Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing an indication of a type of note passing through the apparatus includes a note transport (12) which moves the note past transversely spaced spot sensing assemblies (18). Each spot sensing assembly includes four emitters (32). Each of the emitters produces radiation at a different wavelength. The spot sensing assemblies include a reflectance detector (20) and a transmission detector (22) which are disposed on opposed sides of the passing note. The emitters direct radiation onto test spots (34) on the passing note. The emitters in each assembly are activated individually and repeatedly in a sequence. Radiation reflected from each type of emitter to the reflectance detector at each test spot causes a control circuit (24) to generate reflectance values. Radiation transmitted from each emitter through each test spot to the transmission detector causes the control circuit to generate transmission values. The control circuit produces a sensed value set including the reflectance and transmission values from each of the emitters in each of the spot sensing assemblies. The control circuit also determines an angle of skew of the passing note. The control circuit is in connection with a data store which includes memories (138). Each of the memories includes data representative of templates of values corresponding to transmission and reflectance values for known note types in a number of note positions. The control circuit generates stored value sets from the templates and skew angle. The control circuit further calculates a value representative of a level of correlation between the sensed value set and each of the stored value sets. The control circuit determines the highest level of correlation between all the stored value sets which is indicative of the note type.

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