Title of Invention	"SHEET PROCESSING APPARATUS AND SHEET PRECESSING METHOD"
Abstract	A sheet processing apparatus has a front face barcode reader to read a barcode printed on the front face of a sheet supplied through an insertion port and a rear face barcode reader to read a barcode printed on the rear face of a sheet. When an ID number contained in the barcode on the front face disagrees with an ID number contained in the barcode on the rear face, sheets are decided as taken out in the overlapped state.

Title of Invention

"SHEET PROCESSING APPARATUS AND SHEET PRECESSING METHOD"

Abstract

A sheet processing apparatus has a front face barcode reader to read a barcode printed on the front face of a sheet supplied through an insertion port and a rear face barcode reader to read a barcode printed on the rear face of a sheet. When an ID number contained in the barcode on the front face disagrees with an ID number contained in the barcode on the rear face, sheets are decided as taken out in the overlapped state.

Full Text	FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and sheet processing method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A lottery forms processing apparatus into which plural lottery forms put in a lump are taken out one by one, judged for its valid period and win or blank is so far known as a sheet processing apparatus, as disclosed in, for example, the Published Japanese Patent Application No. 1992-303259. However, when plural lottery forms supplied in a lump are taken out one by one from the lottery form processing apparatus described above, a lottery form to be taken out may be joined with another overlapped lottery form. If plural lottery forms are taken out together, and win judging process or the sorting process at the FIG. 18 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing; FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing; FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry; FIG. 21 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry; FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus involved in a fourth embodiment of this invention; FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG. 22; FIG. 24 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing; FIG. 25 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing; FIG. 26 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry; and DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described below in detail referring to attached drawings. FIG. 1 shows the schematic construction of a sheet processing apparatus 1 (hereinafter, simply called as a processor 1) in a first embodiment of this invention. Here, a sheet processing apparatus 1 which processes lottery tickets (sheets) with unique lottery numbers printed (hereinafter, called as Ticket T) collectively will be explained. FIG. 2A shows the front face (the first face) of the ticket T that is an object of processing and FIG. 2B shows the rear face (the second face) of the ticket T. On the front face of the ticket a latter stage can be disturbed or a jamming can be produced and in the worst case, lottery forms may be discharged without deciding win or blank Further, as disclosed in the Published Japanese Patent Application No 1995-282152, a sheet processing apparatus to reads contents marked on a mark sheet for the application, accept the read contents as voting contents and issues a ticket as a voting card with the voting contents printed is proposed Thus, m a sheet processing apparatus that executes the reading, printing, etc of various sheets &uih as mark sheets, tickets, separate media (exclusive paper for mark sheets and tickets) were used for the mark reading and the ticket printing In the above-mentioned apparatus, mark sheets and tickets are discrete media and therefore, users were required to handle and control discrete media separately Accordingly, it was necessary to house such ticket medium as rolled sheets in a conventional sheet processing apparatus and there was such a problem that an apparatus becomes large in size Further, m the conventional lottery sheet sales, application mark sheets and tickets with results of application printed are discrete media and there were troubles that the application contents on mark sheets intended by purchasers and the result of application on the issued tickets differ These troubles were resulting from misjudgment of purchasers or operating error of sales clerks SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus capable of surely detecting the take-out of overlapped sheets and a highly reliable processing and a sheet processing method Further, another object of this invention is to provide a sheet processing apparatus that is capable of decreasing sheet conveying paths to one, downsizing an apparatus and furthermore, eliminating waste of paper resources by using a single sheet as a voting ticket as well as a mark sheet for application This mvention relates to a sheet processing apparatus comprising a feed unit to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural piled up sheets, a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet, a second reader to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data, a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out m the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results in the first and second reader, and a processing unit to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit According to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing apparatus composing a feed unit to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural piled up sheets, a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet, a second reader to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data, a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out in the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results m the first and second readers, and a processing unit to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit Further, according to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing method composing feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets, reading a first data recorded on the first face of supplied sheet, reading a second data recorded on a second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data, deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results m the first and second data reading; and processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step Further, according to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing system comprising a judging unit to judge a vote content according to marks on a mark sheet of a sheet of which one face is a mark sheet face and the other face is a ticket face, a first issuing unit to print the vote content judged by the judging unit on the ticket face and issue the sheet, a collation unit to collate the read vote content printed on the ticket face of the sheet with won content registered in advance, and a second issuing unit to print the won content on a blank space of the mark sheet face of the sheet when the vote content is won as a result of the collation by the collation unit BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE^DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of a sheet processing apparatus involved in a first embodiment of this mvention> FIG 2 is a plan diagram showing the front side and the back side of a ticket that is an object for processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown m FIG 1. FIG 3 is a block diagram showing the control system for controlling the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 1, FIG 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the processing apparatus shown in FIG 1. FIG 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 1. FIG 6 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of the sheet processing apparatus involved in a second embodiment of this invention; FIG 7 is a plan view showing the front side of a mark sheet that is an object for processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6, FIG 8 is a plan view showing the back side of a mark sheet that is an object for the processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown m FIG 6, FIG 9 is a block diagram showing the control system to control the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6, FIG 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6, FIG 11 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of a ticket issue inquiring system as a sheet processing system involved in a third embodiment of this invention. FIG. 12 is a plan view for explaining a ticket mark sheet face* FIG 13 is a plan view for explaining a ticket mark sheet face, FIG 14 is a plan view for explaining a ticket face. FIG 15 is a plan view for explaining a ticket face, FIG 16 is a schematic view showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown m FIG 11. FIG 17 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG 16. FIG 18 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing, FIG 19 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing. FIG 20 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry. FIG 21 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry. FIG 22 is a schematic diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus involved in a fourth embodiment of this invention. FIG 23 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG 22. FIG 24 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing. FIG 25 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing. FIG 26 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry, and "Fltl 27 is a flowchart for explaining the winning InTrnwy. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described below m detail referring to attached drawings FIG 1 shows the schematic construction of a sheet processing apparatus 1 (hereinafter, simply called as a processor 1) m a first embodiment of this invention Here a sheet processing apparatus 1 which processes lottery tickets (sheets) with unique lottery numbers printed (hereinafter, called as Ticket T) collectively will be explained FIG 2A shows the front face (the first face) of the ticket T that is an object of processing and FIG 2B shows the rear face (the second face) of the ticket T On the front face of the ticket T, a Lottery No and a barcode CI encoding predetermined data (the first data) including an ID No (peculiar data) of each ticket are printed Further, a barcode C2 encoding predetermined data (the second data) including the same ID No (peculiar data) as the ID No on the front face is printed Further, m this embodiment, ID No of each ticket becomes a Lottery No As shown m FIG 1, sheet processing apparatus 1 has a housing 2 that forms an outer hull of the apparatus At the predetermined outside position of housing 2, a supply tray 3 is provided to place plural tickets T in a lump that are objects for processing Further, an insertion port 4 is provided to take tickets T placed on supply tray 3 into housing 2 At a position close to insertion port 4, a feed roller 5 is provided (the take-m portion) to insert a ticket T into housing 2 through insertion port 4 by rotating in contact with a most lower ticket T of plural tickets T placed on supply tray 3 Below insertion port 4 a take-out port 6 is provided to take out tickets T to the outside of housing 2 At take-out port 6, a receiving tray 7 is provided to receive tickets T taken out to the outside of housing 2 In housing 2, a conveying route 8 that is extending toward take-out port 6 from insertion port 4 On conveying route 8, plural conveying rollers 9 and plural conveying guides (not shown) are provided to convey tickets T both in the forward and reverse directions Conveying route 8 is curved almost in the U-shape On conveying route 8, a front face barcode reader 11 (the first reader) to read a barcode CI given on the front face of a ticket T being conveyed and a rear face barcode reader 12 (the second reader) to read a barcode C2 given on the rear face of a ticket T are provided These readers 11 and 12 decode the barcodes CI and C2 read from tickets T and send to a controller 10 that is described later Further, on conveying route 8 at the downstream side of two readers 11 and 12, a printer portion 13 (the processing portion) is provided The printer portion 13 prints specified characters on the front face of ticket T Further, conveying route 8 between reader 12 and printer portion 13 is branched by a gate (not shown) and at this branching position, a temporarily stacking portion 14 (a stacking portion, a processing portion) is provided Temporarily stacking portion 14 stacks and houses tickets T temporarily Temporarily stacking portion 14 has a feed roller 15 that feeds out a ticket T in the reverse direction by rotating the top stacked ticket T in contact with it Feed roller 5 and feed roller 15 described above are composed of rubber rollers and Tickets T are taken out by friction FIG 3 shows a block diagram of a control system to control the operation of processing apparatus 1 in the construction as described above The control system of processing apparatus 1 has a controller 10(a judging portion, a processing portion, a judging portion) to control the operation of processing apparatus 1 according to a control program stored in a memory (not shown) Winning numbers of tickets T treated in processing apparatus 1 are stored in the memory of controller 10 Controller 10 is connected with an operation unit 16, a display 17 and a conveying unit 18 m addition to the above-mentioned insertion port 4, take-out port 6, front face barcode reader 11, rear face barcode reader 12, printer portion 13 and temporarily stacking portion 14 Operation unit 16 accepts various operation inputs by operator who operates processing apparatus 1 Display 17 displays various data for operator Conveying unit 18 conveys tickets T in the forward and reverse directions along conveying route 8 by driving and controlling plural conveying rollers 9 provided on conveying route 8 Further, conveying route 8 feeds tickets T in temporarily stacking portion 14 selectively by switching gate (not shown) provided on conveying route 8 and feeds out Next, the processing operation by the above-mentioned processing apparatus 1 will be explained referring to