SYSTEM FOR MOBILE IMAGE CAPTURE AND PROCESSING OF FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS

• US 20120113489A1
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Research Development and Manufacturing Corporation
• Original Assignee: RDM Corporation (Deluxe Corp.)
• Inventors: Heit, Graham, Botejue, Dhammika, Shamroni, Dima, McGovern, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 8,995,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/518
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/242 by image rotation, e.g. by 90 degrees
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/2253 Recognition of characters printed with magnetic ink G06V30/2247 takes precedence

Abstract

An automated document processing system, particularly for mobile image capture and processing of financial documents to enhance images captured on a mobile device with camera capabilities for data extraction. The systems comprise a mobile device that includes a capture device configured to capture color images of documents, and that has a processor for performing certain operations, such as color reduction, and a transmitter for sending an image from the mobile device to a server. The server is configured to optimize and enhance the image, and to apply an improved binarization algorithm using a window within a relevant document field and/or a threshold for the document field. Orientation correction may also be performed at the server by reading the MICR line on a check and comparing a MICR confidence to a threshold. A check image may also be size corrected using features of the MICR line and expected document dimensions.

Claims

1. A system for image capture and processing of financial documents, comprising:

a mobile device including;

an image capture device configured to capture a color image of a financial document;

a processor configured to;

generate a color reduced image, and

a transmitter configured to transmit the color reduced image to a server,

the server configured to receive the color reduced image from the mobile device and to;

detect the financial document in the color reduced image, geometrically correct the color reduced image, binarize the color reduced image to produce a bi-tonal image, correct the orientation of the bi-tonal image, and correct the size of the bi-tonal image.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to detect the financial document in the color reduced image by:

converting the color reduced image into a smaller color reduced image; and

determining document corner positions for the financial document in the smaller color reduced image.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the color reduced image is a gray-scale image.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to correct the orientation of the color reduced image and correct the size of the color reduced image.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to binarize the geometrically corrected image to produce a bi-tonal image by:

choosing a pixel on the gray-scale image;

determining whether the chosen pixel is located within a document field, and if the chosen pixel is within a document field then;

selecting a window within the document field; and

computing an average value and standard deviation for the chosen pixel over the window;

determining whether the standard deviation is too small and if it is too small then converting the chosen pixel to white and if it is not too small then converting the chosen pixel to black or white based on the intensity; and

choosing another pixel and repeating the computing and determining steps until there are no more pixels to choose.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the window is selected so that window does not extend beyond the document field to avoid capturing features of the background of the document within the window.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein if the chosen pixel is within a document field then selecting threshold, and wherein the determining operation uses the threshold to determine if the standard deviation is too small.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the document is a check and the document field may be selected from the group consisting of:

MICR line, courtesy amount, legal amount, date, signature and payee.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial document is a check, and wherein the server is further configured to correct the orientation of the bi-tonal image by:

reading a MICR line on a bottom of the financial document;

generating a MICR confidence value for the MICR line as read;

comparing the MICR confidence value to a threshold;

when the MICR confidence value exceeds the threshold, determining that the bi-tonal image is right-side up; and

when the MICR confidence value does not exceed the threshold;

determining that the bi-tonal image is not right side up,

rotating the image 180 degrees,

re-reading the MICR line,

generating a new MICR confidence value,

comparing the new MICR confidence value to the threshold,

when the new MICR confidence value exceeds the threshold, determining that the rotated, bi-tonal image is right side up.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein when the new MICR confidence value does not exceed the threshold, the server is further configured to indicate that the orientation of the image is unknown.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial document is a check, and wherein the server is further configured to correct the size of the bi-tonal image by:

reading a MICR line on a bottom of the financial document;

computing an average height of a plurality of MICR characters;

computing a scaling factor based on the average height of the MICR characters and the expected height at a selected DPI;

when the scaling factor is not greater than a threshold, outputting the bi-tonal image; and

when the scaling factor is greater than a threshold;

computing dimensions for the check based on the scaling factor; and

repeating geometric correction and binarization, and outputting the bi-tonal image.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein computing the dimensions for the check further comprises comparing computed dimensions to expected dimensions;

adjusting the scaling factor based on the expected dimensions to provide an adjusted scaling factor; and

recomputing the dimensions for the check based on the adjusted scaling factor.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the expected dimensions may be any one of known check dimensions or dimensions based on a multiple of ⅛

^th inch.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial document is a check, and wherein the server is further configured to correct the size of the bi-tonal image by:

reading a MICR line on a bottom of the financial document;

computing an average height and average width of a plurality of MICR characters in the MICR line;

computing a height scaling factor based on the average height of the MICR characters and the expected height at a selected DPI;

computing a width scaling factor based on the average width of the MICR characters and the expected width at a selected DPI;

when the height and width scaling factors are not greater than a threshold, outputting the bi-tonal image; and

when the height and width scaling factors are greater than a threshold;

computing dimensions for the check based on the height and width scaling factors, scaling the width by the width scaling factor and scaling the height by the height scaling factor; and

repeating geometric correction and binarization, and outputting the bi-tonal image.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial document is a check, and wherein the server is further configured to correct the size of the bi-tonal image by:

reading a MICR line on a bottom of the financial document;

determining a location for MICR symbols;

computing a scaling factor based on a distance relative to MICR symbols and an expected distance at a selected DPI;

when the scaling factor is not greater than a threshold, outputting the bi-tonal image; and

when the scaling factor is greater than a threshold;

computing dimensions for the check based on the scaling factor; and

repeating geometric correction and binarization, and outputting the bi-tonal image.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the distance relative to MICR symbols is the distance between two transit MICR symbols.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the distance relative to MICR symbols is the distance between the leading edge of the document and at least one transit MICR symbol.

18. A method for image capture and processing of a financial document, which comprises:

capturing a color image of a financial document;

generating a color-reduced image from the captured color image; and

transmitting the color-reduced image to a server, wherein the server is adapted to detect the financial document in the color-reduced image, geometrically correct the color-reduced image, binarize the color-reduced image to produce a bi-tonal image, and correct the orientation and size of the bi-tonal image.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the server is remotely located and detects the financial document in the color-reduced image, geometrically corrects the color-reduced image, binarizes the color-reduced image to produce a bi-tonal image, and corrects the orientation and size of the bi-tonal image.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the server is further configured to correct the size comprising:

reading a MICR line on a bottom of the financial document;

computing an average height of a plurality of MICR characters in the MICR line;

computing a scaling factor based on an average height of the MICR characters and an expected height at a selected DPI; and

either outputting the bi-tonal image when the scaling factor is not greater than a threshold;

or computing dimensions for the check based on the scaling factor, repeating geometric correction and binarization, and outputting the bi-tonal image, when the scaling factor is greater than a threshold.