Document image processing system
First Claim
1. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprisingdocument transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel,document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data,image processor means cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data and for converting the data into low resolution digital gray scale video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents as well as into higher resolution black and white video image data representing the optically perceptible images,data compression means associated with said image processor means for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents,a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate,a high speed mass data storage device connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, anda relatively lower speed mass data storage device for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Documents, such as bank checks, are processed at a high rate of speed on an image processing system which optically scans the documents and converts optically perceptible data on the documents into video image data. The video image data from the scanner is compressed by data compression techniques and the compressed data is sent over a high speed data channel to a high speed mass storage device which receives and temporarily stores the data. A lower speed mass data storage device, such as an optical disk, is connected for receiving at a lower data transfer rate the compressed video image data and for storing the video image data for subsequent retrieval. The system also includes real-time quality control systems for monitoring the quality of the image data to detect the existence of unacceptable image quality data and for generating a signal which can be used for immediately stopping the generation of unacceptable quality image data.
351 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
document transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data and for converting the data into low resolution digital gray scale video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents as well as into higher resolution black and white video image data representing the optically perceptible images, data compression means associated with said image processor means for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, a high speed mass data storage device connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, and a relatively lower speed mass data storage device for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
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10. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
document transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, data compression means associated with said scanner means for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents, real-time image quality control means cooperating with said data compression means for monitoring the degree of compression of said image data by said data compressions means and for generating a signal in the event that the degree of data compression falls outside of predetermined parameter which is indicative of acceptable image quality, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, a high speed mass data storage device connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, and a relatively lower speed mass data storage device for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
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14. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
document transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and for converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data, data compression means associated with said image processor means for receiving and compressing the digital gray scale video image data, and wherein said real-time image quality control means includes means cooperating with said data compression means for monitoring the degree of compression of said image data by said data compressions means and for generating a signal in the event that the degree of data compression falls outside of predetermined parameter which is indicative of acceptable image quality, a mass data storage device connected to said image processor means for receiving and storing the digital video image data, and real-time quality control means cooperating with said image processor means for monitoring the characteristics of the video image data and for generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
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18. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising,
document transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means cooperating with said scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, said image processor means including means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, resolution reduction means for reducing the gray scale video image data to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, and thresholding means for converting the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to black and white video image data of said first resolution, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the lower resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for receiving and compressing the higher resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, and a high speed mass data storage device connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and storing both the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data.
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25. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
a high speed document sorter having a hopper for receiving a supply of documents for processing, a plurality of output bins into which the documents are sorted, and document transport means for transporting the documents therethrough at a rate in excess of a 1000 documents per minute, document scanner means associated with said sorter for optically scanning both the front and back of the documents as they are transported through the sorter and for converting optically perceptible images present thereon into separate streams of video image data for the front and back of the documents, image processor means cooperating with said scanner means for (a) receiving the separate streams of video image data along parallel data paths and for (b) concurrently processing the separate streams of image data to produce for each stream of image data, (a) relatively low resolution gray scale image data and (b) relatively high resolution black and white image data, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the relatively low resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for concurrently receiving and processing the relatively high resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed relatively low resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed relatively high resolution black and white video image data for both the front and the back of said documents from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, high speed direct access magnetic storage means connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, optical data storage means having a data transfer rate substantially lower of than that of said high speed data channel, and a relatively low speed data channel for transferring the video image data stored temporarily on said high speed direct access magnetic storage means to said optical data storage means for permanent storage.
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27. A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, converting the video image data obtained from the documents into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, reducing the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, thresholding the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution into black and white video image data of said first resolution, compressing the video image data obtained from the documents and transmitting the compressed video image data at a relatively high data transfer rate over a high speed data channel to a high speed mass data storage device, temporarily storing on the high speed mass data storage device, both the gray scale video image data of said first resolution and the black and white video image data of said first resolution, and transferring the compressed video image data from the high speed data storage device at a relatively lower data transfer rate to a lower speed mass data storage device and storing the compressed video image data thereon for subsequent retrieval.
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32. A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks comprising
transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, receiving the video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data, compressing the digital gray scale video image data, and monitoring the degree of compression of the video image data obtained from the documents and generating a signal if the degree of data compression of the video image data falls outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
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34. A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising
document transport means for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and for converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, said image processor means including resolution reduction means for reducing the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, and thresholding means for converting the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution into digital black and white video image data of said first resolution, data compression means associated with said scanner means for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing both the gray scale video image data of said second resolution and the black and white video image data of said first resolution for storage by said high speed mass data storage device, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, a high speed mass data storage device connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, and a relatively lower speed mass data storage device for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
Specification