flowcharts shown m FIG 4 and FIG 5 Further, a case where 30 sheets ticket T received from users are put into processing apparatus 1 and processed collectively will be explained here First, 30 sheets of ticket T that are objects for processing are placed on supply tray 3 and feed roller 5 is rotated and a ticket T at the bottom is taken into housing 2 (FIG 4 Step 1) Then a barcode Cj given on the front face of the ticket T is read through front face barcode reader 11 (Step 2) and a barcode C2 given on the rear face of the ticket T is read through rear face barcode reader 12 (Step 3) At this time, controller 10 compares ID numbers contained m the code data decoded and sent by barcode readers 11, 12 and judges whether two ID numbers are in accord each other (Step 4) That is, in the normal state of a single ticket T is taken out and conveyed, the ID No on the front face of the ticket T and the ID No on the rear face should agreed each other When more than two sheets of tickets T are taken out m the overlapped state, two ID Numbers are not m accord with each other When two ID numbers are m accord with each other, controller 10 judges that tickets in the overlapped state are not taken out When ID numbers are not in accord with each other, controller 10 judges that tickets m the overlapped state are taken out When controller 10 judges that tickets T taken out are in the overlapped state (Step 4 NO), "Overlapped Tickets" is displayed on display 17 (Step 5) and the overlapped tickets T are ejected on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 6). On the other hand, when judged that tickets T in the overlapped state are not taken out (Step 4 YES), controller 10 compares the ID No read from the ticket T in Step 2 (or Step 3) with Winning Numbers stored in a memory (not shown) and judges whether the ticket T is a winning ticket (Step 7) When the ticket T is judged to be not a winning ticket in Step 7 (Step 7 NO), that blank ticket T is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a chaiacter "BLANK" is printed thereon (Step 8) Then, the blank ticket is taken out on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 9) That is, the overlapped tickets taken out in Step 6 and the blank ticket taken out m Step 9 are stacked in mix on receiving tray 7 Further, when that ticket T is judged to be a winning ticket in Step 7 (Step 7- YES), that winning ticket T is conveyed to temporarily stacking portion 14 and stacked temporarily (Step 10) Thus, the processing in steps 1-10 are successively continued until 30 sheets of Ticket T supplied through supply tray are taken in housing 2 (Step 11), blank tickets and overlapped tickets taken out are discharged on receiving tray 7 The winning tickets are stacked in temporarily stacking portion 14 Hereafter, controller 10 judges whether a winning ticket is m temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 12) and when there is a winning ticket m temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 12 YES) "There is a winning ticket Is processed right now'" is displayed on display 22 (Step 13) At this time, the "YES" and "NO" buttons are display at the same time on the display Further, if there is no winning ticker m temporarily stacking portion 14, the processing is terminated In the state in Step 13, operator takes out tickets taken out m the overlapped state and blank tickets discharged on receiving tray 7, classifies them manually and returns blank tickets to users and makes certain overlapped tickets for the winning At this time, the character "BLANK" is printed on blank tickets in Step 8 and when overlapped tickets are taken out "OVERLAPPED" is displayed on the display m Step 5 and therefore, operator is easily segregates blank tickets and overlapped tickets When it is selected not to process the winning tickets right now according to the user's direction (Step 14 NO), the "NO" button is depressed and the winning ticket stacked in temporarily stacking portion is discharged on receiving tray through take-out port 6 The discharged winning ticker is returned to a user (Step 15) by operator and the processing is completed On the other hand, when the processing of a winning ticket is selected by the user's direction, "YES" button on the display is input by operator (Step 14 YES), feed roller 15 is rotated and a winning ticket is taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 16). At this time, when plural inning tickets are stacked in temporarily stacking portion 14. the winning tickets are taken out from the top winning ticket Further, the winning ticket taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 is returned to near insertion portion 4 by passing front face barcode reader 11 and passes through two readers 11 and 12 again. That is, the barcode C1 is read again from the winning ticket taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 through front face barcode reader 11 (Step 17) and the barcode C2 is read again through rear face barcode reader 12 (Step 18) Then, controller 10 compares ID Numbers contained in the barcode data decoded by and transmitted from barcode readers 11 and 12 and judges whether two ID numbers are in accord with each other (Step 19) At this time, when both ID Numbers are agreed, controller 10 judges that there is no overlapped ticket. When both ID Numbers are not agreed, controller 10 judges that there are overlapped tickets When controller 10 judges that there are overlapped tickets taken out (Step 19 NO), "OVERLAP TICKET" is displayed on the display for operator (Step 20) and the overlapped winning tickets taken out are discharged on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 21) The winning of the discharged overlapped tickets are ascertained manually by operator On the other hand, when judges that there is no overlapping of winning tickets (Step 19 YES), controller 10 compares the ID No read from the winning ticket in Step 17 (or Step 16) with the winning numbers stored in the memory (not shown) and checks whether that winning ticket is a truly winning ticket (Step 22) When the said ticket T is judged to be not a winning ticket (Step 22 NO), the said blank ticket is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a character "BLANK" is printed thereon (Step 23) Then, said blank ticket is discharged on take-out tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 24). On the other hand, when the said ticket T is judged to be surely a winning ticket in Step 22 (Step 22 YES), the said winning ticket is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a character "WINNING" is printed and, a winning grade and a winning amount of money are also printed (Step 25) The winning ticket with specified data printed is discharged on take-out tray through take-out port (Step 26) and returned to a user by operator As described above, according to this embodiment, the barcodes C\ and C2 given to the front face and the rear face of the take'out ticket T are read and ID Numbers contained in code data are collated and presence of overlapped tickets is judged Thus, the presence of overlapped tickets taken out is easily and surely detected and highly reliable processing becomes possible That is, for example, it becomes possible to prevent the commitment of a serious error to discharge a winning ticker without being aware of the overlapped take-out Further, according to this embodiment, a winning ticker is once stacked and checked twice for the winning and therefore, the winning can be surely confirmed Further, xn this embodiment, it was judged that tickets T were taken out in the overlapped state based on the agreement of ID numbers read from both faces of a ticket However, two data (the first and second relative data) primarily related based on predetermined rule are given on the front and rear faces of tickets and the take-out of tickers m the overlapped state may be judged by judging the relativity of these two data In this case, for example, a method to check whether ID No on the rear face of a ticket is calculated when inputting a front face ID No of the ticket into a specific calculating formula prepared in a memory of controller 10 may be used Further, a case wherein a winning number and/or a calculation formula is pre-stored xn the memory of controller 10 is explained in this embodiment as described above However, not restricting to this case, won numbers and/or a calculating formula can be stored in a server connected to controller 10 of processing apparatus 1 In any case, a false preparation of tickets T can be prevented by judging the relativity of both ID numbers on the front and rear face of ticket T using a specific calculating formula As a calculation formula mentioned above, for example, a formula shown below can be used That is, using a number "012-0027" comprising "0027" obtained from Lottery Program No (012) recoided on the front face of a ticket added with Series No (for example 0015) recorded on the rear face of a ticket, convert it into a barcode and record the converted barcode on the front face of a ticket Then, when making an inquiry calculate a formula "0027 -012 = 0015" If "0015" that is a resulted value agrees with the serial number (0015) on the rear face of a ticket, it is judged that one sheet of ticket was accurately taken out If not agreed, it is judged that the taken out ticket was not one sheet but plural sheets were taken out Next, a sheet processing unit 19 (hereinafter, simply called as a processing unit involved m a second embodiment will be explained referring to FIG 6 through FIG 10 Here, a processing unit 19 into which election voting tickets (sheets) (hereinafter, called as mark sheets M) collected from voters are input collectively, contents marked on mark sheets are read collectively and the read results are compiled and displayed is explained FIG 7 shows the front face (the first face) of a mark sheet M that is an object for the processing, and FIG 8 shoes the rear face of the mark sheet On the front face and the rear face of the mark sheet M, the same ID Numbers Nj_, N2 (inherent data, first and second data) inherent to each mark sheet M are printed ID Numbers Nj. and N2 are printed along the rear end side in the inserting direction of the mark sheet M Further, on the front face of the mark sheet M, plural rectangular mark areas m formed in the matrix shape are printed in addition to ID No These rectangular plural mark areas m are composed of start mark areas mj, end mark areas m2, timing mark areas 013 and user mark area 014 The start mark areas mj are plural areas lined along the tip side m the inserting direction of the mark sheet M. The end mark areas m2 are plural areas lined along the rear end side in the inserting direction of the sheet M, the timing mark areas H13 are plural areas lined along one of the long sides in the inserting direction of the sheet M, and the user mark areas D14 are other areas The areas mi, 00-2 and 1113 are printed in advance on the sheet M and the area 014 becomes an area that is marked by user When reading the mark areas m, the start mark area m\ is first read, the user mark area is then read along the timing mark area 1113, the end mark area m£ is read and the reading is finished FIG 6 shows the schematic construction of processing unit 19 in the second embodiment of this invention Further, FIG 9 shows a block diagram of the control system to control the operation of this processing unit 19 In the explanation shown below, the same component elements as those of processing apparatus 1 in the first embodiment are assigned with the same reference numerals and the detailed explanation thereof will be omitted Processing unit 19 has a front face mark/character reader 20 (the first reader) to optically read the mark area m printed on the front face of a mark sheet M taken in through insertion port 4 and also optically read ID Ni printed on the front face of the mark sheet M and a rear face character reader 21 (the second reader) to optically read ID No N2 printed on the rear face of the mark sheet M Further, processing unit 19 has a control unit 22 to control the operation of processing unit 19 according to a control program stored in a memory (not shown). This processing unit 19 operates according to a flowchart shown in FI 10 based on the control of control unit 22 First, 100 sheets of mark sheet M that are objects for the processing are placed on supply tray 3 feed roller 5 is rotated and a mark sheet M at the bottom is taken in housing 2 (Step 1) The mark areas m and ID No N} printed on the front face of the mark sheet M are read through front face mark/character reader 20 (Step 2) Then, ID No. N2 printed on the rear face of the mark sheet M is read through rear face character reader 21 (Step 3) At this time, control unit 22 compares ID Numbers read from the front and rear surfaces of the mark sheet M through readers 20 and 21 and judges whether two ID Numbers agree (Step 4) That is when one sheet of mark sheet M is normally taken out, ID No on its front face a greet, with ID No on its rear face However when more than two sheets of mark sheet M are overlapped, two ID Numbers disagree Therefore, when two ID Numbers agree, control unit 22 judges that there are no overlapped sheets When ID Numbers disagree, control unit 22 judges that there are overlapped sheets When control unit 22 judges that mark sheets M are overlapped (Step 4J NO), "SHEETS OVERLAPPED" is displayed on display 17 (Step 5) for operator and the said mark sheets M taken out in the overlapped state (overlapped sheets) are passed through printer portion 13 and discharged on receiving tray 7 through takeout port 6 (Step 6) A message "PROCESS ERROR MARK SHEETS WILL BE DISCHARGED TO TAKE-OUT PORT PLEASE CONFIRM. WHEN MESSAGE IS CONFIRMED, PRESS " CONFIRM BUTTON"" is displayed as the display content m Step 5 On the other hand, when control unit 22 judges that no overlapped mark sheet M was taken out in Step 4 (Step 4. YES), data relative to user mark area 04 read from the said mark sheet M in Step 2 is stored m the memory (not shown) (Step 7), the said mark sheets M are conveyed to printer portion 13 and "READ FINISHED" is printed (Step 8) Then, control unit 22 discharges the mark sheet M with "READ FINISHED" printed on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 As described above, the processes in Steps 1-9 are