Apparatus and system for imaging currency bills and financial documents and method for using the same

• US 8,162,125 B1
• Filed: 04/13/2010
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Csulits, Frank M., Jones, William J., Mennie, Douglas U., Anderson, Matthew L., Klein, Robert J., Jaeger, Ralf H., Badalamenti, David R.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAPIRO, JEFFREY ALAN
• Application Number:
  US12/758,876
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 194/206, 194/207, 209/534, 209/583, 382135-140, 235/379
• US Class Current: 194/206
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0047 using checkcodes, e.g. coded numbers derived from serial number and denomination
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/12 Visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/202 using pattern matching
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/207 Surveillance aspects at ATMs
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/04 by paper currency

Abstract

An input receptacle receives currency bills and checks. A transport mechanism transports the bills and checks along a transport path to an output receptacle. An image scanner, adjacent the transport path, is configured to generate one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived. The image data is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents. A controller is configured to determine a denomination of each of the currency bills. In response to the controller not determining a denomination of one of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bill as a no-call document by causing at least a portion of the image data to be displayed as a visually readable image of the flagged currency bill on the display.

Claims

1. A document processing system, comprising:

an input receptacle for receiving a plurality of documents including currency bills and checks;

a display;

a transport mechanism for transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path from the input receptacle to an output receptacle;

an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path, the image scanner configured to generate one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents; and

a controller coupled to the display, the transport mechanism, and the image scanner, the controller configured to determine a denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the controller not determining a denomination of one of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bill as a no-call document by causing a visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed on the display.

2. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the currency bills and the checks are received in the input receptacle as one batch of documents.

3. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the currency bills are received in the input receptacle as a first batch of documents and the checks are received in the input receptacle as a second batch of documents, the first and the second batch of documents being distinct and separate.

4. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein a controller or a processor derives the image data from the one or more electrical signals.

5. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to cause the visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed simultaneously to the transport mechanism transporting at least a portion of the plurality of documents.

6. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to cause the visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed while the transport mechanism continues to transport at least a portion of the plurality of documents.

7. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the display is a touch screen display and in response to the controller not determining the denomination of the one of the currency bills, the controller is further configured to cause the display to display a plurality of denomination selection elements.

8. The document processing system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of selection elements coupled with the controller, each one of the selection elements being associated with a distinct currency bill denomination.

9. The document processing system of claim 8, wherein the selection elements are mechanical push buttons.

10. The document processing system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of denomination selection elements are each associated with a distinct denomination.

11. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a confidence level associated with the determination of the denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the determined confidence level associated with a currency bill being below a predetermined threshold, the controller is configured to flag the currency bill as a no-call document by causing the visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed on the display.

12. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller determines the denomination of each of the currency bills based on image data associated with the currency bills.

13. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to extract identifying information from the image data for each of the documents, in response to the controller not extracting a complete set of the identifying information for one of the documents, the controller being configured to flag the document as a no-call document by causing a visually readable image of at least a portion of the document to be displayed on the display.

14. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to extract identifying information from the image data for each of the documents, the identifying information comprising a set of characters, in response to the controller not extracting all of the characters of the identifying information for one of the documents, the controller being configured to flag the document as a no-call document by causing a visually readable image of at least of portion of the document to be displayed on the display.

15. The document processing system of claim 14, wherein the document is a currency bill and the set of characters of the identifying information is a serial number having eleven or ten characters.

16. The document processing system of claim 13, wherein the document is a check and the complete set of the identifying information at least includes a routing number and an account number.

17. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the displayed visually readable image of at least of portion of the flagged currency bill is a serial number snippet image, a denomination snippet image, a complete image of one or both sides of the flagged currency bill, a federal reserve letter/number snippet, a check letter and quadrant number snippet, a check letter and face plate number snippet, a back plate number snippet, a series snippet, or a combination thereof.

18. The document processing system of claim 17, wherein the denomination snippet image is a image of a corner of the flagged currency bill including a numeric denomination or the denomination snippet image is an image of a portion of the flagged currency bill including an alphabetical denomination.

19. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 150 documents per minute.

20. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein each document has a wide edge, and wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport each document in a wide-edge leading manner.

21. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of documents comprise U.S. currency bills.

22. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of documents include currency bills associated with multiple countries including two or more of the following currencies:

U.S. dollar, euro, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Japanese yen, and pound sterling.

23. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 2 square feet.

24. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein the document processing system has a weight of less than about 35 pounds.

25. The document processing system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of documents comprise U.S. currency bills and each U.S. currency bill has a wide edge, and wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport each U.S. currency bill in a wide-edge leading manner, the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 1.5 square feet and a weight of less than about 25 pounds.

26. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 300 documents per minute.

27. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 600 documents per minute.

28. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 800 documents per minute.

29. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1000 documents per minute.

30. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1200 documents per minute.

31. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein in response to the controller not determining denominations of a plurality of the currency bills, the controller flags each of the plurality of currency bills as a no-call document by causing visually readable images of at least of portion of each of the flagged currency bills to be sequentially displayed on the display in an order corresponding to the order in which they were transported by the transport mechanism.

32. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle is exactly one output receptacle;

and in response to the controller not determining the denomination of the one of the currency bills, the controller is further configured to cause the transport mechanism to halt such that the flagged currency bill is the last document to be transported to the exactly one output receptacle.

33. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle is exactly one output receptacle;

and in response to the controller not determining the denomination of the one of the currency bills, the controller is further configured to cause the transport mechanism to halt such that the flagged currency bill is transported to a predetermined position in the exactly one output receptacle.

34. The document processing system of claim 33, wherein the predetermined position is the last document in the output receptacle.

35. The document processing system of claim 1, wherein the output receptacle includes at least two output receptacles and wherein the controller is configured to send flagged currency bills to one of the two output receptacles, one of the two output receptacles being configured to receive flagged currency bills;

and in response to the controller not determining the denomination of the one of the currency bills, the controller is further configured to cause the transport mechanism to transport the flagged currency bill to one of the two output receptacles.

36. The document processing system of claim 35, wherein the one of the two output receptacles that is configured to receive the flagged currency bills is a reject pocket.

37. A document processing system, comprising:

an input receptacle for receiving a plurality of currency bills;

a display;

a transport mechanism for transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path from the input receptacle to an output receptacle;

an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path, the image scanner configured to generate one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of currency bills; and

a controller coupled to the display, the transport mechanism, and the image scanner, the controller configured to determine a denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the controller not determining a denomination of one of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bill as a no-call currency bill by causing a visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed on the display.

62. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the controller is configured to cause the visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed simultaneously to the transport mechanism transporting at least a portion of the plurality of currency bills.

63. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a confidence level associated with the determination of the denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the determined confidence level associated with a currency bill being below a predetermined threshold, the controller is configured to flag the currency bill as a no-call document by causing the visually readable image of at least a portion of the flagged currency bill to be displayed on the display.

64. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the controller is further configured to extract identifying information from the image data for each of the currency bills, the identifying information comprising a serial number of at least ten characters, in response to the controller not extracting all of the characters of the identifying information for one of the currency bills, the controller being configured to flag the currency bill as a no-call document by causing a visually readable image of at least of portion of the currency bill to be displayed on the display.

65. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 2 square feet.

66. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the document processing system has a weight of less than about 35 pounds.

67. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the plurality of currency bills include U.S. currency bills and each U.S. currency bill has a wide edge, and wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport each U.S. currency bill in a wide-edge leading manner, the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 1.5 square feet and a weight of less than about 25 pounds.

68. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 600 bills per minute.

69. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 800 bills per minute.

70. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1000 bills per minute.

71. The document processing system of claim 37, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1200 bills per minute.

38. A document processing system, comprising:

an input receptacle for receiving a plurality of currency bills;

a display;

a transport mechanism for transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path from the input receptacle to an output receptacle;

an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path, the image scanner configured to generate one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of currency bills; and

a controller coupled to the display, the transport mechanism, and the image scanner, the controller configured to determine a denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the controller not determining denominations of a plurality of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bills as no-call currency bills by causing a plurality of visually readable images of at least a portion of each of the flagged currency bills to be displayed on the display at the same time.

72. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the controller is configured to cause the plurality of visually readable images of at least a portion of each of the flagged currency bills to be displayed simultaneously to the transport mechanism transporting at least a portion of the plurality of currency bills.

73. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a confidence level associated with the determination of the denomination of each of the currency bills, in response to the determined confidence level associated with a plurality of currency bills being below a predetermined threshold, the controller is configured to flag the currency bills as a no-call documents by causing the plurality of visually readable images of at least a portion of each of the flagged currency bills to be displayed on the display at the same time.

74. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the controller is further configured to extract identifying information from the image data for each of the currency bills, the identifying information comprising a serial number of at least ten characters, in response to the controller not extracting all of the characters of the identifying information for a plurality of the currency bills, the controller being configured to flag the currency bills as a no-call documents by causing a plurality of visually readable images of at least of portion of the currency bills to be displayed on the display at the same time.

75. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 2 square feet.

76. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the document processing system has a weight of less than about 35 pounds.

77. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the plurality of currency bills include U.S. currency bills and each U.S. currency bill has a wide edge, and wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport each U.S. currency bill in a wide-edge leading manner, the document processing system has a footprint of less than about 1.5 square feet and a weight of less than about 25 pounds.

78. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 600 bills per minute.

79. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 800 bills per minute.

80. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1000 bills per minute.

81. The document processing system of claim 38, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills past the image scanner and the image scanner is configured to generate the one or more electrical signals from which image data can be derived at a rate of at least about 1200 bills per minute.

39. A method of processing U.S. currency bills in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of U.S. currency bills in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each U.S. currency bill having an associated denomination;

transporting the plurality of U.S. currency bills along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle;

imaging each of the plurality of U.S. currency bills with an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path to produce image data, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of U.S. currency bills;

attempting to determine, via one or more processors, the denomination of U.S. currency bills being transported;

failing to determine the denomination of a currency bill being transported, the currency bill being a no call currency bill;

in response to the failing to determine the denomination of a currency bill being transported, displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of the no call currency bill on a display unit of the document processing system.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein each U.S. currency bill has a wide edge, and wherein the act of transporting comprises transporting each U.S. currency bill in a wide-edge leading manner.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the displaying occurs simultaneously to the transporting.

