METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEPOSITING ORDINARY CHECKS FROM HOME OR OFFICE
First Claim
1. A method of depositing paper checks from a location remote from a bank or Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) comprising the steps of:
- endorsing a check;
scanning the endorsed check with a scanner to generate a digitized version of the check;
virtually partitioning the digitized version of the check into a plurality of regions;
successively extracting from the digitized version of the check information from the plurality of regions;
encrypting information extracted from a region and transmitting the encrypted information to a bank; and
upon acknowledgment from the bank, progressively voiding at least some of the regions of the plurality of regions until all regions have been processed.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method allow to deposit ordinary checks from home or office. A special scanner is used to scan an endorsed check for deposit. The check may have printed thereon encryptions in at least selected locations. Scanning the endorsed check with the scanner to generates a digitized version of the check. The scanner virtually partitions the digitized version of the check into a plurality of regions. These regions may be stripes or zones. Each region is successively examined to extract from the digitized version of the check information from that region. The information extracted from a region is encrypted and transmitted to a bank. Upon acknowledgment from the bank, at least some of the regions of the plurality of regions voided by a form of indelible but non-invasive (e.g. allowing reading after voiding) marking such as punched holes, burned areas, overprinting of a pattern. The processing by the scanner continues until all regions have been processed. This progressively voiding scheme is an important security feature of the invention. The scanner is preferably contained in a secure housing with an encryption processor and the housing preferably includes an arrangement for detecting tampering and preventing normal operation if tampering is detected.
166 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of depositing paper checks from a location remote from a bank or Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) comprising the steps of:
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endorsing a check;
scanning the endorsed check with a scanner to generate a digitized version of the check;
virtually partitioning the digitized version of the check into a plurality of regions;
successively extracting from the digitized version of the check information from the plurality of regions;
encrypting information extracted from a region and transmitting the encrypted information to a bank; and
upon acknowledgment from the bank, progressively voiding at least some of the regions of the plurality of regions until all regions have been processed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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15. A secure check reader including
an optical sensor for reading a portion of a document, an encryption processor for encrypting an output of said optical sensor, means for communicating an encrypted output of said optical sensor to a remote processor and receiving an return signal, and. means for indelibly marking a selected area of said document responsive to said return signal.
Specification