SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROCESSING FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS

• US 20140153830A1
• Filed: 02/07/2014
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kofax Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kofax Incorporated
• Inventors: Amtrup, Jan W., Thompson, Stephen Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,846 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/190
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/00 Handling natural language data speech analysis or synthesis, speech recognition G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/40 Picture signal circuits H04N1/387 takes precedence

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an image of a tender document; performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image; extracting an identifier of the tender document from the image based at least in part on the OCR; comparing the extracted identifier with content from one or more data sources; requesting complementary information from at least one of the one or more data sources based at least in part on the extracted identifier; receiving the complementary information; and outputting at least some of the complementary information for display on a mobile device. Exemplary systems and computer program products are also described.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an image of a tender document;

performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image;

extracting an identifier of the tender document from the image based at least in part on the OCR;

comparing the extracted identifier with content from one or more data sources;

requesting complementary information from at least one of the one or more data sources based at least in part on the extracted identifier;

receiving the complementary information; and

outputting at least some of the complementary information for display on a mobile device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more data sources comprise at least one of:

one or more tables;

one or more relational databases;

one or more nontraditional databases;

one or more structured documents; and

one or more images of one or more non-tender documents.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing at least some of the complementary information to a downstream financial process.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising detecting an attempt to initiate a financial transaction;

and

prompting a user to capture the image of the tender document using a capture component of the mobile device,

wherein the prompting occurs at least partially in response to detecting the attempt to initiate the financial transaction.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising prompting the user to designate a form of payment for the financial transaction.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the tender document corresponds to the form of payment.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining an account balance for an account corresponding to the tender document;

and

informing a user of the account balance in response to determining the account balance is greater than or equal to a threshold account balance.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining an account balance for an account corresponding to the tender document;

and

prompting a user to add funds to the account in response to determining the account balance is less than a threshold account balance.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising receiving user input comprising instructions to add an amount of funds to the account corresponding to the tender document;

and updating an account balance of the account corresponding to the tender document in response to receiving the user input.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the amount of funds is selected from:

a user-defined amount;

a value of the tender document;

a payment amount of an attempted financial transaction;

a difference between the payment amount of the attempted financial transaction and the account balance of the account corresponding to the tender document; and

a predetermined integer, and

wherein a source of the amount of funds comprises one or more of;

the tender document;

an auxiliary account available to the user; and

a line of credit available to the user.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising detecting a problem with at least one of the extracting, the comparing and the identifying.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising prompting a user for input relating to the tender document;

and

receiving the user input via the mobile device,

wherein at least one of the comparing and the identifying is further based at least in part on the received user input.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a problem with at least one of the extracting, the comparing and the identifying; and

prompting a user for input relating to the tender document at least partially in response to detecting the problem.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more data sources are stored in a memory of the mobile device.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising associating data with the image, the associated data comprising one or more of the extracted identifier and the complementary information;

and

storing the image and the associated data.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

detecting an attempt to initiate a financial transaction;

retrieving financial information comprising one or more of the stored image and the stored data associated with the image; and

providing at least some of the retrieved financial information to the financial transaction.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising capturing the image of the tender document using a capture component of the mobile device.

18. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the performing the OCR, the extracting the identifier, the comparing the extracted identifier with content in the first database and the identifying the complementary information in the second database is performed using a processor of the mobile device.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising classifying the tender document.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the classifying comprises determining one or more of:

a tender document type;

a retailer relating to the tender document; and

a financial servicing entity relating to the tender document.

21. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the classifying comprises feature vector analysis.

22. The method as recited in claim 19, further comprising building an extraction model for the tender document based at least in part on a classification of the tender document.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising extracting content from the image of the tender document,

wherein the extraction is based at least in part on the extraction model, and

wherein the extraction does not utilize any OCR techniques.

24. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions configured to cause a processor to:

receive an image of a tender document;

perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the image;

extract an identifier of the tender document from the image based at least in part on the OCR;

compare the extracted identifier with content from one or more data sources,

request complementary information from at least one of the one or more data sources based at least in part on the extracted identifier;

receive the complementary information; and

output at least some of the complementary information for display on a mobile device.

25. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

logic in and/or executable by the processor, and configured to cause the processor to;

receive an image of a tender document;

perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the image;

extract an identifier of the tender document from the image based at least in part on the OCR;

compare the extracted identifier with content from one or more data sources;

request complementary information from at least one of the one or more data sources based at least in part on the extracted identifier;

receive the complementary information; and

output at least some of the complementary information for display on a mobile device.