A sensor includes a first element part having a first member and a first element. The first member is a acoustic tubular waveguide and extends along a first direction. The acoustic tubular waveguide includes a first opening and a second opening. A direction from the second opening toward the first opening is along the first direction. The first element includes a vibratile first membrane, and a first supporter supporting the first membrane. The second opening is between the first opening and the first membrane in the first direction. The sensor may be a Piezoelectric Micro electro mechanical systems Ultrasonic Transducer and may be used for inspecting paper and/or resin including detecting thickness of a fed through banknote and/or the presence of foreign matter thereon such as tape. An optical element may alternatively measure the vibration of a membrane from acoustic through transmission instead of an acoustic receiver.

A paper sheet handling apparatus includes: a displacement amount detector that includes a pressing part intended to press a paper sheet against a transporting face of a paper sheet transporting path and having an initial position at which the pressing part is not in contact with the transporting face of the paper sheet transporting path, the displacement amount detector detecting a displacement amount of displacement of the pressing part from the initial position in a direction perpendicular to the transporting face, the pressing part being displaced according to a thickness of a paper sheet passing between the transporting face and the pressing part; a reference displacement amount storage; a paper sheet thickness storage; and a tape thickness threshold storage.

A paper sheet handling apparatus includes: a displacement amount detector that includes a pressing part intended to press a paper sheet against a transporting face of a paper sheet transporting path and having an initial position at which the pressing part is not in contact with the transporting face of the paper sheet transporting path, the displacement amount detector detecting a displacement amount of displacement of the pressing part from the initial position in a direction perpendicular to the transporting face, the pressing part being displaced according to a thickness of a paper sheet passing between the transporting face and the pressing part; a reference displacement amount storage; a paper sheet thickness storage; and a tape thickness threshold storage.

Disclosed herein is a method, comprising: exposing a stack of currency bills to a radiation; detecting radiation particles of the radiation that have penetrated a pre-specified stack portion of the stack; and determining a number M of the currency bills based on the detected radiation particles.

An apparatus configured to perform or control obtaining or causing obtaining an image of at least a part of a surface of a document. The apparatus deriving or causing the derivation of a representation of the at least a part of the surface from the image. The representation comprising a set of values respectively representing a corresponding set of height levels. The apparatus generates or causes the generating of a string of characters based on the representation of the part of the surface. The string of characters comprising a first portion representative of the set of height levels of the corresponding sections of the part of the surface and a second portion generated based on a function of the representation and/or of the first portion of the string of characters. The apparatus associates or causes the associating of information representing the string of characters with identification information of the document.

An apparatus configured to perform or control obtaining or causing obtaining an image of at least a part of a surface of a document. The apparatus deriving or causing the derivation of a representation of the at least a part of the surface from the image. The representation comprising a set of values respectively representing a corresponding set of height levels. The apparatus generates or causes the generating of a string of characters based on the representation of the part of the surface. The string of characters comprising a first portion representative of the set of height levels of the corresponding sections of the part of the surface and a second portion generated based on a function of the representation and/or of the first portion of the string of characters. The apparatus associates or causes the associating of information representing the string of characters with identification information of the document.

An approach is provided to authenticate objects based on surface patterns on the object. In the approach, a pressure pattern is measured between a sensor array surface of a pressure mapping sensor array accessible by the processor and one of the object's surfaces. A set of characteristics of the object surface is extracted based on the pressure pattern resulting from the measuring. These characteristics are compared to a set of expected characteristics with the object being authenticated based on the comparison.

A medium processing apparatus includes a sensor that is intermittently energized and detects a predetermined physical quantity and outputs the detection value in the energization period, the sensor stabilizing its output after an output stabilization period, which is shorter than the energization period, has lapsed, a storage unit that stores the detection value that has been detected by the sensor before the lapse of the energization period and after the lapse of the output stabilization period, and a controller that reads the detection value from the storage unit and performs a predetermined process by using the detection value read.

A medium processing apparatus includes a sensor that is intermittently energized and detects a predetermined physical quantity and outputs the detection value in the energization period, the sensor stabilizing its output after an output stabilization period, which is shorter than the energization period, has lapsed, a storage unit that stores the detection value that has been detected by the sensor before the lapse of the energization period and after the lapse of the output stabilization period, and a controller that reads the detection value from the storage unit and performs a predetermined process by using the detection value read.

A method and device for non-contact detection of a thin medium (5) is disclosed. The device comprises a light source (1), an optical splitter (2), a reference plane (3), a linearly arrayed photoelectric detector (6), a signal processing module (4) and the thin medium (5). The method involves the following steps: acquiring time for targeted light which is emitted by the light source (1) and reflected by the thin medium (5) to the linearly arrayed photoelectric detector (6), and acquiring time for reference light which is emitted by the light source (1) and reflected by the reference plane (3) to the linearly arrayed photoelectric detector (6); according to the acquired time that the targeted light and the reference light arrive at the linearly arrayed photoelectric detector (6), computing a first optical path and a second optical path corresponding to the targeted light and the reference light respectively, and acquiring quantity of bright fringes and dark fringes of interference fringes according to a predetermined computing manner by the signal processing module (4); conducting difference comparison between the quantity of the bright fringes and dark fringes of the interference fringes and the quantity of the bright fringes and dark fringes of standard interference fringes according to the predetermined manner, and if the value of the comparison result is larger than the predetermined threshold value, determining that the foreign matters are positioned on the thin medium (5). The detection method and device solves the technical problems that precision is low and measuring wavelength is long caused by an existing mechanical thickness measuring device, an infrared detector and an ultrasonic detector used to detect the foreign substance on the surface of the thin medium.