Document processing method and system

• US 6,731,786 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2002
• Issued: 05/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Mennie, Douglas U., Jones, John E., Jones, William J., Jones, Paul A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Application Number:
  US10/042,086
• Publication Number:
  US 20020131630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• Field of Search: 382/135, 382/282, 356/71, 209/534, 340/5.86, 902/6, 902/7, 235/379, 705/39, 705/45
• US Class Current: 382/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0425 the cheque being electronic only
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/127 with the intervention of an operator
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/274 Syntactic or semantic context, e.g. balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/04 Testing magnetic properties of the materials thereof, e.g. by detection of magnetic imprint G07D7/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/06 using wave or particle radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/12 Visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/1205 Testing spectral properties
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/20 : Testing patterns thereon G07D7/004, G07D7/005 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/20 : Automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/202 : Depositing operations within ATMs depositing in general G07D11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 : Surveillance aspects at ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/04 : by paper currency

Abstract

A document processing system comprises an input receptacle for receiving documents. A transport mechanism receives the documents from the input receptacle and transports the documents past a full image scanner and a discrimination unit. An output receptacle receives the documents from the transport mechanism after being transported past the full image scanner and the discrimination unit. The full image scanner includes means for obtaining a full video image of said documents, means for obtaining a image of a selected area of said documents, and means for obtaining information contained in said selected area of said document. The discrimination unit includes means for determining the authenticity of said document. A system controller directs the flows of documents over the transport mechanism.

Claims

1. A bank note processing system comprising:

a bank note processor comprising;

an input receptacle for receiving bank notes;

an image scanner;

a discrimination unit;

a transport mechanism coupled to the input receptacle for receiving the bank notes from the input receptacle and transporting the bank notes past the image scanner and discrimination unit;

an output receptacle for receiving the bank notes from the transport mechanism after being transported past the image scanner and discrimination unit;

the image scanner being adapted to obtain images of the bank notes, recognize fields within the bank notes and extract information from the fields;

the discrimination unit determining the authenticity of the bank notes; and

an interface to communicate bank note images and extracted field information;

an outside accounting system coupled to the bank note processor and operable to update financial accounts associated with the bank notes; and

a memory coupled to the bank note processor for storing images of the bank notes.

2. The bank note processing system of claim 1, further including a central processing unit coupled to the bank note processor by a two-way communication link, the link allowing two-way audio communication between the central processing unit and the bank note processor.

3. The bank note processing system of claim 1, further including a video terminal coupled to the memory for displaying images of the bank notes.

4. The bank note processing system of claim 1, wherein the bank notes are U.S. currency bills.

5. The bank note processing system of claim 1, wherein the bank notes are foreign currency bills.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle is a single bin.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a stacking wheel comprising flexible blades positioned to restack bank notes in the single bin.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle is two bins.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein one of the two bins is an off sort bin.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a stacking wheel comprising flexible blades positioned to restack bank notes in each of the two bins.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle is a plurality of bins.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein one of the plurality of bins is an off sort bin.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising a stacking wheel comprising flexible blades positioned to restack bank notes in each of the plurality of bins.

14. The bank note processing system of claim 1, further comprising an input device through which a user enters field information which is not extracted by the scanner.

15. The bank note processing system of claim 1, wherein the interface is further adapted to send the images of the bank notes to the outside accounting system.

16. The bank note processing system of claim 1, wherein the bank notes have wide and narrow dimensions and the bank notes are transported with their narrow dimension parallel to a direction of transport.

17. The bank note processing system of claim 1, wherein the bank notes have wide and narrow dimensions and the bank notes are transported with their wide dimension parallel to a direction of transport.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism conveys bank notes at a rate of at least 800 bank notes per minute.

19. A method for processing bank notes comprising the steps of:

receiving bank notes in an input receptacle;

transporting the bank notes from the input receptacle past an image scanner and a discrimination unit;

receiving the bank notes in an output receptacle from the transport mechanism after the bank notes have been transported past the image scanner and discrimination unit;

obtaining an image of the bank notes with the image scanner;

recognizing fields within the bank notes;

extracting information from the fields;

determining the authenticity of the bank notes with the discrimination unit;

storing images of the bank notes; and

updating financial accounts associated with the bank notes.

20. The method of claim 19, further including the step of processing unidentified bank notes by displaying a bank note image on a monitor and having a user enter field information not obtained by the step of extracting.

21. The method of claim 19, further including the step of processing unidentified bank notes by displaying a bank note image on a computer and having an operator at the computer enter field information not obtained by the step of extracting.

22. The method of claim 19, further including the step of processing unidentified bank notes by having a user who placed the bank notes in the input receptacle hold onto the unidentified bank notes.

23. The method of claim 19, further including the step of processing unidentified bank notes by having a user who placed the bank noted in the input receptacle enter field information not obtained by the step of extracting.

24. The method of claim 19, further including the steps of accepting identification from a customer, automatically processing the identification, and returning bank notes to the customer in response to a valid identification.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the output receptacle is a single bin.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising restacking bank notes in the single bin.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the output receptacle is two bins.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein one of the two bins is an off sort bin.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising restacking bank notes in each of the two bins.

30. The method of claim 19, wherein the output receptacle is a plurality of bins.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein one of the plurality of bins is an off sort bin.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising restacking bank notes in each of the plurality of bins.

33. The method of claim 19, wherein the bank notes have wide and narrow dimensions and the step of transporting conveys the bank notes with their narrow dimension parallel to a direction of transport.

34. The method of claim 19, wherein the bank notes have wide and narrow dimensions and the step of transporting conveys the bank notes with their wide dimension parallel to a direction of transport.

35. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of transporting conveys bank notes at a rate of at least 800 bank notes per minute.