System and method for processing currency bills and documents bearing barcodes in a document processing device

• US 20050040225A1
• Filed: 09/29/2004
• Published: 02/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Jones, William J., Hallowell, Curtis W., Csulits, Frank M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,201,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2301/332 Turning, overturning
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2701/1912 Banknotes, bills and cheques or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/10 Mechanical details
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/13 with internal means for handling valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/14 Inlet or outlet ports
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/20 Controlling or monitoring the operation of devices; Data handling
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/40 Device architecture, e.g. modular construction
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0043 using barcodes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3246 involving coins and/or banknotes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3248 involving non-monetary media of fixed value, e.g. casino chips of fixed value
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/202 Depositing operations within ATMs depositing in general G07D11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/04 by paper currency
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0045 with a code reader for reading of an identifying code of the article to be registered, e.g. barcode reader or radio-frequency identity [RFID] reader

Abstract

A document processing device having an evaluation region disposed along a transport path between an input and output receptacle capable of processing both currency bills and substitute currency media having at least one indicia. The evaluation region includes at least one of a currency detector, a media detector, and an imager for detecting predetermined characteristics of currency bills and substitute currency media. A controller coupled to the evaluation region controls the operation of the document processing device and receives input from and provides information to a user via a control unit. In some embodiments, the document processing device may have any number of output receptacles, and the control unit allows the user to specify which output receptacle receives which type of document. An optional coin sorter may be coupled to the document processing device to allow document and coin processing. The document processing device may be coupled to a network to communicate information to devices linked to the network.

Claims

1. An evaluation system for evaluating documents, comprising:

at least one media detector for determining whether substitute currency media are valid based on at least one barcoded indicia of the substitute currency media;

at least one currency detector for determining whether currency bills are valid based on at least one characteristic of the currency bills;

at least one imager for capturing an image of at least a portion of the substitute currency media and the currency bills, wherein the imager creates an image file from the captured image; and

a controller for controlling the at least one media detector, currency detector and imager, wherein the controller further receives the image file and processes the image file for storage.

2. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the controller processes image files via a compression technique.

3. The evaluation system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage medium for storing the processed image file.

4. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the controller appends additional information to the image file.

5. The evaluation system of claim 4, wherein the additional information is at least one of transaction data, location data, time stamp data, employee ID data, currency bill serial numbers, amount written for a check, and amount written on a deposit slip.

6. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the substitute currency media includes a second indicia, wherein the second indicia is at least one of a barcode, a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) pattern, characters readable by optical character recognition (OCR), a magnetic pattern, an optical variable device (OVD) pattern, a hologram, a magnetic thread, an electrically conductive thread, conductive ink, magnetic ink, an electrically conductive polymer, perforations, a coded watermark, and encoded information.

7. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the controller accesses stored information relating to the barcoded indicia and compares the stored information with the captured image to determine if the substitute currency media is valid.

8. The evaluation system of claim 1, further comprising an additional currency detector, an additional media detector, and an additional imager located on an opposite side of a transport path from the at least one media detector, the at least one currency detector, and the at least one imager.

9. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one imager is positioned after the media detector in a transport path.

10. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one imager is positioned after the currency detector in a transport path.

11. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media detector generates an image check signal to activate the at least one imager.

12. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the at least one currency detector generates an image check signal to activate the at least one imager.

13. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the evaluation region is incorporated into a document processing device.

14. An evaluation system for evaluating documents, comprising:

at least one media detector for determining whether substitute currency media are valid based on at least one barcoded indicia of the substitute currency media;

at least one imager for determining whether currency bills are valid and for capturing an image of at least a portion of the currency bills, wherein the imager creates an image file from the captured image; and

a controller for controlling the at least one media detector and the at least one imager, wherein the controller further receives the image file and processes the image file for storage.

15. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the at least one imager further captures an image of at least a portion of the substitute currency media.

16. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the controller processes image files via a compression technique.

17. The evaluation system of claim 14, further comprising:

a storage medium for storing the processed image file.

18. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the controller appends additional information to the image file.

19. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the controller accesses stored information relating to the currency bills and compares the stored information with the captured image to determine if the currency bills are valid.

20. The evaluation system of claim 14, further comprising an additional media detector and an additional imager located on an opposite side of a transport path from the at least one media detector and the at least one imager.

21. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the at least one imager is positioned after the media detector in a transport path.

22. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the at least one media detector generates an image check signal to activate the at least one imager.

23. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the evaluation region is incorporated into a document processing device.

24. An evaluation system for evaluating documents, comprising:

at least one currency detector for determining whether currency bills are valid based on at least one characteristic of the currency bills;

at least one imager for determining whether substitute currency media are valid based on at least one barcoded indicia of the substitute currency media, wherein the imager captures an image of at least a portion of the substitute currency media and creates an image file from the captured image; and

a controller for controlling the at least one currency detector and the at least one imager, wherein the controller further receives the image file and processes the image file for storage.

25. The evaluation system of claim 24, where the at least one imager further captures an image of at least a portion of the currency bills.

26. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the controller processes image files via a compression technique.

27. The evaluation system of claim 24, further comprising:

a storage medium for storing the processed image file.

28. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the controller appends additional information to the image file.

29. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the controller accesses stored information relating to the substitute currency media and compares the stored information with the captured image to determine if the substitute currency media are valid.

30. The evaluation system of claim 24, further comprising an additional currency detector and an additional imager located on an opposite side of a transport path from the at least one currency detector and the at least one imager.

31. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the at least one imager is positioned after the currency detector in a transport path.

32. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the at least one currency detector generates an image check signal to activate the at least one imager.

33. The evaluation system of claim 24, wherein the evaluation region is incorporated into a document processing device.

34. An evaluation system for evaluating documents, comprising:

at least one imager for determining whether substitute currency media and currency bills are valid based on at least one barcoded indicia of the substitute currency media and based on at least one characteristic of the currency bills, wherein the imager captures an image of at least a portion of the substitute currency media and creates an image file from the captured image; and

a controller for controlling the at least one imager, wherein the controller further receives the image file and processes the image file for storage.

35. The evaluation system of claim 34, wherein the controller processes image files via a compression technique.

36. The evaluation system of claim 34, further comprising:

a storage medium for storing the processed image file.

37. The evaluation system of claim 34, wherein the controller appends additional information to the image file.

38. The evaluation system of claim 34, wherein the controller accesses stored information relating to the substitute currency media and compares the stored information with the captured image to determine if the substitute currency media are valid.

39. The evaluation system of claim 34, wherein the controller accesses stored information relating to the currency bills and compares the stored information with the captured image to determine if the currency bills are valid.

40. The evaluation system of claim 34, further comprising an additional imager located on an opposite side of a transport path from the at least one imager.

41. The evaluation system of claim 34, wherein the evaluation region is incorporated into a document processing device.

42. A method for processing documents, comprising:

transporting substitute currency media and currency bills past an evaluation region in order to determine if the substitute currency media and currency bills are valid;

capturing an image of at least a portion of the substitute currency media and the currency bills as they pass through the evaluation region;

determining whether a valid currency bill is detected based on at least one characteristic of the currency bills; and

determining whether a valid substitute currency medium is detected based on a barcoded indicia of the substitute currency medium.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

scanning, by a currency detector, to determine whether the currency bill is valid.

44. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

scanning, by a media detector, to determine whether the substitute currency medium is valid.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the step of instructing comprises capturing an image of at least one of an indicia, a serial number, a watermark, and a magnetic ink character recognition pattern of the currency bill or the substitute currency medium.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the step of instructing comprises capturing an image of an entire surface of the currency bill or the substitute currency medium.

47. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

suspending action if the currency bill is determined not to be valid.

48. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

suspending action if the substitute currency medium is determined not to be valid.

49. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

sending invalid currency bills and invalid substitute currency media to an offsort receptacle.

50. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

appending additional information to the image file.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising storing the image file and the appended additional information at a storage medium.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising searching the storage medium for particular information via a user interface.