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Comments: 123 +- Hardware: Optical Mice Used To Detect Counterfeit Coins on Monday November 16, @05:00PM
Posted
by
timothy
on Monday November 16, @05:00PM
from the is-there-anything-optical-mice-can't-do? dept.
from the is-there-anything-optical-mice-can't-do? dept.
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JimXugle writes "El Mundo reports that Spanish researchers at The University of Lleida have used a modified optical mouse to detect counterfeit €2 coins (Original article, in Spanish) with a success rate comparable to that of an expert trained to do so. Details are to be published freely in the journal Sensors."
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Genius you see... (Score:5, Funny)
The laser from the mouse will heat up the chocolate inside of counterfeit coins, thus exposing the fakes and creating a mess.
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And that's why Spain will never get to host the world Dreidel championships.
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My mouse has a laser diode.
Newer Mac mice are cybernetic, touch sensitive because it has a real piece of scrotum skin stretched over the surface.
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A real mouse works for that too - they'll happily gnaw through the metallic shell to get at the tasty chocolate inside.
Who counterfiets 2-Euro coins anyways? (Score:5, Insightful)
Geesh, can you get me a mouse that detects North Korean bogus US$100 bills?
Re:Who counterfiets 2-Euro coins anyways? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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Re:Who counterfiets 2-Euro coins anyways? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know about €2 coins, but loads of £1 coins are counterfeit -- perhaps 5% [greenend.org.uk]. The €2 (and 1) are bi-metallic though, so presumably harder to fake.
Under UK law (as that page explains), once you know a coin is counterfeit it's illegal to give it to anyone (except the police) or to keep it. Daft, but it means it's in my interest not to identify counterfeits. (Unless, possibly, I checked every time I was given change. But that's not realistic.)
Parent
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How does it compare to a vending machine? (Score:4, Insightful)
In what ways does it defer, if any, from the techniques used in vending machines?
If it's better, patent and sell to vending companies? Yeah... patents are evil; but maybe a novel application of an existing technology isn't so evil in this case--provided it really is novel and not just a poor-man's vending machine detector, in which case the vending machine companies may already have a patent on it...
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Actually, you know accurately movement, you're just missing a starting point.
So the simple answer is to assume a square piece of paper whose edge is 2 bills wide - and start at the center. Then you can scan in any bill, regardless of whether it was portrait, landscape, or what corner they started scanning at. Assume that's your
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Vending machines rely on mechanical factors, mostly: Weight, size, metallic composition (measured by conductivity characteristics).
This one seems to focus on the graphics on the faces. It's complementary.
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"It's complementary"
'What a lovely counterfeit'?
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compliment != complement
Re:How does it compare to a vending machine? (Score:5, Funny)
Complement: to make complete.
Compliment: to tell a falsehood.
Parent
Re:How does it compare to a vending machine? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know where you learned the meaning of compliment, but I am in awe.
Parent
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Stop lying.
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If you're going to go grammar nazi on him you should have picked "defer" instead.
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Vending machines rely on mechanical factors, mostly: Weight, size, metallic composition (measured by conductivity characteristics).
This one seems to focus on the graphics on the faces. It's complementary.
And magnetic, don't forget magnetic characteristics. Also for size, don't forget to separately include thickness, diameter, and shape.
Re:How does it compare to a vending machine? (Score:5, Informative)
Vending machine detectors are usually just magnets (at least in the US). Very few countries make their coins with enough iron, nickel, or cobalt to be magnetic, so a magnet can pick out most slugs (the usual form of counterfeiting used on vending machines). I know; I own vending machines.
Also, it's OT, but your sig annoys the crap out of me. I use whom correctly all the time, "intensive purposes" is retarded. Begging the question, though, seems to have actually changed meanings over the years, so, being a descriptivist, I'll give you that one.
Parent
Re:How does it compare to a vending machine? (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding was that the coin falls into a balanced cradle that measures the diameter and weight. If it's the wrong size it is rejected (and can fall through to another cradle that tests for a different value coin---and so on). If it is the right size but the wrong weight the cradle tips too far or not far enough and deposits it in the reject slot.
If it's the right size and weight then the coin drops between two magnets onto a little anvil. If the metallic composition is right the coin will slow just enough passing through the magnets to hit the anvil at the right place and speed to bounce into the accept slot. Anything else and it misses.
The end result is a very quick, accurate but cheap analysis of the coin's weight, size and metallic composition.
I know that's the way it used to work. Have they dumbed down the machines recently?
Parent
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I know that's the way it used to work. Have they dumbed down the machines recently?
yes, as a result of the 'no vending machine left behind' policy, all vending machines now house a child left behind by the no child left behind policy, who bites each coin between his teeth to test its authenticity.
