Automatic character reader

... 957,443. Automatic character reading. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. April 5, 1961, No. 12169/61. Headings G4M and G4R. A record document bearing data in the form of legible characters or long and short bars 11, 12 printed in black ink is sensed by infra-red radiation passed through the recordfrom a source 14 and received by infra-red detectors 32,33. The infra-red source consists of a hot wire, a filament lamp or an arc lamp. Visible light is cut out by a filter 28. The record is fed by a band 16 having a slot 24 through which the infra-red radiation may pass to sense the data. A mask 31 above the record has a slit 30,the detectors 33, 32 being positioned over the slit so as to sense respectively all the bars and the tops only of the longer bars. Detector 33 accordingly produces timing pulses. The outputs of both detectors pass to a decoding circuit to identify the character sensed. The same principle may be used to sense the legible character, all the radiation passing through the slit 30 being ...

POKER MACHINE MONITORING SYSTEM