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Automated document processing system using full image scanning

  • US 6,678,402 B2
  • Filed: 02/11/2002
  • Issued: 01/13/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A currency identification system for receiving a stack of currency bills, rapidly counting and evaluating all the bills in the stack, and then delivering the bills to a single output receptacle comprising:

  • a bill transport mechanism for transporting bills, one at a time, from an input receptacle past a scanning section to a single output receptacle at a rate in excess of about 800 bills per minute;

    said scanning section comprising at least two first-side sensors positioned so as to permit scanning of a bill along at least two laterally displaced segments on a first side of said bill, said first-side sensors being capable of detecting characteristic information from said bill along said segments and generating corresponding output signals representing analog variations in the detected characteristic information from which analog scanned patterns of characteristic information may be generated, at least two of said sensors being laterally displaced relative to each other, said sensors being able to scan at a rate in excess of about 800 bills per minute, said scanning section including a full image scanner for obtaining a full image of said bills;

    means for generating at least one scanned pattern from said output signals, said at least one scanned pattern representing and approximating analog amplitude variations in said characteristic information along a segment of said bill;

    a memory for storing at least one master pattern associated with each genuine bill which the system is capable of identifying, said at least one master pattern representing and approximating analog amplitude variations in characteristic information along a segment of an associated genuine bill; and

    a signal processing means for performing a pattern comparison wherein at least one of said scanned patterns or portions thereof is compared with at least one of said master patterns or portions thereof;

    said signal processing means generating an indication of the identity of said bill based on said pattern comparison when said bill is one that the system is capable of identifying.

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