continued until 100 sheets of mark sheet M supplied into housing 2 through supply tray 3 (Step 10) and unprocessed overlapped mark sheet M is discharged together with a mark sheet M with a character "READ FINISHED" printed Hereafter, whether overlapping of sheets is caused m the processing is judged by control unit 22 (Step 11) When sheets are overlapped (Step 11. YES), displays the generation of the overlapping on display 17 for operator When this display is confirmed, operator manually segregates unprocessed mark sheets M from receiving tray 7 and supplies these sheets M again into housing 2 through supply tray 3 (Step 12) The processes in Steps 1-10 described above are also applied to the mark sheets M supplied again and at the time when mark sheets M are no longer in feed roller 4 (Step 10. NO) and no overlapped mark sheet M (Step 11, NO), data relative to user mark sheets stored in the memory of control unit 22 are totalized and displayed for operator through display 17 (Step 13) According to this embodiment as described above, likewise the above-mentioned first embodiment, it becomes possible to detect the overlapping of mark sheets M easily and certainly and a highly liable process becomes possible That is, such a defect that unprocessed mark sheets M are discharged as they are without noticing the overlapping can be prevented Further, this invention is not restricted to the embodiments described above solely but can be realized by deforming the component elements without departing from its scope. In addition, trough properly combining plural component elements disclosed in the embodiments described above, various embodiments can be developed For example, some component elements can be deleted from the whole component elements shown in the embodiments described above Further, component elements extending m different embodiments can be properly combined For example, in the abovementioned embodiments, a case wherein sheets are processed by reading ID numbers displayed in barcodes and numerical characters is explained But ID numbers can be read as magnetic data Further, in the above embodiments, a case wherein plural kinds of media discharged on receiving tray 7 by limiting a take-out port one is processed manually by operator is explained But not restricting to this, discharged media may be segregated by type by providing a gate in front of take-out port 6 For example, in sheet processing apparatus 1 m the first embodiment described above, overlapped tickets T, blank tickets and winning tickets may be segregated and discharged to separate trays Next, a lottery sheet issuing and inquiring system as a sheet processing system will be explained referring to FIG 11 - FIG 21 as a third embodiment of this invention This lottery sheet issuing and inquiring system is to issue lottery (sheets) based on votes of purchasers and inquire the winning result of the lottery sheets after the contents of the winning of the lottery was announced, and is composed of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and a center server 32 connected to this lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 through a communication line 31 Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and center server 32 are on-line connected or offline connected selectively A mark sheet for voting by purchasers is used also as a voting ticket in one face of sheet 33 Sheet 33 is a cut sheet as shown m FIG. 12 - FIG. 15 and one face is a mark sheet face 33a and the other face is a ticket face 33b Mark sheet face 33a is for a lottery ticket purchaser to make the vote by marking optional marking positions with a pencil The contents of the voting ticket applied are printed on ticket face 33b that is left blank with nothing printed at the initial stage At the initial stage, the start line, end line and timing mark line of mark sheet face 33a are already printed as shown in FIG 12 and voters mark only the user mark portion The start line shows the start of read data and the end mark line shows the end of read data. Between the start line and the end line, the user mark portion is arranged along the timing mark Further, in the inquiring operation, the result of inquiry for winning number is printed on the blank space of mark sheet face 33a Ticket face 33b is blank with nothing printed at the initial stage as shown in FIG 14, and lottery voting contents and a barcode showing a vote number are printed as shown in FIG 15 Center server 32 manages a vote database recording all lottery vote data and a won database 32b recording all won lottery data Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 has a lottery ticket issuing operation (vote receiving operation and voting ticket issuing operation) and won confirming operation The inner construction of lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 will be explained using FIG 16 That is, an insertion/outlet port 35 of a sheet 33 is provided at the right side (the front side) of a main body 34 Sheet 33 inserted through this insertion/outlet port 35 is conveyed on a conveying path 36 On this conveying path 36, an insertion port sensor 37 to detect the insertion of sheet 33 through insertion/outlet port 35, a reader 38 to optically read the upper face of sheet 33 conveyed on conveying path 36 (a mark on mark sheet face 33a or a barcode as vote contents on a ticket face 33b), a printer 39 to print the vote contents and a barcode on ticket face 33b of sheet 33, a ticket edge sensor 40 that is capable of judging the pass of sheet 33 through reader 38 by detecting the right edge of sheet 33 and a conveyor motor 41 to rotate and drive a conveying roller 36a, etc of conveying path 36 are provided m order from insertion/outlet port 35 When conveyor motor 41 is rotated in the forward direction, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) and when conveyor motor 41 is rotated m the reverse direction, sheet 33 o a conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b). Reader 38 and printer 39 are provided at positions opposite to each other with conveying path 36 between A vote number (a unique ID number) of a sheet is encoded in a barcode Thus, when reading a barcode, reader 38 decodes the barcode with a decoder (not shown) and sends to a control unit 45 Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 is composed of an operation unit 42, a display 43, insertion port sensor 37, reader 38 printer 39, ticket edge sensor 40, a driver 44 to drive conveyor motor 41, and control untt 45 to control these units Control unit 45 has a built-in memory 45a in which winning data are stored Control unit 45 is able to know the conveying state of tickets 33 according to the detected contents of insertion port sensor 37 and ticket edge sensor 40 and the rotation of conveyor motor 41 is controlled at this conveying state Next, the lottery ticket issuing operation in the construction described above will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 18 and FIG 19 First, operator receives sheets 33 applied for voting (marking on a mark sheet face 33a) by purchasers (Stl) Then, operator selects the lottery ticket issuing operation by operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 with mark sheet face 33a upward into insertion/outlet port 35 from the inserting direction shown in FIG. 16 (ST2) Thus, an insertion detect signal of sheet 33 is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST3) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the insertion detect signal of sheet 33 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST4), drives conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction Sheet 33 on convey path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction aXST5) When sheet 33 is passing through reader 38, the top surface of sheet 33 is read by reader 38 optically and the read result ib sent to control unit 45 (ST6) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, the detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST7) Then, control unit 45 judged the completion of reading of the top surface of sheet 33 by reader 38 (ST8), rotates conveyor motor 41 in the reverse direction Thus, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST9) Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of the start line and the end line on a mark sheet according to bit mark data for one image on the top surface of sheet 33 from reader 38 (ST10) When judging the presence of the start line and the end line (the normal processing), control unit 45 judges that the mark sheet face (STll) is read and accepting the read mark content as a vote content, absigns a voting number (a unique ID number) to this vote content and sends the vote content to center server 32 (ST12) Center server 32 records the received vote content and vote number in vote database 32a Further, control unit 45 encodes a barcode corresponding to the vote content and vote number and outputs to printer 39 (ST 14) Then, sheet 33 is opposed to printer 39 by conveying path 36 and the encoded barcode is printed on the lower surface of sheet 33 (the rear face, ticket face) (ST15) After this print, when the edge of s>heet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detect signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST 16) Then, control unit 45 judges that the barcode printing on the lower surface of sheet 33 by printer 39 is completed (ST17) and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST18) After confirming that ticket face 33b of discharged ticker 33 is normally printed, operator hands over sheet 33 to a purchaser (ST19) Further, when the start line and the end line are not present in the content of face data read in Step 10, the control unit 45 executes the error process (ST20) That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CHECK TICKET INSERTING DIRECTION AND CONTENT " on display 43 and arouses operator attention At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33 However, when the error display is made, check the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 and execute the lottery ticket issuing operation again or ask a purchaser to rewrite a mark sheet In this embodiment, a case wherein the vote content is sent to center server 32 from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 whenever a lottery ticker is issued is explained. However, not restricting to this case, vote contents may be accumulated and stored in memory 45a and sent to center server 32 collectively with lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 on-line connected to center server 32 with a communication line 31 as a wmdup in closing one day Next, the winning inquiry operation will be explained referring to flowcharts shown in FIG 20 and FIG 21 In this case, won classes and won amount of money as won data supphed from won database 32b of center server 32 are registered in advance in memory 45a in control unit 45 First, operator receives tickets 33 for vote application (a barcode printed on ticket face 33b) from a purchaser (ST21) Then, operator selects the lottery won inquiry operation by operation unit 32 and inserts sheet 33 with ticket face 33b upward (the front and rear faces m the lottery ticket issuing operation are reversed) into insertion/outlet port 35 (ST22). Thus, a sheet 33 inserting detection signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST23) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the insertion detection signal of sheet 33 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST24) and Conveys sheet 33 on conveying path 36 in the forward direction (the direction a) by rotating conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction (ST25) When sheet 33 is passing through reader 38, the upper face of sheet 33 is read optically by reader 38 and the read result is sent to control unit 45 (ST26) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST27) Then, control unit 45 judges the completion of reading of the upper face of sheet 33 by reader 38 (ST28) and conveys sheet 33 on conveying path 36 m the reverse direction (the direction b) by rotating conveyor motor 41 (ST29) Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of a barcode (a vote number) m bit map data for one image on the top surface of sheet 33 from reader 38 (ST30) When the presence of this barcode (a vote number) (the normal processing) is judged, control unit 45 judged the reading of ticket face 33b (ST31) and regarding the read barcode as a vote number (ST32, collates this vote number with won data stored in a memory (ST33) Then sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is brought to oppose to printer 39 and the inquired won result is printed in the blank space on the lower face (the rear face, mark sheet face) of sheet 33 Further, in the case of blank, a character "BLANK" is printed After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST36) Then, control unit 45 judges the completion of the printing of the won inquiry result (a won class and won amount of money) on the lower face of sheet 33 by printer 39 (ST37) and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST38) Operator confirms that the mark sheet face 33a of discharged sheet 33 is normally printed and pays back won money In the case of blank, the ticket is returned to a purchaser (ST39) Further, when a barcode (a vote number) is not contained m the read content of the face data m Step 30, control unit 45 executes the error processing (ST40) That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CONFIRM THE INSERTING DIRECTION AND CONTENT OF A TICKET " and arouses operator's attention At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33 However, when an error is displayed the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 are confirmed and the won inquiry operation again In this embodiment, a case wherein the won content was stored in advance in memory 45a when the won inquiry operation was made is explained However, not restricting to this case, lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and center server 32 are online connected center server 32 is inquired from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 every time and the process may be made based on the result of won inquiry from center server 32 As the rear face of a mark sheet is used effectively as a ticket as