Card Reader Foreign Matter Detection via Sensor State Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing card reader detection methods are limited in detecting foreign matters without specific shapes and often require additional components like electrostatic capacitance sensors, making them costly and difficult to retrofit, and they fail to detect foreign matters during certain operational states or errors such as jamming.
Innovation Solution
A card reader system equipped with multiple sensors along the conveyance passage that monitor state transitions, determining the presence of foreign matters by identifying patterns different from those generated by normal cards, without the need for additional components like electrostatic capacitance sensors, and utilizing a shutter member with an opening/closing sensor to prevent foreign matter attachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional components like electrostatic capacitance sensors are added to detect foreign matters, then detection capability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes existing sensors serve multiple functions: they continue to detect card positions while also detecting foreign matters by analyzing state transition patterns. This eliminates the need for dedicated foreign matter detection sensors, resolving the contradiction between improved detection capability and reduced device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses its own existing sensor infrastructure to perform foreign matter detection without requiring external or additional sensing components. The control unit analyzes patterns from normal sensor operations to identify foreign matters, making the system self-sufficient and avoiding added complexity
2Device complexity
If foreign matter detection is performed using existing sensors and state transition monitoring, then device complexity is reduced, but detection precision for all foreign matter shapes may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors sensor state transitions and compares them against expected patterns for normal card operations. By implementing feedback-based pattern recognition, the system achieves accurate foreign matter detection across various shapes using only existing sensors, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and precision
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the detection parameter from physical characteristics (shape, size) to operational characteristics (state transition patterns). This allows the system to detect diverse foreign matters without requiring sensors optimized for specific shapes, maintaining both simplicity and precision
3Reliability
If card reading operations are interrupted for foreign matter detection, then detection reliability is improved, but productivity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs foreign matter detection continuously during normal card reading operations by monitoring sensor state transitions in real-time. No interruption of card reading is required, as the detection occurs concurrently through pattern analysis of ongoing sensor data, thus maintaining both reliability and productivity
Data Source
AI summary
A card reader structured to perform processing on a card includes a main body part, an insertion port which is opened in the main body part and into which the card is inserted, a conveyance passage which is provided in an inside of the main body part and in which the card having been inserted is conveyed, a drive mechanism structured to convey the card in the conveyance passage, a plurality of sensors which detect insertion of the card into the insertion port and a state of conveyance of the card in the conveyance passage, and a control part which monitors state transitions of detected results of the plurality of the sensors for the card and determines that a foreign matter has been inserted into the card reader when the control part detects that a state transition is generated in a mode which is different from a predetermined state transition.