System and method for processing currency bills and tickets

• US 8,459,436 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2012
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Jenrick, Charles P., Klein, Robert J., Hallowell, Curtis W., Mennie, Douglas U.
• Primary Examiner(s): BEAUCHAINE, MARK J
• Application Number:
  US13/710,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20130098992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 183 Days
• Field of Search: 194/206, 194/207, 235/379, 235/462.01, 235/462.11, 235/462.41, 209/534, 700/215, 700/224, 700/226, 382/112, 382/135, 382/137, 382/138, 382/139, 382/140, 250/559.44, 250/559.45, 250/559.46, 250/556, 731/59, 270/52.02
• US Class Current: 194/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 5/00 Methods or arrangements for verifying the correctness of markings on a record carrier; Column detection devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 11/02 for validating inserted tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/20 Controlling or monitoring the operation of devices; Data handling
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 3/125 by moving deflectors
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0043 using barcodes
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/12 Visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation

Abstract

A method of processing documents includes receiving a stack of documents including currency bills and substitute currency media. Each substitute currency medium has at least one barcode. The method further includes transporting the stack of documents via a transport mechanism, one document at a time, along a transport path and denominating with a currency detector each of the currency bills in the stack of documents. The currency detector is positioned adjacent to the transport path. The method further includes scanning with a barcode scanner a barcode on each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents. The barcode scanner is positioned adjacent to the transport path. The method further includes imaging with an image scanner each substitute currency medium in the stack of documents to generate a raw image file of the substitute currency medium. The image scanner is positioned adjacent to the transport path.

Claims

1. A method of processing substitute currency media, comprising:

transporting a stack of substitute currency media via a transport mechanism, in a serial fashion, along a transport path, each substitute currency medium having a barcoded pattern printed thereon;

scanning the barcoded pattern on each transported substitute currency medium with a barcode scanner to obtain a scanned barcode number for each substitute currency medium;

imaging each transported substitute currency medium with an image scanner to generate image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of each of the substitute currency media;

using a controller, determining, from the image data associated with each of the substitute currency media, a determined barcode number for each substitute currency medium; and

performing an image quality check of the generated image data by determining for each substitute currency medium if the determined barcode number from the image data matches the scanned barcode number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generated image data is of sufficient quality when the determined barcode number matches the corresponding scanned barcode number.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

for each substitute currency medium associated with image data of sufficient quality, transporting, via the transport mechanism, the substitute currency medium to a document destruction device and destroying the substitute currency medium; and

for each substitute currency medium associated with image data not of sufficient quality, transporting, via the transport mechanism, the substitute currency medium to an output receptacle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a determined barcode number includes decoding the barcoded pattern from the image data associated with each substitute currency medium transported along the transport path.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a determined barcode number includes extracting the determined barcode number via OCR from the image data associated with each substitute currency medium transported along the transport path.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a storage device an image file including at least a portion of the generated image data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the acts of transporting, scanning, imaging, determining, and performing occur at a rate of at least 1000 substitute currency media per minute.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the acts of transporting, scanning, imaging, determining, and performing occur at a rate of at least 1500 substitute currency media per minute.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transporting a stack of currency bills via a transport mechanism, in a serial fashion, along the transport path; and

denominating each of the currency bills transported along the transport path with a currency detector.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising authenticating the transported currency bills with at least one authentication detector.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the transported stack includes both currency bills and the substitute media, the method further comprising sorting the substitute currency media from the currency bills and further sorting the currency bills by denomination into separate output receptacles.

12. A document processing device, comprising:

an input receptacle for receiving a stack of documents, the stack of documents including substitute currency media, each substitute currency medium having a barcoded pattern;

a transport mechanism for transporting the documents, in a serial fashion, from the input receptacle along a transport path;

a media detector configured to scan the barcoded pattern and obtain a scanned barcode number located on each substitute currency medium transported via the transport mechanism along the transport path; and

an image scanner configured to image each substitute currency medium transported via the transport mechanism along the transport path to generate image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of each of the substitute currency media; and

one or more controllers configured to;

(i) determine, from the image data associated with each of the substitute currency media, a determined barcode number for each substitute currency medium; and

(ii) determine if the determined barcode number for each substitute currency medium matches a corresponding scanned barcode number.

13. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the stack of documents further includes currency bills, the device further comprising:

a currency detector configured to denominate the currency bills transported via the transport mechanism along the transport path; and

at least one authentication detector configured to authenticate the currency bills transported via the transport mechanism along the transport path.

14. The document processing device of claim 13, further comprising a plurality of output receptacles, the transport mechanism transporting currency bills to one or more of the plurality of output receptacles and transporting substitute currency media to a different one of the plurality of output receptacles.

15. The document processing device of claim 14, wherein the currency bills are sorted by denomination, each currency bill denomination being transported to a different one of the plurality of output receptacles.

16. The document processing device of claim 12, further comprising a storage device, wherein the image data associated with each of the substitute currency media is saved to the storage device.

17. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to crop, deskew, and compress the image data.

18. The document processing device of claim 17, wherein the image data is saved in a JPEG file format.

19. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the image data is of sufficient quality when the determined barcode number matches the corresponding scanned barcode number.

20. The document processing device of claim 19, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to cause the transport mechanism to transport substitute currency medium associated with image data of sufficient quality to a document destruction device, and wherein the one or more controllers are configured to cause the transport mechanism to transport substitute currency medium associated with image data not of sufficient quality to a reject receptacle.

21. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to determine a determined barcode number by decoding the barcoded pattern from the image data associated with each transported substitute currency medium.

22. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to determine a determined barcode number by extracting the determined barcode number via OCR from the image data associated with each transported substitute currency medium.

23. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents along the transport path, the media detector is configured to scan the barcoded patterns, and the image scanner is configured to image at a rate of at least 1000 documents per minute.

24. The document processing device of claim 12, wherein the transport mechanism is configured to transport the documents along the transport path, the media detector is configured to scan the barcoded patterns, and the image scanner is configured to image at a rate of at least 1500 documents per minute.