Ethiopian Banknote Recognition Using Convolutional Neural Network and Its Prototype Development Using Embedded Platform

Abstract

Money transactions can be performed by automated self-service machines like ATMs for money deposits and withdrawals, banknote counters and coin counters, automatic vending machines, and automatic smart card charging machines. There are four important functions such as banknote recognition, counterfeit banknote detection, serial number recognition, and fitness classification which are furnished with these devices. Therefore, we need a robust system that can recognize banknotes and classify them into denominations that can be used in these automated machines. However, the most widely available banknote detectors are hardware systems that use optical and magnetic sensors to detect and validate banknotes. These banknote detectors are usually designed for specific country banknotes. Reprogramming such a system to detect banknotes is very difficult. In addition, researchers have developed banknote recognition systems using deep learning artificial intelligence technology like CNN and R-CNN. However, in these systems, dataset used for training is relatively small, and the accuracy of banknote recognition is found smaller. The existing systems also do not include implementation and its development using embedded systems. In this research work, we collected various Ethiopian currencies with different ages and conditions and applied various optimization techniques for CNN architects to identify the fake notes. Experimental analysis has been demonstrated with different models of CNN such as InceptionV3, MobileNetV2, XceptionNet, and ResNet50. MobileNetV2 with RMSProp optimization technique with batch size 32 is found to be a robust and reliable Ethiopian banknote detector and achieved superior accuracy of 96.4% in comparison to other CNN models. Selected model MobileNetV2 with RMSProp optimization has been implemented through an embedded platform by utilizing Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and other peripherals. Further, real-time identification of fake notes in a Web-based user interface (UI) has also been proposed in the research.