SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MOBILE IMAGE CAPTURE AND REMITTANCE PROCESSING

• US 20130022231A1
• Filed: 09/18/2012
• Published: 01/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitek Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mitek Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Nepomniachtchi, Grigori, Roach, Josh
• Granted Patent: US 8,379,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1475 Inclination or skew detection or correction of characters or of image to be recognised
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/162 Quantising the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/166 Normalisation of pattern dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/001 Sharing resources, e.g. processing power or memory, with a connected apparatus or enhancing the capability of the still picture apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for capturing and processing images of remittance coupons using a mobile device and obtaining data from the captured image which is used to set up or carry out payment of a bill that corresponds to the remittance coupon. Optimization and enhancement of image capture and image processing are provided on the mobile device to improve the initial quality of the captured image and provide a user with real time feedback. The image is then sent from the mobile device to a remote server, where additional image processing is performed to improve the quality of the image and then extract data from the image that is relevant to paying the bill. The extracted data may be verified through comparisons with databases which store information on billers, bill formats and other relevant content that will appear on the bill.

Claims

1. A method of processing a remittance coupon captured by a mobile device, comprising:

receiving an image of a remittance coupon captured by a mobile device;

correcting at least one aspect of the image to produce a corrected image;

performing a first content recognition pass on the corrected image to extract content from the remittance coupon;

identifying an address of a biller on the remittance coupon by comparing address content in the extracted content with an address database;

determining biller profile information of the biller, including an identity of the biller on the remittance coupon, by comparing the identified address of the biller with a database of biller profile information;

producing a set of billing information, including the extracted content and the identity of the biller, for processing a payment of the bill; and

using the biller profile information of the biller to perform a second content recognition pass on the corrected image to extract content from the remittance coupon, wherein the biller profile information includes at least one of a remittance coupon format, a remittance coupon mask, a location of at least one field on the remittance coupon and a format of at least one field.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading a code line on the remittance coupon and correcting a scale of the remittance coupon based on a size of the code line.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the correcting of the at least one image includes at least one of a perspective correction, an aspect ratio correction, a warping correction and a shadow correction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content recognition pass is performed using optical character recognition (OCR).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the address content in the extracted content with address content extracted by reading a barcode on the remittance coupon before comparing the address content with the address database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the address database is populated with a plurality of addresses from a United States Postal Service (USPS) database.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the address content in the extracted content with the address database includes comparing a “

zip code plus four digit”

field in the extracted content with a zip code plus four digit field in the address database.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein comparing address content in the extracted content with an address database involves performing a fuzzy search of the address database using the address content.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the set of billing information to the mobile device to display to a user.

10. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer with a processor and a memory, perform a process comprising:

receiving an image of a remittance coupon captured by a mobile device;

correcting at least one aspect of the image to produce a corrected image;

performing a first content recognition pass on the corrected image to extract content from the remittance coupon;

identifying an address of a biller on the remittance coupon by comparing address content in the extracted content with an address database;

determining biller profile information of the biller, including an identity of the biller on the remittance coupon, by comparing the identified address of the biller with a database of biller profile information;

producing a set of billing information, including the extracted content and the identity of the biller, for processing a payment of the bill; and

using the biller profile information of the biller to perform a second content recognition pass on the corrected image to extract content from the remittance coupon, wherein the biller profile information includes at least one of a remittance coupon format, a remittance coupon mask, a location of at least one field on the remittance coupon and a format of at least one field.