described above, roll paper, etc for ticket media become unnecessary and cost of media can be reduced A lottery issuing apparatus so far available is required to house such a ticket medium such as a roll paper in the body and therefore, there was such a problem that the main body becomes large in size According to this invention, the downsizing can be achieved as roll paper and other ticket media become unnecessary Further, as ticket media such as roll paper become unnecessary, mark reading/lottery ticket issuing/won lottery inquiry operations can be made by one medium In addition, as readers and printers are arranged on the same conveying portion, mark reading/lottery ticket issuing/won lottery inquiring becomes an integrated operation to insert/discharge same media into/from the same inserting port and thus, the operability is improved In the lottery selling in the past, an application mark sheet and a ticket printed with an application result are separate media, and for misunderstanding of purchaser or erroneous operation of operator, such a trouble that applied content of a mark sheet intended by a purchaser and applied result on a ticket become different may be generated According to this invention, applied content of a mark sheet face and applied result of a ticket face are shown on the front and rear faces of one ticket and agreement of content can be easily checked and therefore, the above-mentioned trouble is hardly generated That is, the vote content is printed on the rear face of a lottery voting mark sheet and this sheet is used as a ticket Further, che supp2y face of the front and rear faces are discriminated by reading an inherent mark data of a mark sheet (the start line/end line) or a barcode and the normal process/erroneous process is discriminated Next, a fourth embodiment of this invention will be explained In the case of the third embodiment described above, one reader 38 and one printer 39 are provided at the opposite positions with conveying path 36 between, and in the lottery ticket issuing operation, a ticket is inserted with mark sheet face 33a as the upper face and in the won inquiry operation, a ticket is inserted with ticket face 33b as the upper face However, m the fourth embodiment, one reader 38a and one printer 39b may be provided at the upper side of conveying path 36 as shown m PIG 22 and FIG 23 (the same portions as those shown m FIG 16 and FIG 17 are assigned with the same reference numerals and the explanations will be omitted) and one reader 38b and one printer 39b may be provided at the lower side of conveying path 36 and the operations can be executed even when sheet 33 is inserted with mark sheet face 33a as the upper face and with ticket face 33b as the upper face In this case, a ticket can be inserted through insertion/outlet port 35 without considering the face direction of a ticket Next the lottery ticket issuing operation in the construction as described will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 24 and FIG 25 First, operator receives a sheet 33 that is applied for voting by a purchaser (marked on mark sheet face 33a) (ST1) Then, operator selects he lottery ticket issuing operation by operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 21 disregarding the direction of the face (ST2 ) Thus the sheet 33 insertion detect signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST3) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the sheet 33 insertion detect signal from insertion port sensor 37 (ST4) and rotates conveyor motor 41 ro the forward direction Thus, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) (ST5) When sheet 33 is passing readers 38a and 38b, the upper face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38a, the lower face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38b, and respective read results are sent to control unit 34 (ST6') Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST7) As a result, control unit 45 judges the completion of read of the upper and lower surfaces of sheet 33 by readers 38a and 38b (ST8'), and a conveyor motor 27 (9) is driven m the reverse direction and sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST9) Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of the start line and the end line on a mark sheet according to bit map data for one image on the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 from readers 38a and 38b (ST10) When recognizing the presence of the start hne and the end ling (the normal processing), control unit 45 judges the reading of mark sheet face 33a (STll) and regarding the read mark content as the vote content, assigns a vote number (a unique ID number) to this vote content and sends this vote content with the assigned vote number to center server 32 (ST12) Center server 32 records the received vote content and vote number on vote database 32a (ST13) Further, control unit 45 encodes the barcode data corresponding to the vote content and vote number and sends to either printer 39a or 39b (ST14') When the reading of the mark sheet face by reader 38a is recognized, barcode data corresponding to the vote content and vote number are sent to printer 39b and when the reading of the mark sheet face by reader 38b is recognized the barcode data is sent to printer 39b Thus, sheet 33 opposes to printers 39a and 39b by conveying path 36 and the encoded barcode is printed on ticket face 33b of sheet 33 (ST15). After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST16) Control unit 45 judges the completion of the barcode printing on ticket face 33b of sheet 33 by printer 39a or 39b (ST17') and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST18) Operator checks out the proper printing on ticket face 33b of the discharged sheet 33 and hands over sheet 33 to a purchaser (ST19) Further, when judges that the start line and end line are not present in Step 10', performs the error processing (ST20). That is. control unit 45 displays a message "READ ERROR CHECK SHEET INSERTING METHOD AND CONTENT" and arouses an attention of operator At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33 However, when an error is displayed, check the inserting direction and/or content of sheet 33 and perform the lottery sheet issuing operation again or ask a purchaser to rewrite the mark sheet. In this embodiment, a case wherein the vote content is sent from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 to center server 32 whenever performing the lottery ticket issuing operation is explained However, not restricting to this, for example, vote content may be stored in memory 45a and vote contents accumulated and stored m memory 45a may be sent to center server 32 with lottery sheet issuing apparatus on-line connected to center server 32 as a wind up m closing one day Next, the won inquiring operation will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 26 and FIG 27 In this case, won classes and amount of won money supplied as won data from won database 32n of center server 32 are registered in advance in memory 45a of control unit 45 First, operator receives sheet 33 applied for voting (a barcode printed on ticket face 33b) by purchaser (ST21) Then, operator selects the won inquiry operation through operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 disregarding the face direction into insertion/outlet port 35 from the inserting direction shown in FIG 22 (ST22') As a result, a sheet 33 insertion detect signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST23) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by a sheet 33 insertion detecting signal from insertion port sensor 37 (ST24) and drives conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction and sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) (ST25J When sheet 33 is passing readers 38a and 38b, the upper face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38a then the lower face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38b, and the read results are sent to control unit 45 (ST26) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST27) Thus, control unit 45 judges the completion of reading of the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 by reader 38a (ST28') and drive conveyor motor 41 in the reverse direction to convey sheet 33 on conveying path 36 in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST29) Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of a barcode (a note number) by bit map data for one image on the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 from readers 38a and 38b (ST30') When the presence of a barcode (a vote number) (the normal process) is recognized, control unit 45 judges that ticket face 33b was (ST31) and recognizes the read barcode as a vote number (ST32), collates this vote number with a won data stored in memory 45a (ST33) and outputs the won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) to printer 39a or 39b (ST34') When judging that a barcode (a vote number) is read by reader 38a, that barcode is sent to printer 39b and when judged that a barcode (vote number) is read by reader 38b, that barcode is sent to printer 39a As a result, sheet 33 ie> opposed to printer 39a and 39b on conveying path 36 and the won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) are printed on the blank space of mark sheet face 33a of sheet 33 (St35') Further, "Blank" is printed on a blank ticket After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST36) Then control unit 45 judges the completion of printing of won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) on mark sheet face 33a of sheet 33 by printers 39a and 39b (ST37') and discharge ticket 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST38) Operator confirms the normal printing on mark sheet face 33a of the discharged sheet 3 and pays back an amount of won money In the case of blank, a sheet is returned to a purchaser (ST39) Further, when there is no barcode (a vote number) in the read content of surface data in Step 30, control unit 45 performs the error processing (ST40) That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CHECK INSERTING METHOD AND CONTENT OF SHEET" and arouses an attention of operator At this time the printing on sheet 33 is not made However, when an error was displayed, the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 are checked and the won inquiring operation is performed again In this embodiment, a case wherein the won content was stored in advance in memory 45 in the won inquiring operation is explained However, not restricting this, by on-line connecting lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 to center server 32 and making the inquiry to center server 32 from the lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 every time, the processing may be made based on the result of the won inquiry from center server 32 We claim: 1. A sheet processing apparatus comprising: a feed unit (1) to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural pile up sheets; a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet; a second reader (2) to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data; a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out in the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results in the first and second reader; and a processing unit (10) to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit. 2. The sheet processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the decision unit decides that there is no overlapped sheets based on the agreed data, inherent to the sheets, said first and second data contain entirely same data and decides that there are overlapped sheets based on the disagreement of inherent data. 3. The sheet processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes: a judging unit (10) to judge whether the sheet is a won ticket or not by collating the first data with the won ticket number that are prepared in advance; a temporarily stacking (14) portion to temporarily stack a sheet that is judged to be won ticket in the judging unit; and a printer to print (13) a specified character on the won tickets temporarily stacked in the temporarily stacking portion. 4. A sheet processing method comprising: feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets; reading a first data recorded on a first face of supplied sheets; reading a second data recorded on a second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data; deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results in the first and second data reading; processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step; the first and second data contain the entirely same data inherent to relevant sheets, and in the deciding step, sheets are decided as not being overlapped based on the inherent data as agreed and sheets are decided as being overlapped based on the inherent data as not agreed. 5. A sheet processing method comprising: feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets; reading a first data recorded on a first face of supplied sheets; reading a second data recorded on second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results in the first and second data reading processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step; the first and second data contain the principally connected first and second related data based on a specific calculation formula, and in the deciding step, the presence of overlapped sheets is decided by judging the relativity between the first and second relative data by applying these data to the specific calculation formula. 6. The sheet processing method as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the first data is collated with won numbers prepared in advance and judges whether the sheet is a won sheet in the processing step and stacks the sheet judged as being a won sheet in the temporarily stacking portion and after feeding all sheets in the feeding step, the temporarily stacked sheet is taken out and reading the first and second data again, a specified character is printed on the won sheet that is decided as being not overlapped based on the this reading result. 7. A sheet processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 8. A sheet processing method substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Full Text

