APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR IMAGING CURRENCY BILLS AND FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS AND METHOD FOR USING THE SAME

• US 20120189186A1
• Filed: 04/02/2012
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Csulits, Frank M., Jones, William J., Mennie, Douglas U., Anderson, Matthew L., Klein, Robert J., Jaeger, Ralf H., Badalamenti, David R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,714,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/135
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0047 using checkcodes, e.g. coded numbers derived from serial number and denomination
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/12 Visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/202 using pattern matching
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 Surveillance aspects at ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/04 by paper currency

Abstract

An input receptacle receives currency bills and checks. A transport mechanism transports the bills and checks along a transport path to an output receptacle. An image scanner, adjacent the transport path, is configured to generate one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived. The image data is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents. A controller is configured to determine a denomination of each of the currency bills. In response to the controller not determining a denomination of one of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bill as a no-call document by causing at least a portion of the image data to be displayed as a visually readable image of the flagged currency bill on the display.

Claims

1-71. -71. (canceled)

72. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle of the document processing system, the plurality of documents including currency bills and checks;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner;

generating image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents;

attempting to extract a complete set of characters from the image data for each of the documents; and

failing to extract a complete set of characters for one of the documents, the document being an extraction error document; and

in response to the failing to extract the complete set of characters, displaying at least a portion of a visually readable image of the extraction error document on a display unit.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the act of failing includes extracting a character such that an associated confidence level is below a predetermined threshold.

74. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle of the document processing system, the plurality of documents including checks, each check having a wide edge and a narrow edge;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, in a wide-edge leading manner from the input receptacle, past an image scanner, at a rate of at least about 150 documents per minute;

generating image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents;

attempting to extract a complete set of characters from the image data for each of the documents; and

failing to extract a complete set of characters for one of the documents, the document being an extraction error document; and

in response to the failing to extract the complete set of characters, displaying at least a portion of a visually readable image of the extraction error document on a display unit.

75. The method of claim 74, wherein documents are transported past the image scanner at a rate of at least about 900 documents per minute.

76. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle of the document processing system, the plurality of documents including currency bills and checks, each document being associated with respective identifying information;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner;

imaging each of the plurality of documents with the image scanner to produce image data, the image data associated with each individual document being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of a respective document;

for each document, attempting to extract alphanumeric characters from image data associated with a respective one of the documents;

failing to extract a complete set of identifying information from one of the documents being transported, the document being an extraction error document;

in response to the failing to extract the complete set of identifying information from one of the documents being transported, displaying at least a portion of a visually readable image of the extraction error document on a display unit.

77. The method of claim 76, wherein the currency bills and the checks are received in the input receptacle as intermingled documents.

78. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle, the plurality of documents including currency bills and checks;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner, to an output receptacle;

imaging each of the plurality of documents with the image scanner to produce image data, the image data associated with each individual document being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of a respective document;

determining, via one or more processors in the document processing system, whether the image data associated with each individual document satisfies one or more flag criteria; and

in response to the image data associated with one of the individual documents satisfying one of the flag criteria, displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of the one of the individual documents on a display unit.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the displaying occurs simultaneously to the transporting.

80. The method of claim 79, further comprising displaying a flag code associated with a reason that the image data associated with the one of the individual documents satisfied the one of the flag criteria, the flag code being displayed adjacent to the displayed visually readable image.

81. The method of claim 80, wherein the flag code is a no-call denomination code, a no-call serial number code, a no-call MICR code, a suspect code, a doubles code, an overlap code, a fitness code, a soil code, or a combination thereof.

82. The method of claim 80, further comprising displaying a plurality of selectable elements on the display unit.

83. The method of claim 82, wherein the plurality of selectable elements are each associated with a distinct alphanumeric character and the method further comprises in response to the selection of one of the selectable elements, tagging the image data which is reproducible as the image being displayed on the display unit with the associated alphanumeric character and storing the tagged image data in a memory of the document processing system.

84. The method of claim 83, wherein the selected distinct alphanumeric character is a missing character of a currency bill serial number that failed to be extracted from the image data, or the selected distinct alphanumeric character is a missing character of a check MICR line or portion thereof that failed to be extracted from the image data.

85. The method of claim 82, further comprising removing the visually readable image of at least a portion of the one of the individual documents from the display unit in response to an operator selecting one of the plurality of elements on the display unit;

and displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of a second individual document on the display unit in response to image data associated with the second individual document satisfying one of the flag criteria, the displaying the visually readable image of at least a portion of the second individual document occurring simultaneously to the transporting.

86. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of currency bills in an input receptacle;

transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner, to an output receptacle;

imaging each of the plurality of currency bills with the image scanner to produce image data, the image data associated with each individual currency bill being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of a respective currency bill;

determining in the document processing system whether the image data associated with each individual currency bill satisfies one or more flag criteria; and

in response to the image data associated with one of the individual currency bills satisfying one of the flag criteria, stopping the transportation of currency bills such that the one of the individual currency bill bills is transported to the output receptacle in a predetermined location.

87. The method of claim 86, wherein the predetermined location is the last currency bill transported to the output receptacle.