42. The method of claim 39, further comprising displaying a plurality of denomination elements, each of the denomination elements being associated with a distinct currency bill denomination.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising in response to the selection of one of the denomination elements, the document processing system associating the distinct denomination associated with the selected denomination element with the no call currency bill.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the distinct denomination is tagged to a portion of the image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of the no call currency bill.

45. The method of claim 43, further comprising storing the portion of the image data that is reproducible as the visually readable image of at least a portion of the no call currency bill and the associated distinct denomination in a memory of the document processing system.

46. The method of claim 39, further comprising extracting alphanumeric characters from the image data for each of currency bills, and in response to the extracted alphanumeric characters for one of the currency bills not forming a complete set of identifying information, displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of the one of the currency bills on the display unit.

47. The method of claim 46, further comprising displaying a plurality of alphanumeric character elements, each of the alphanumeric character elements being associated with a distinct alphanumeric character.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising activating one or more of the alphanumeric character elements to complete the set of identifying information.

49. The method of claim 48, further comprising tagging the completed set of the identifying information to image data associated with the one of the currency bills and storing the image data and tagged identifying information in a memory of the document processing system.

50. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle of the document processing system, the plurality of documents including currency bills;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner;

generating image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents;

automatically determining, via one or more processors, denominations of currency bills based on the generated image data;

failing to automatically determine the denomination of a currency bill being transported, the currency bill being a no call currency bill; and

in response to the failing to automatically determine the denomination of a currency bill being transported, displaying at least a portion of a visually readable image of the no call currency bill on a display unit.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising attempting to extract alphanumeric characters from the image data to generate identifying information associated with each document, and in response to a confidence level associated with one or more extracted alphanumeric characters being below a predetermined threshold for a document, displaying at least a portion of a visually readable image of the document on the display unit.

52. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle, the plurality of documents including currency bills and checks;

transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle, past an image scanner, to an output receptacle;

imaging each of the plurality of documents with the image scanner to produce image data, the image data associated with each individual document being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of a respective document;

determining, via one or more processors in the document processing system, whether the image data associated with each individual document satisfies one or more flag criteria, one of the individual documents being a U.S. currency bill;

in response to the image data associated with one of the individual documents satisfying one of the flag criteria, displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of the one of the individual documents on a display unit;

displaying a plurality of selectable elements on the display unit, each of the plurality of selectable elements being associated with a distinct denomination; and

in response to a selection of one of the selectable elements, tagging the image data which is reproducible as the image being displayed on the display unit with the associated denomination and storing the tagged image data in a memory of the document processing device.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the displaying occurs simultaneously to the transporting.

54. The method of claim 53, further comprising displaying a flag code associated with a reason that the image data associated with the one of the individual documents satisfied the one of the flag criteria, the flag code being displayed adjacent to the displayed visually readable image.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the flag code is a no-call denomination code, a no-call serial number code, a no-call MICR code, a suspect code, a doubles code, an overlap code, a fitness code, a soil code, or a combination thereof.

56. The method of claim 52, wherein the plurality of selectable elements are each associated with a distinct alphanumeric character and the method further comprises in response to the selection of one of the selectable elements, tagging the image data which is reproducible as the image being displayed on the display unit with the associated alphanumeric character and storing the tagged image data in a memory of the document processing system.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the selected distinct alphanumeric character is a missing character of a currency bill serial number that failed to be extracted from the image data, or the selected distinct alphanumeric character is a missing character of a check MICR line or portion thereof that failed to be extracted from the image data.

58. The method of claim 52, further comprising removing the visually readable image of at least a portion of the one of the individual documents from the display unit in response to an operator selecting one of the plurality of elements on the display unit;

and displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of a second individual document on the display unit in response to image data associated with the second individual document satisfying one of the flag criteria, the displaying the visually readable image of at least a portion of the second individual document occurring simultaneously to the transporting.

59. A currency bill processing system, comprising:

an input receptacle for receiving a plurality of currency bills, each currency bill having a denomination associated therewith;

a display;

a transport mechanism for transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path from the input receptacle to an output receptacle;

an image scanner positioned to image currency bills transported along the transport path to produce image data, the image data associated with each individual currency bill being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of a respective currency bill; and

a controller coupled to the display, the transport mechanism, and the image scanner, the controller being configured to determine the denomination of currency bills transported along the transport path, currency bills that the controller fails to denominate being no call currency bills, in response to the controller not determining a denomination of one of the currency bills, the controller flags the currency bill as a no-call currency bill by causing a visually readable image of at least a portion of the no call currency bill to be displayed on the display.

60. The currency bill processing system of claim 59, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills at a rate of at least about 500 documents per minute.

61. The currency bill processing system of claim 59, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the currency bills at a rate of at least about 1500 documents per minute.