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus and sheet processing method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A lottery forms processing apparatus into which plural lottery forms put in a lump are taken out one by one, judged for its valid period and win or blank is so far known as a sheet processing apparatus, as disclosed in, for example, the Published Japanese Patent Application No. 1992-303259.
However, when plural lottery forms supplied in a lump are taken out one by one from the lottery form processing apparatus described above, a lottery form to be taken out may be joined with another overlapped lottery form. If plural lottery forms are taken out together, and win judging process or the sorting process at the

FIG. 18 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing;
FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing;
FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry;
FIG. 21 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry;
FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus involved in a fourth embodiment of this invention;
FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG. 22;
FIG. 24 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing;
FIG. 25 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing;
FIG. 26 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry; and
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described below in detail referring to attached drawings.
FIG. 1 shows the schematic construction of a sheet processing apparatus 1 (hereinafter, simply called as a processor 1) in a first embodiment of this invention. Here, a sheet processing apparatus 1 which processes lottery tickets (sheets) with unique lottery numbers printed (hereinafter, called as Ticket T) collectively will be explained.
FIG. 2A shows the front face (the first face) of the ticket T that is an object of processing and FIG. 2B shows the rear face (the second face) of the ticket T. On the front face of the ticket a
latter stage can be disturbed or a jamming can be produced and in the worst case, lottery forms may be discharged without deciding win or blank
Further, as disclosed in the Published Japanese Patent Application No 1995-282152, a sheet processing apparatus to reads contents marked on a mark sheet for the application, accept the read contents as voting contents and issues a ticket as a voting card with the voting contents printed is proposed
Thus, m a sheet processing apparatus that executes the reading, printing, etc of various sheets &uih as mark sheets, tickets, separate media (exclusive paper for mark sheets and tickets) were used for the mark reading and the ticket printing
In the above-mentioned apparatus, mark sheets and tickets are discrete media and therefore, users were required to handle and control discrete media separately
Accordingly, it was necessary to house such ticket medium as rolled sheets in a conventional sheet processing apparatus and there was such a problem that an apparatus becomes large in size
Further, m the conventional lottery sheet sales, application mark sheets and tickets with results of application printed are discrete media and there were troubles that the application contents on mark sheets intended by purchasers and the result of application on the issued tickets differ These troubles were resulting from misjudgment of purchasers or operating error of sales clerks
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a sheet processing apparatus capable of surely detecting the take-out of overlapped sheets and a highly reliable processing and a sheet processing method
Further, another object of this invention is to provide a sheet processing apparatus that is capable of decreasing sheet conveying paths to one, downsizing an apparatus and furthermore, eliminating waste of paper resources by using a single sheet as a voting ticket as well as a mark sheet for application
This mvention relates to a sheet processing apparatus comprising a feed unit to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural piled up sheets,
a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet,
a second reader to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data,
a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out m the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results in the first and second reader, and
a processing unit to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit
According to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing apparatus composing a feed unit to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural piled up sheets, a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet, a second reader to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data, a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out in the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results m the first and second readers, and a processing unit to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit
Further, according to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing method composing feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets, reading a first data recorded on the first face of supplied sheet, reading a second data recorded on a second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data, deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results m the first and second data
reading; and processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step
Further, according to this invention, there is provided a sheet processing system comprising a judging unit to judge a vote content according to marks on a mark sheet of a sheet of which one face is a mark sheet face and the other face is a ticket face, a first issuing unit to print the vote content judged by the judging unit on the ticket face and issue the sheet, a collation unit to collate the read vote content printed on the ticket face of the sheet with won content registered in advance, and a second issuing unit to print the won content on a blank space of the mark sheet face of the sheet when the vote content is won as a result of the collation by the collation unit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE^DRAWINGS
FIG 1 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of a sheet processing apparatus involved in a first embodiment of this mvention>
FIG 2 is a plan diagram showing the front side and the back side of a ticket that is an object for processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown m FIG 1.
FIG 3 is a block diagram showing the control system for controlling the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 1,
FIG 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the processing apparatus shown in FIG 1.
FIG 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 1.
FIG 6 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of the sheet processing apparatus involved in a second embodiment of this invention;
FIG 7 is a plan view showing the front side of a mark sheet that is an object for processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6,
FIG 8 is a plan view showing the back side of a mark sheet that is an object for the processing in the sheet processing apparatus shown m FIG 6,
FIG 9 is a block diagram showing the control system to control the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6,
FIG 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sheet processing apparatus shown in FIG 6,
FIG 11 is a schematic diagram showing the construction of a ticket issue inquiring system as a sheet processing system involved in a third embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 12 is a plan view for explaining a ticket mark sheet face*
FIG 13 is a plan view for explaining a ticket mark sheet face,
FIG 14 is a plan view for explaining a ticket face.
FIG 15 is a plan view for explaining a ticket face,
FIG 16 is a schematic view showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown m FIG 11.
FIG 17 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG 16.
FIG 18 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing,
FIG 19 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing.
FIG 20 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry.
FIG 21 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry.
FIG 22 is a schematic diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus involved in a fourth embodiment of this invention.
FIG 23 is a block diagram showing the inner construction of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus shown in FIG 22.
FIG 24 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing.
FIG 25 is a flowchart for explaining the lottery ticketing.
FIG 26 is a flowchart for explaining the winning inquiry, and
"Fltl 27 is a flowchart for explaining the winning InTrnwy.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described below m detail referring to attached drawings
FIG 1 shows the schematic construction of a sheet processing apparatus 1 (hereinafter, simply called as a processor 1) m a first embodiment of this invention Here a sheet processing apparatus 1 which processes lottery tickets (sheets) with unique lottery numbers printed (hereinafter, called as Ticket T) collectively will be explained
FIG 2A shows the front face (the first face) of the ticket T that is an object of processing and FIG 2B shows the rear face (the second face) of the ticket T On the front face of the ticket T, a
Lottery No and a barcode CI encoding predetermined data (the first data) including an ID No (peculiar data) of each ticket are printed Further, a barcode C2 encoding predetermined data (the second data) including the same ID No (peculiar data) as the ID No on the front face is printed Further, m this embodiment, ID No of each ticket becomes a Lottery No
As shown m FIG 1, sheet processing apparatus 1 has a housing 2 that forms an outer hull of the apparatus At the predetermined outside position of housing 2, a supply tray 3 is provided to place plural tickets T in a lump that are objects for processing Further, an insertion port 4 is provided to take tickets T placed on supply tray 3 into housing 2 At a position close to insertion port 4, a feed roller 5 is provided (the take-m portion) to insert a ticket T into housing 2 through insertion port 4 by rotating in contact with a most lower ticket T of plural tickets T placed on supply tray 3
Below insertion port 4 a take-out port 6 is provided to take out tickets T to the outside of housing 2 At take-out port 6, a receiving tray 7 is provided to receive tickets T taken out to the outside of housing 2
In housing 2, a conveying route 8 that is extending toward take-out port 6 from insertion port 4 On conveying route 8, plural conveying rollers 9 and plural conveying guides (not shown) are provided to convey tickets T both in the forward and reverse directions Conveying route 8 is curved almost in the U-shape
On conveying route 8, a front face barcode reader 11 (the first reader) to read a barcode CI given on the front face of a ticket T
being conveyed and a rear face barcode reader 12 (the second reader) to read a barcode C2 given on the rear face of a ticket T are provided These readers 11 and 12 decode the barcodes CI and C2 read from tickets T and send to a controller 10 that is described later
Further, on conveying route 8 at the downstream side of two readers 11 and 12, a printer portion 13 (the processing portion) is provided The printer portion 13 prints specified characters on the front face of ticket T Further, conveying route 8 between reader 12 and printer portion 13 is branched by a gate (not shown) and at this branching position, a temporarily stacking portion 14 (a stacking portion, a processing portion) is provided
Temporarily stacking portion 14 stacks and houses tickets T temporarily Temporarily stacking portion 14 has a feed roller 15 that feeds out a ticket T in the reverse direction by rotating the top stacked ticket T in contact with it Feed roller 5 and feed roller 15 described above are composed of rubber rollers and Tickets T are taken out by friction
FIG 3 shows a block diagram of a control system to control the operation of processing apparatus 1 in the construction as described above
The control system of processing apparatus 1 has a controller 10(a judging portion, a processing portion, a judging portion) to control the operation of processing apparatus 1 according to a control program stored in a memory (not shown) Winning numbers of tickets T treated in processing apparatus 1 are stored in the
memory of controller 10
Controller 10 is connected with an operation unit 16, a display 17 and a conveying unit 18 m addition to the above-mentioned insertion port 4, take-out port 6, front face barcode reader 11, rear face barcode reader 12, printer portion 13 and temporarily stacking portion 14
Operation unit 16 accepts various operation inputs by operator who operates processing apparatus 1 Display 17 displays various data for operator Conveying unit 18 conveys tickets T in the forward and reverse directions along conveying route 8 by driving and controlling plural conveying rollers 9 provided on conveying route 8 Further, conveying route 8 feeds tickets T in temporarily stacking portion 14 selectively by switching gate (not shown) provided on conveying route 8 and feeds out
Next, the processing operation by the above-mentioned processing apparatus 1 will be explained referring to flowcharts shown m FIG 4 and FIG 5 Further, a case where 30 sheets ticket T received from users are put into processing apparatus 1 and processed collectively will be explained here
First, 30 sheets of ticket T that are objects for processing are placed on supply tray 3 and feed roller 5 is rotated and a ticket T at the bottom is taken into housing 2 (FIG 4 Step 1) Then a barcode Cj given on the front face of the ticket T is read through front face barcode reader 11 (Step 2) and a barcode C2 given on the rear face of the ticket T is read through rear face barcode reader 12 (Step 3)
At this time, controller 10 compares ID numbers contained m the code data decoded and sent by barcode readers 11, 12 and judges whether two ID numbers are in accord each other (Step 4) That is, in the normal state of a single ticket T is taken out and conveyed, the ID No on the front face of the ticket T and the ID No on the rear face should agreed each other When more than two sheets of tickets T are taken out m the overlapped state, two ID Numbers are not m accord with each other When two ID numbers are m accord with each other, controller 10 judges that tickets in the overlapped state are not taken out When ID numbers are not in accord with each other, controller 10 judges that tickets m the overlapped state are taken out
When controller 10 judges that tickets T taken out are in the overlapped state (Step 4 NO), "Overlapped Tickets" is displayed on display 17 (Step 5) and the overlapped tickets T are ejected on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 6).
On the other hand, when judged that tickets T in the overlapped state are not taken out (Step 4 YES), controller 10 compares the ID No read from the ticket T in Step 2 (or Step 3) with Winning Numbers stored in a memory (not shown) and judges whether the ticket T is a winning ticket (Step 7)
When the ticket T is judged to be not a winning ticket in Step 7 (Step 7 NO), that blank ticket T is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a chaiacter "BLANK" is printed thereon (Step 8) Then, the blank ticket is taken out on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 9) That is, the overlapped tickets taken out in Step 6 and
the blank ticket taken out m Step 9 are stacked in mix on receiving tray 7
Further, when that ticket T is judged to be a winning ticket in Step 7 (Step 7- YES), that winning ticket T is conveyed to temporarily stacking portion 14 and stacked temporarily (Step 10)
Thus, the processing in steps 1-10 are successively continued until 30 sheets of Ticket T supplied through supply tray are taken in housing 2 (Step 11), blank tickets and overlapped tickets taken out are discharged on receiving tray 7 The winning tickets are stacked in temporarily stacking portion 14
Hereafter, controller 10 judges whether a winning ticket is m temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 12) and when there is a winning ticket m temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 12 YES) "There is a winning ticket Is processed right now'" is displayed on display 22 (Step 13) At this time, the "YES" and "NO" buttons are display at the same time on the display Further, if there is no winning ticker m temporarily stacking portion 14, the processing is terminated
In the state in Step 13, operator takes out tickets taken out m the overlapped state and blank tickets discharged on receiving tray 7, classifies them manually and returns blank tickets to users and makes certain overlapped tickets for the winning At this time, the character "BLANK" is printed on blank tickets in Step 8 and when overlapped tickets are taken out "OVERLAPPED" is displayed on the display m Step 5 and therefore, operator is easily segregates blank tickets and overlapped tickets

