Counterfeit coins are not easy to identify. The reason why they are called counterfeits is that they really look the same as the real ones. And to compare the real with the fake ones, mostly requires an intelligent system to do the job.
Engineers at the University of Lleida (UDL), developed a prototype of a detector sensor for counterfeit coins. This is the ordinary sensor that is integrated in an optical mouse that functions as the computers way to point to data.
To detect counterfeit currency, the coin is placed in a positioning device near the optical mouse sensor. The coin is then rotated to allow the sensor to take snapshots of all the sides of the coin. After a few seconds, the detector system compares the captured data with the valid currency reference using an algorithm that the team had also developed.
Although this method can also be done using a webcam, this technology has been designed primarily due to its “small size, low cost and the viewing angle is so small that it can capture the attention of the coins is a simple way,” says Tresanchez.