and the first acceptance limit; and modifying the first acceptance limit if the value of the first output signal exceeds the first acceptance limit and the difference between the value of the first output signal and the first acceptance limit is less than a predetermined amount.

Claim 77

A method in a coin, bill or other currency item validation apparatus having a coin sensor circuit, for adjusting an item acceptance limit comprising the steps of: testing a plurality of known genuine items of a specified denomination using the coin sensor circuit; producing a first output signal for each genuine item of the specified denomination, each first output signal indicative of a first characteristic of the respective genuine item; computing a first reference value based on a function of all of the first output signals; establishing a first acceptance limit for the first item characteristic based on the first reference value; testing an unknown item in the apparatus using the coin sensor circuit; producing a second output signal in response to the testing of the unknown item, the second output signal being indicative of the first characteristic of the unknown item; calculating the difference between the value of the second output signal and the first acceptance limit; setting a first deviation limit between the reference value and the first acceptance limit; and modifying the first acceptance limit if the value of the second output signal is less than both the first acceptance limit and the first deviation limit.

Claim 80

The method of any one of claims 40 to 49 wherein the sensor produces a signal whose frequency is indicative of an item characteristic.