When it is selected not to process the winning tickets right now according to the user's direction (Step 14 NO), the "NO" button is depressed and the winning ticket stacked in temporarily stacking portion is discharged on receiving tray through take-out port 6 The discharged winning ticker is returned to a user (Step 15) by operator and the processing is completed
On the other hand, when the processing of a winning ticket is selected by the user's direction, "YES" button on the display is input by operator (Step 14 YES), feed roller 15 is rotated and a winning ticket is taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 (Step 16). At this time, when plural inning tickets are stacked in temporarily stacking portion 14. the winning tickets are taken out from the top winning ticket
Further, the winning ticket taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 is returned to near insertion portion 4 by passing front face barcode reader 11 and passes through two readers 11 and 12 again. That is, the barcode C1 is read again from the
winning ticket taken out from temporarily stacking portion 14 through front face barcode reader 11 (Step 17) and the barcode C2 is read again through rear face barcode reader 12 (Step 18)
Then, controller 10 compares ID Numbers contained in the barcode data decoded by and transmitted from barcode readers 11 and 12 and judges whether two ID numbers are in accord with each other (Step 19) At this time, when both ID Numbers are agreed, controller 10 judges that there is no overlapped ticket. When both ID Numbers are not agreed, controller 10 judges that there are

overlapped tickets
When controller 10 judges that there are overlapped tickets taken out (Step 19 NO), "OVERLAP TICKET" is displayed on the display for operator (Step 20) and the overlapped winning tickets taken out are discharged on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 21) The winning of the discharged overlapped tickets are ascertained manually by operator
On the other hand, when judges that there is no overlapping of winning tickets (Step 19 YES), controller 10 compares the ID No read from the winning ticket in Step 17 (or Step 16) with the winning numbers stored in the memory (not shown) and checks whether that winning ticket is a truly winning ticket (Step 22)
When the said ticket T is judged to be not a winning ticket (Step 22 NO), the said blank ticket is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a character "BLANK" is printed thereon (Step 23) Then, said blank ticket is discharged on take-out tray 7 through take-out port 6 (Step 24).
On the other hand, when the said ticket T is judged to be surely a winning ticket in Step 22 (Step 22 YES), the said winning ticket is conveyed to printer portion 13 and a character "WINNING" is printed and, a winning grade and a winning amount of money are also printed (Step 25) The winning ticket with specified data printed is discharged on take-out tray through take-out port (Step 26) and returned to a user by operator
As described above, according to this embodiment, the barcodes C\ and C2 given to the front face and the rear face of the take'out

ticket T are read and ID Numbers contained in code data are collated and presence of overlapped tickets is judged Thus, the presence of overlapped tickets taken out is easily and surely detected and highly reliable processing becomes possible That is, for example, it becomes possible to prevent the commitment of a serious error to discharge a winning ticker without being aware of the overlapped take-out
Further, according to this embodiment, a winning ticker is once stacked and checked twice for the winning and therefore, the winning can be surely confirmed
Further, xn this embodiment, it was judged that tickets T were taken out in the overlapped state based on the agreement of ID numbers read from both faces of a ticket However, two data (the first and second relative data) primarily related based on predetermined rule are given on the front and rear faces of tickets and the take-out of tickers m the overlapped state may be judged by judging the relativity of these two data In this case, for example, a method to check whether ID No on the rear face of a ticket is calculated when inputting a front face ID No of the ticket into a specific calculating formula prepared in a memory of controller 10 may be used
Further, a case wherein a winning number and/or a calculation formula is pre-stored xn the memory of controller 10 is explained in this embodiment as described above However, not restricting to this case, won numbers and/or a calculating formula can be stored in a server connected to controller 10 of processing apparatus 1 In
any case, a false preparation of tickets T can be prevented by judging the relativity of both ID numbers on the front and rear face of ticket T using a specific calculating formula
As a calculation formula mentioned above, for example, a formula shown below can be used That is, using a number "012-0027" comprising "0027" obtained from Lottery Program No (012) recoided on the front face of a ticket added with Series No (for example 0015) recorded on the rear face of a ticket, convert it into a barcode and record the converted barcode on the front face of a ticket Then, when making an inquiry calculate a formula "0027 -012 = 0015" If "0015" that is a resulted value agrees with the serial number (0015) on the rear face of a ticket, it is judged that one sheet of ticket was accurately taken out If not agreed, it is judged that the taken out ticket was not one sheet but plural sheets were taken out
Next, a sheet processing unit 19 (hereinafter, simply called as a processing unit involved m a second embodiment will be explained referring to FIG 6 through FIG 10 Here, a processing unit 19 into which election voting tickets (sheets) (hereinafter, called as mark sheets M) collected from voters are input collectively, contents marked on mark sheets are read collectively and the read results are compiled and displayed is explained
FIG 7 shows the front face (the first face) of a mark sheet M that is an object for the processing, and FIG 8 shoes the rear face of the mark sheet On the front face and the rear face of the mark sheet M, the same ID Numbers Nj_, N2 (inherent data, first and
second data) inherent to each mark sheet M are printed ID Numbers Nj. and N2 are printed along the rear end side in the inserting direction of the mark sheet M
Further, on the front face of the mark sheet M, plural rectangular mark areas m formed in the matrix shape are printed in addition to ID No These rectangular plural mark areas m are composed of start mark areas mj, end mark areas m2, timing mark areas 013 and user mark area 014
The start mark areas mj are plural areas lined along the tip side m the inserting direction of the mark sheet M. The end mark areas m2 are plural areas lined along the rear end side in the inserting direction of the sheet M, the timing mark areas H13 are
plural areas lined along one of the long sides in the inserting direction of the sheet M, and the user mark areas D14 are other areas The areas mi, 00-2 and 1113 are printed in advance on the sheet M and the area 014 becomes an area that is marked by user When reading the mark areas m, the start mark area m\ is first read, the user mark area is then read along the timing mark area 1113, the end mark area m£ is read and the reading is finished
FIG 6 shows the schematic construction of processing unit 19 in the second embodiment of this invention Further, FIG 9 shows a block diagram of the control system to control the operation of this processing unit 19 In the explanation shown below, the same component elements as those of processing apparatus 1 in the first embodiment are assigned with the same reference numerals and the detailed explanation thereof will be omitted
Processing unit 19 has a front face mark/character reader 20 (the first reader) to optically read the mark area m printed on the front face of a mark sheet M taken in through insertion port 4 and also optically read ID Ni printed on the front face of the mark sheet M and a rear face character reader 21 (the second reader) to optically read ID No N2 printed on the rear face of the mark sheet
M
Further, processing unit 19 has a control unit 22 to control the operation of processing unit 19 according to a control program stored in a memory (not shown). This processing unit 19 operates according to a flowchart shown in FI 10 based on the control of control unit 22
First, 100 sheets of mark sheet M that are objects for the processing are placed on supply tray 3 feed roller 5 is rotated and a mark sheet M at the bottom is taken in housing 2 (Step 1) The mark areas m and ID No N} printed on the front face of the mark
sheet M are read through front face mark/character reader 20 (Step 2) Then, ID No. N2 printed on the rear face of the mark sheet M is
read through rear face character reader 21 (Step 3)
At this time, control unit 22 compares ID Numbers read from the front and rear surfaces of the mark sheet M through readers 20 and 21 and judges whether two ID Numbers agree (Step 4) That is when one sheet of mark sheet M is normally taken out, ID No on its front face a greet, with ID No on its rear face However when more than two sheets of mark sheet M are overlapped, two ID Numbers disagree Therefore, when two ID Numbers agree, control unit 22

judges that there are no overlapped sheets When ID Numbers disagree, control unit 22 judges that there are overlapped sheets
When control unit 22 judges that mark sheets M are overlapped (Step 4J NO), "SHEETS OVERLAPPED" is displayed on display 17 (Step 5) for operator and the said mark sheets M taken out in the overlapped state (overlapped sheets) are passed through printer portion 13 and discharged on receiving tray 7 through takeout port 6 (Step 6) A message "PROCESS ERROR MARK SHEETS WILL BE DISCHARGED TO TAKE-OUT PORT PLEASE CONFIRM. WHEN MESSAGE IS CONFIRMED, PRESS " CONFIRM BUTTON"" is displayed as the display content m Step 5
On the other hand, when control unit 22 judges that no overlapped mark sheet M was taken out in Step 4 (Step 4. YES), data relative to user mark area 04 read from the said mark sheet M
in Step 2 is stored m the memory (not shown) (Step 7), the said mark sheets M are conveyed to printer portion 13 and "READ FINISHED" is printed (Step 8) Then, control unit 22 discharges the mark sheet M with "READ FINISHED" printed on receiving tray 7 through take-out port 6
As described above, the processes in Steps 1-9 are continued until 100 sheets of mark sheet M supplied into housing 2 through supply tray 3 (Step 10) and unprocessed overlapped mark sheet M is discharged together with a mark sheet M with a character "READ FINISHED" printed
Hereafter, whether overlapping of sheets is caused m the processing is judged by control unit 22 (Step 11) When sheets are