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Vending machine detectors are usually just magnets (at least in the US). Very few countries make their coins with enough iron, nickel, or cobalt to be magnetic
Now all the British machines that don't accept 1p or 2p coins make sense! Thanks. (These coins are copper plated steel.)
the usual form of counterfeiting used on vending machines
Before the introduction of the Euro replaced 16 different sets of coins with one, a popular method in Europe was to put a low value foreign coins in a machine that recognised it as a higher value. IIRC old British 5p coins would be recognised in Germany as 1DM.
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Also, it's OT, but your sig annoys the crap out of me. I use whom correctly all the time, "intensive purposes" is retarded. Begging the question, though,
A successful sig, I believe. You do know it was a deliberate troll, don't you? Or perhaps just a gentle stir (don't mod him down for that folks, it's humour). People who can't recognise the humour of deliberate mistakes have never read a book to a child (oh, the glee with which they correct you!) and that's a situation for whomever up with which I can certainly put.
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For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares?"
"intensive purposes" is retarded
Perhaps the poster was going for "for all intents and purposes"?
If so, ouch.
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Patents are good, software patents are evil (and invalid in the EU)! This is mostly software so they can bottle up the code and sell it, but if the hardware is interesting enough (it;s not really using a standard mouse), they could patent that.
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It's not "for all intensive purposes". It's "for all ant, ents, and porpoises." Get it right next time, OK?
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Fun fact #65 (Score:4, Informative)
Did you know that there are more than 260 different euro coins from 19 countries to present day!
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Let us imagine creating an obviously fake denomination, say the 2.50 Euro coin, and try seeing if anyone will call them on it.
We could make all sorts of fake (Not counterfeit) coins each one of "logical" but otherwise bogus coins, and start using them.
Of course, one would have to NOT actually complete the purchase with those coins or be subject to arrest for fraud (or similar charges).
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The only denominations for Euro coins are €0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2 -- eight different coins. All e.g. €1 coins look the same on one side (a map of Europe), but have different national sides -- an eagle for Germany, a harp for Ireland, etc.
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Just leave them on the sidewalk. Someone will pick it up and either get a laugh, or be the laugh.
Other coin facts. (Score:2)
Every year here in Canada we mint a 50-cent coin. I almost never see one outside of a collector's set, however. In fact, it's so unusual to see one in circulation I've seen cashiers refuse to believe they are real money.
Ironically, US coins are widely accepted in Canada. There are so many US pennies in any random pile of "Canadian" pennies that no one could be bothered to sort them out.
Also, although US dollars trade for more than Canadian dollars, it's not possible to obtain an exchange rate for coinage. T
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We have a coin of our own that is not always accepted, whereas we readily accept US (foreign) coins.
You don't see the irony in that?
The conclusion from this (Score:2, Interesting)
If you compare a counterfeit-coin-detecting expert with a purpose-built handheld device, the answer is pretty obvious.
Until the day the people who print counterfeit coins buy a purpose-built handheld device, of course, and there's no expert around to reprogram the device because he jumped off a bridge after losing his job.
who would go through the trouble? (Score:2)
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That is why you would get busted. The most frequently counter fitted bills are the smaller denominations ones, fives, and tens. The reason people don't subject them to nearly the scrutiny. All and all there is not that much counterfeiting going on, and chances are if you accept a small bill there is very little change tendered so you are only out the inventory. If you accept a large bill like a 50 or a 100 you stand to loose quite a bit; you probably give not only your inventory but tender real currency
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That is why you would get busted. The most frequently counter fitted bills are the smaller denominations ones, fives, and tens. The reason people don't subject them to nearly the scrutiny. All and all there is not that much counterfeiting going on, and chances are if you accept a small bill there is very little change tendered so you are only out the inventory. If you accept a large bill like a 50 or a 100 you stand to loose quite a bit; you probably give not only your inventory but tender real currency as change; so even though those are fakes less often they get looked at more.
Actually, the most counterfeited bill is the $20; probably because it is the highest denomination in common circulation. The $100 is the next.
Re:who would go through the trouble? (Score:5, Funny)
Counterfeit $100s can be identified by the absence of cocaine residue.:)
Parent
How (Score:3, Insightful)
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generally more easily employable than people.
And haven't formed labor unions. ;)
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And haven't formed labor unions.
Have you not heard of the International Brotherhood of Laser Devices? Silly human; you will be among the first to bow down to your coherent light overlords.
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Somehow I doubt a 16x16 pixel grayscale sensor is going to detect counterfeit coins any better than the human eye, but maybe I should read TFA before I jump to judgement...
And maybe before posting, too? Just a suggestion.
Generally, if you're about to post something that is along the lines of, "this couldn't possibly work because ..." without (a) having read the article, and (b) being an expert in the field, best to think twice.