Optical ticket reader and encoding means

Claim 1

An optical reader for reading a first surface having two reader optically recognizable surface characteristic areas, a first of said areas being the background of said first surface and a second of said areas comprising indicia arranged on ordered vertical columns and horizontal rows in spaced relationship with one another on said first surface, said spaced relationship conveying information, and including a row of clock indicia, one of said clock indicia being in each indicia column and additionally including a first key indicium in vertical spaced relationship with a predetermined one of said clock indicia and a second key indicium in vertical spaced relationship with a predetermined other of said clock indicia, said optical reader comprising: a second surface adapted for having said first surface slid thereacross in spaced relationship therewith; a light source; a plurality of sensors for scanning said indicia, one for each row of indicia to be scanned, each said sensor comprising a light conductive medium including first and second ends and a discontinuity in spaced relationship with said second surface, said medium being conductive to light from said first to said second end when said discontinuity is bridged by one of said surface characteristic areas and nonconductive to light from said first to said second end when said discontinuity is bridged by the other of said surface characteristic ares, said discontinuity being small enough to be bridged by one of said indicia, a said first ends being illuminated by said light source; a plurality of sensor circuits, one for each said sensor, each said sensor circuit including a photosensitive cell illuminated by said second end when said discontinuity is bridged and being responsive to illumination of its photosensitive cell for generating electrical binary signals; a clock for generating pulses in response to the scanning of said clock indicia; a plurality of shift registers, one for each sensor, for storing said binary signals in response to said clock pulses; means responsive to said binary signals for measuring the vertical spaced relationship of said first key indicium with said one predetermined clock indicium; and, means comparing said measured vertical spaced relationship of said first key indicium with said vertical spaced relationship of said second key indicium for generating a valid signal when said comparison shows said relationships are compatible and for generating an invalid signal when said comparison shows said relationships arE incompatible.