overlapped (Step 11. YES), displays the generation of the overlapping on display 17 for operator When this display is confirmed, operator manually segregates unprocessed mark sheets M from receiving tray 7 and supplies these sheets M again into housing 2 through supply tray 3 (Step 12)
The processes in Steps 1-10 described above are also applied to the mark sheets M supplied again and at the time when mark sheets M are no longer in feed roller 4 (Step 10. NO) and no overlapped mark sheet M (Step 11, NO), data relative to user mark sheets stored in the memory of control unit 22 are totalized and displayed for operator through display 17 (Step 13)
According to this embodiment as described above, likewise the above-mentioned first embodiment, it becomes possible to detect the overlapping of mark sheets M easily and certainly and a highly liable process becomes possible That is, such a defect that unprocessed mark sheets M are discharged as they are without noticing the overlapping can be prevented
Further, this invention is not restricted to the embodiments described above solely but can be realized by deforming the component elements without departing from its scope. In addition, trough properly combining plural component elements disclosed in the embodiments described above, various embodiments can be developed For example, some component elements can be deleted from the whole component elements shown in the embodiments described above Further, component elements extending m different embodiments can be properly combined
For example, in the above*mentioned embodiments, a case wherein sheets are processed by reading ID numbers displayed in barcodes and numerical characters is explained But ID numbers can be read as magnetic data
Further, in the above embodiments, a case wherein plural kinds of media discharged on receiving tray 7 by limiting a take-out port one is processed manually by operator is explained But not restricting to this, discharged media may be segregated by type by providing a gate in front of take-out port 6 For example, in sheet processing apparatus 1 m the first embodiment described above, overlapped tickets T, blank tickets and winning tickets may be segregated and discharged to separate trays
Next, a lottery sheet issuing and inquiring system as a sheet processing system will be explained referring to FIG 11 - FIG 21 as a third embodiment of this invention
This lottery sheet issuing and inquiring system is to issue lottery (sheets) based on votes of purchasers and inquire the winning result of the lottery sheets after the contents of the winning of the lottery was announced, and is composed of a lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and a center server 32 connected to this lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 through a communication line 31 Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and center server 32 are on-line connected or offline connected selectively
A mark sheet for voting by purchasers is used also as a voting ticket in one face of sheet 33 Sheet 33 is a cut sheet as shown m FIG. 12 - FIG. 15 and one face is a mark sheet face 33a and the
other face is a ticket face 33b Mark sheet face 33a is for a lottery ticket purchaser to make the vote by marking optional marking positions with a pencil The contents of the voting ticket applied are printed on ticket face 33b that is left blank with nothing printed at the initial stage
At the initial stage, the start line, end line and timing mark line of mark sheet face 33a are already printed as shown in FIG 12 and voters mark only the user mark portion
The start line shows the start of read data and the end mark line shows the end of read data.
Between the start line and the end line, the user mark portion is arranged along the timing mark
Further, in the inquiring operation, the result of inquiry for winning number is printed on the blank space of mark sheet face 33a
Ticket face 33b is blank with nothing printed at the initial stage as shown in FIG 14, and lottery voting contents and a barcode showing a vote number are printed as shown in FIG 15
Center server 32 manages a vote database recording all lottery vote data and a won database 32b recording all won lottery data
Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 has a lottery ticket issuing operation (vote receiving operation and voting ticket issuing operation) and won confirming operation
The inner construction of lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 will be explained using FIG 16
That is, an insertion/outlet port 35 of a sheet 33 is provided at
the right side (the front side) of a main body 34 Sheet 33 inserted through this insertion/outlet port 35 is conveyed on a conveying path 36 On this conveying path 36, an insertion port sensor 37 to detect the insertion of sheet 33 through insertion/outlet port 35, a reader 38 to optically read the upper face of sheet 33 conveyed on conveying path 36 (a mark on mark sheet face 33a or a barcode as vote contents on a ticket face 33b), a printer 39 to print the vote contents and a barcode on ticket face 33b of sheet 33, a ticket edge sensor 40 that is capable of judging the pass of sheet 33 through reader 38 by detecting the right edge of sheet 33 and a conveyor motor 41 to rotate and drive a conveying roller 36a, etc of conveying path 36 are provided m order from insertion/outlet port 35 When conveyor motor 41 is rotated in the forward direction, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) and when conveyor motor 41 is rotated m the reverse direction, sheet 33 o a conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b). Reader 38 and printer 39 are provided at positions opposite to each other with conveying path 36 between
A vote number (a unique ID number) of a sheet is encoded in a barcode Thus, when reading a barcode, reader 38 decodes the barcode with a decoder (not shown) and sends to a control unit 45
Lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 is composed of an operation unit 42, a display 43, insertion port sensor 37, reader 38 printer 39, ticket edge sensor 40, a driver 44 to drive conveyor motor 41, and control untt 45 to control these units
Control unit 45 has a built-in memory 45a in which winning
data are stored
Control unit 45 is able to know the conveying state of tickets 33 according to the detected contents of insertion port sensor 37 and ticket edge sensor 40 and the rotation of conveyor motor 41 is controlled at this conveying state
Next, the lottery ticket issuing operation in the construction described above will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 18 and FIG 19
First, operator receives sheets 33 applied for voting (marking on a mark sheet face 33a) by purchasers (Stl)
Then, operator selects the lottery ticket issuing operation by operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 with mark sheet face 33a upward into insertion/outlet port 35 from the inserting direction shown in FIG. 16 (ST2)
Thus, an insertion detect signal of sheet 33 is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST3) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the insertion detect signal of sheet 33 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST4), drives conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction Sheet 33 on convey path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction aXST5)
When sheet 33 is passing through reader 38, the top surface of sheet 33 is read by reader 38 optically and the read result ib sent to control unit 45 (ST6) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, the detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST7)
Then, control unit 45 judged the completion of reading of the top surface of sheet 33 by reader 38 (ST8), rotates conveyor motor 41 in the reverse direction Thus, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST9)
Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of the start line and the end line on a mark sheet according to bit mark data for one image on the top surface of sheet 33 from reader 38 (ST10)
When judging the presence of the start line and the end line (the normal processing), control unit 45 judges that the mark sheet face (STll) is read and accepting the read mark content as a vote content, absigns a voting number (a unique ID number) to this vote content and sends the vote content to center server 32 (ST12)
Center server 32 records the received vote content and vote number in vote database 32a
Further, control unit 45 encodes a barcode corresponding to the vote content and vote number and outputs to printer 39 (ST 14) Then, sheet 33 is opposed to printer 39 by conveying path 36 and the encoded barcode is printed on the lower surface of sheet 33 (the rear face, ticket face) (ST15)
After this print, when the edge of s>heet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detect signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST 16)
Then, control unit 45 judges that the barcode printing on the lower surface of sheet 33 by printer 39 is completed (ST17) and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST18)
After confirming that ticket face 33b of discharged ticker 33 is
normally printed, operator hands over sheet 33 to a purchaser (ST19)
Further, when the start line and the end line are not present in the content of face data read in Step 10, the control unit 45 executes the error process (ST20)
That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CHECK TICKET INSERTING DIRECTION AND CONTENT " on display 43 and arouses operator attention At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33
However, when the error display is made, check the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 and execute the lottery ticket issuing operation again or ask a purchaser to rewrite a mark sheet
In this embodiment, a case wherein the vote content is sent to center server 32 from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 whenever a lottery ticker is issued is explained. However, not restricting to this case, vote contents may be accumulated and stored in memory 45a and sent to center server 32 collectively with lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 on-line connected to center server 32 with a communication line 31 as a wmdup in closing one day
Next, the winning inquiry operation will be explained referring to flowcharts shown in FIG 20 and FIG 21
In this case, won classes and won amount of money as won data supphed from won database 32b of center server 32 are registered in advance in memory 45a in control unit 45
First, operator receives tickets 33 for vote application (a barcode printed on ticket face 33b) from a purchaser (ST21)
Then, operator selects the lottery won inquiry operation by operation unit 32 and inserts sheet 33 with ticket face 33b upward (the front and rear faces m the lottery ticket issuing operation are reversed) into insertion/outlet port 35 (ST22).
Thus, a sheet 33 inserting detection signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST23) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the insertion detection signal of sheet 33 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST24) and
Conveys sheet 33 on conveying path 36 in the forward direction (the direction a) by rotating conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction (ST25)
When sheet 33 is passing through reader 38, the upper face of sheet 33 is read optically by reader 38 and the read result is sent to control unit 45 (ST26) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST27)
Then, control unit 45 judges the completion of reading of the upper face of sheet 33 by reader 38 (ST28) and conveys sheet 33 on conveying path 36 m the reverse direction (the direction b) by rotating conveyor motor 41 (ST29)
Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of a barcode (a vote number) m bit map data for one image on the top surface of sheet 33 from reader 38 (ST30)
When the presence of this barcode (a vote number) (the normal processing) is judged, control unit 45 judged the reading of ticket
face 33b (ST31) and regarding the read barcode as a vote number (ST32, collates this vote number with won data stored in a memory (ST33) Then sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is brought to oppose to printer 39 and the inquired won result is printed in the blank space on the lower face (the rear face, mark sheet face) of sheet 33 Further, in the case of blank, a character "BLANK" is printed
After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST36)
Then, control unit 45 judges the completion of the printing of the won inquiry result (a won class and won amount of money) on the lower face of sheet 33 by printer 39 (ST37) and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST38)
Operator confirms that the mark sheet face 33a of discharged sheet 33 is normally printed and pays back won money In the case of blank, the ticket is returned to a purchaser (ST39)
Further, when a barcode (a vote number) is not contained m the read content of the face data m Step 30, control unit 45 executes the error processing (ST40)
That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CONFIRM THE INSERTING DIRECTION AND CONTENT OF A TICKET " and arouses operator's attention At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33
However, when an error is displayed the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 are confirmed and the won inquiry operation again
In this embodiment, a case wherein the won content was stored in advance in memory 45a when the won inquiry operation was made is explained However, not restricting to this case, lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 and center server 32 are online connected center server 32 is inquired from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 every time and the process may be made based on the result of won inquiry from center server 32
As the rear face of a mark sheet is used effectively as a ticket as described above, roll paper, etc for ticket media become unnecessary and cost of media can be reduced
A lottery issuing apparatus so far available is required to house such a ticket medium such as a roll paper in the body and therefore, there was such a problem that the main body becomes large in size According to this invention, the downsizing can be achieved as roll paper and other ticket media become unnecessary
Further, as ticket media such as roll paper become unnecessary, mark reading/lottery ticket issuing/won lottery inquiry operations can be made by one medium In addition, as readers and printers are arranged on the same conveying portion, mark reading/lottery ticket issuing/won lottery inquiring becomes an integrated operation to insert/discharge same media into/from the same inserting port and thus, the operability is improved
In the lottery selling in the past, an application mark sheet and a ticket printed with an application result are separate media, and for misunderstanding of purchaser or erroneous operation of operator, such a trouble that applied content of a mark sheet
intended by a purchaser and applied result on a ticket become different may be generated According to this invention, applied content of a mark sheet face and applied result of a ticket face are shown on the front and rear faces of one ticket and agreement of content can be easily checked and therefore, the above-mentioned trouble is hardly generated
That is, the vote content is printed on the rear face of a lottery voting mark sheet and this sheet is used as a ticket
Further, che supp2y face of the front and rear faces are discriminated by reading an inherent mark data of a mark sheet (the start line/end line) or a barcode and the normal process/erroneous process is discriminated
Next, a fourth embodiment of this invention will be explained
In the case of the third embodiment described above, one reader 38 and one printer 39 are provided at the opposite positions with conveying path 36 between, and in the lottery ticket issuing operation, a ticket is inserted with mark sheet face 33a as the upper face and in the won inquiry operation, a ticket is inserted with ticket face 33b as the upper face However, m the fourth embodiment, one reader 38a and one printer 39b may be provided at the upper side of conveying path 36 as shown m PIG 22 and FIG 23 (the same portions as those shown m FIG 16 and FIG 17 are assigned with the same reference numerals and the explanations will be omitted) and one reader 38b and one printer 39b may be provided at the lower side of conveying path 36 and the operations can be executed even when sheet 33 is inserted with mark sheet face
33a as the upper face and with ticket face 33b as the upper face In this case, a ticket can be inserted through insertion/outlet port 35 without considering the face direction of a ticket
Next the lottery ticket issuing operation in the construction as described will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 24 and FIG 25
First, operator receives a sheet 33 that is applied for voting by a purchaser (marked on mark sheet face 33a) (ST1)
Then, operator selects he lottery ticket issuing operation by operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 21 disregarding the direction of the face (ST2 )
Thus the sheet 33 insertion detect signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST3) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by the sheet 33 insertion detect signal from insertion port sensor 37 (ST4) and rotates conveyor motor 41 ro the forward direction Thus, sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) (ST5)
When sheet 33 is passing readers 38a and 38b, the upper face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38a, the lower face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38b, and respective read results are sent to control unit 34 (ST6') Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST7)
As a result, control unit 45 judges the completion of read of the upper and lower surfaces of sheet 33 by readers 38a and 38b (ST8'),
and a conveyor motor 27 (9) is driven m the reverse direction and sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST9)
Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of the start line and the end line on a mark sheet according to bit map data for one image on the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 from readers 38a and 38b (ST10)
When recognizing the presence of the start hne and the end ling (the normal processing), control unit 45 judges the reading of mark sheet face 33a (STll) and regarding the read mark content as the vote content, assigns a vote number (a unique ID number) to this vote content and sends this vote content with the assigned vote number to center server 32 (ST12)
Center server 32 records the received vote content and vote number on vote database 32a (ST13)
Further, control unit 45 encodes the barcode data corresponding to the vote content and vote number and sends to either printer 39a or 39b (ST14') When the reading of the mark sheet face by reader 38a is recognized, barcode data corresponding to the vote content and vote number are sent to printer 39b and when the reading of the mark sheet face by reader 38b is recognized the barcode data is sent to printer 39b Thus, sheet 33 opposes to printers 39a and 39b by conveying path 36 and the encoded barcode is printed on ticket face 33b of sheet 33 (ST15*).
After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit
45 (ST16)
Control unit 45 judges the completion of the barcode printing on ticket face 33b of sheet 33 by printer 39a or 39b (ST17') and discharges sheet 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST18)
Operator checks out the proper printing on ticket face 33b of the discharged sheet 33 and hands over sheet 33 to a purchaser (ST19)
Further, when judges that the start line and end line are not present in Step 10', performs the error processing (ST20).
That is. control unit 45 displays a message "READ ERROR CHECK SHEET INSERTING METHOD AND CONTENT" and arouses an attention of operator At this time, no printing is made on sheet 33
However, when an error is displayed, check the inserting direction and/or content of sheet 33 and perform the lottery sheet issuing operation again or ask a purchaser to rewrite the mark sheet.
In this embodiment, a case wherein the vote content is sent from lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 to center server 32 whenever performing the lottery ticket issuing operation is explained However, not restricting to this, for example, vote content may be stored in memory 45a and vote contents accumulated and stored m memory 45a may be sent to center server 32 with lottery sheet issuing apparatus on-line connected to center server 32 as a wind up m closing one day
Next, the won inquiring operation will be explained referring to the flowcharts shown in FIG 26 and FIG 27
In this case, won classes and amount of won money supplied as won data from won database 32n of center server 32 are registered in advance in memory 45a of control unit 45
First, operator receives sheet 33 applied for voting (a barcode printed on ticket face 33b) by purchaser (ST21)
Then, operator selects the won inquiry operation through operation unit 42 and inserts sheet 33 disregarding the face direction into insertion/outlet port 35 from the inserting direction shown in FIG 22 (ST22')
As a result, a sheet 33 insertion detect signal is sent to control unit 45 from insertion port sensor 37 (ST23) Control unit 45 judges the insertion of sheet 33 into insertion/outlet port 35 by a sheet 33 insertion detecting signal from insertion port sensor 37 (ST24) and drives conveyor motor 41 in the forward direction and sheet 33 on conveying path 36 is conveyed in the forward direction (the direction a) (ST25J
When sheet 33 is passing readers 38a and 38b, the upper face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38a then the lower face of sheet 33 is optically read by reader 38b, and the read results are sent to control unit 45 (ST26) Further, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at ticket edge sensor 40, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST27)
Thus, control unit 45 judges the completion of reading of the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 by reader 38a (ST28') and drive
conveyor motor 41 in the reverse direction to convey sheet 33 on conveying path 36 in the reverse direction (the direction b) (ST29)
Further, control unit 45 judges the presence of a barcode (a note number) by bit map data for one image on the upper and lower faces of sheet 33 from readers 38a and 38b (ST30')
When the presence of a barcode (a vote number) (the normal process) is recognized, control unit 45 judges that ticket face 33b was (ST31) and recognizes the read barcode as a vote number (ST32), collates this vote number with a won data stored in memory 45a (ST33) and outputs the won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) to printer 39a or 39b (ST34') When judging that a barcode (a vote number) is read by reader 38a, that barcode is sent to printer 39b and when judged that a barcode (vote number) is read by reader 38b, that barcode is sent to printer 39a As a result, sheet 33 ie> opposed to printer 39a and 39b on conveying path 36 and the won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) are printed on the blank space of mark sheet face 33a of sheet 33 (St35') Further, "Blank" is printed on a blank ticket
After this printing, when the edge of sheet 33 arrives at insertion port sensor 37, this detection signal is sent to control unit 45 (ST36)
Then control unit 45 judges the completion of printing of won inquiring result (a won class and an amount of won money) on mark sheet face 33a of sheet 33 by printers 39a and 39b (ST37') and discharge ticket 33 on conveying path 36 through insertion/outlet port 35 (ST38)
Operator confirms the normal printing on mark sheet face 33a of the discharged sheet 3 and pays back an amount of won money In the case of blank, a sheet is returned to a purchaser (ST39)
Further, when there is no barcode (a vote number) in the read content of surface data in Step 30, control unit 45 performs the error processing (ST40)
That is, control unit 45 displays an error message "READ ERROR CHECK INSERTING METHOD AND CONTENT OF SHEET" and arouses an attention of operator At this time the printing on sheet 33 is not made
However, when an error was displayed, the inserting direction and content of sheet 33 are checked and the won inquiring operation is performed again
In this embodiment, a case wherein the won content was stored in advance in memory 45 in the won inquiring operation is explained However, not restricting this, by on-line connecting lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 to center server 32 and making the inquiry to center server 32 from the lottery sheet issuing apparatus 30 every time, the processing may be made based on the result of the won inquiry from center server 32

We claim:
1. A sheet processing apparatus comprising:
a feed unit (1) to feed one sheet having a first face and a second face at a time from plural pile up sheets;
a first reader to read a first data recorded on the first face of the supplied sheet;
a second reader (2) to read a second data recorded on the second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data;
a decision unit to decide the presence of sheets taken out in the overlapped state by judging the relativity of the first and second data based on the read results in the first and second reader; and
a processing unit (10) to process sheets judged as being not overlapped in the judging unit.
2. The sheet processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the decision unit decides that there is no overlapped sheets based on the agreed data, inherent to the sheets, said first and second data contain entirely same data and decides that there are overlapped sheets based on the disagreement of inherent data.
3. The sheet processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes:
a judging unit (10) to judge whether the sheet is a won ticket or not by collating the first data with the won ticket number that are prepared in advance;
a temporarily stacking (14) portion to temporarily stack a sheet that is judged to be won ticket in the judging unit; and
a printer to print (13) a specified character on the won tickets temporarily stacked in the temporarily stacking portion.
4. A sheet processing method comprising:
feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets; reading a first data recorded on a first face of supplied sheets;

reading a second data recorded on a second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data;
deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results in the first and second data reading;
processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step;
the first and second data contain the entirely same data inherent to relevant sheets, and
in the deciding step, sheets are decided as not being overlapped based on the inherent data as agreed and sheets are decided as being overlapped based on the inherent data as not agreed.
5. A sheet processing method comprising:
feeding one sheet at a time from plural piled up sheets;
reading a first data recorded on a first face of supplied sheets;
reading a second data recorded on second face of the sheet by correlating with the first data deciding the presence of overlapped sheets by judging the relativity between the first and second data based on the results in the first and second data reading processing sheets that are decided not being overlapped in the deciding step;
the first and second data contain the principally connected first and second related data based on a specific calculation formula, and
in the deciding step, the presence of overlapped sheets is decided by judging the relativity between the first and second relative data by applying these data to the specific calculation formula.
6. The sheet processing method as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the first data is collated with won numbers prepared in advance and judges whether the sheet is a won sheet in the processing step and stacks the sheet judged as being a won sheet in the temporarily stacking portion and after feeding all sheets in the feeding step, the temporarily stacked sheet is taken out and reading the first and second data again, a specified character is printed on the won sheet that is decided as being not overlapped based on the this reading result.
7. A sheet processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A sheet processing method substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

406-DEL-2004-Abstract-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-abstract.pdf

406-DEL-2004-Claims-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-claims.pdf

406-DEL-2004-Correspondence Others-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-correspondence-others.pdf

406-del-2004-correspondence-po.pdf

406-DEL-2004-Description (Complete)-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-description (complete).pdf

406-del-2004-drawings.pdf

406-DEL-2004-Form-1-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-form-1.pdf

406-del-2004-form-19.pdf

406-DEL-2004-Form-2-(30-04-2012).pdf

406-del-2004-form-2.pdf

406-del-2004-form-3.pdf

406-del-2004-form-5.pdf

406-del-2004-gpa.pdf

406-del-2004-petition-138.pdf

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Patent Number

255324

Indian Patent Application Number

406/DEL/2004

PG Journal Number

07/2013

Publication Date

15-Feb-2013

Grant Date

12-Feb-2013

Date of Filing

09-Mar-2004

Name of Patentee

KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA

Applicant Address

1-1, SHIBAURA 1-CHOME, MINATO-KU, TOKYO,JAPAN

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	SUZUKI TAKAO	C/O INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DIVISION, TOSHIBA CORPORATION, 1-1, SHIBAURA 1-CHOME, SHIBAURA 1-CHOME, MINATO-KU, TOKYO,JAPAN

PCT International Classification Number

B65 H5/00

PCT International Application Number

N/A

PCT International Filing date

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	2003-103152	2003-04-07	Japan
2	2003-431433	2003-12-25	Japan