Systems and methods for obtaining financial offers using mobile image capture

• US 8,483,473 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitek Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mitek Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Roach, John J., Nepomniachtchi, Grisha, Couch, Robert, Avergun, Mikhail
• Primary Examiner(s): GORADIA, SHEFALI DINESH
• Application Number:
  US13/663,450
• Publication Number:
  US 20130051610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 253 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382137-140, 705 39- 45, 235/379
• US Class Current: 382/137
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3676 Balancing accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1475 Inclination or skew detection or correction of characters or of image to be recognised
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/162 Quantising the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/166 Normalisation of pattern dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/001 Sharing resources, e.g. processing power or memory, with a connected apparatus or enhancing the capability of the still picture apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera

Abstract

Systems and methods for applying for and creating balance transfers with a mobile device are provided. An image of a customer'"'"'s financial statement can be taken using a mobile device, after which the image is analyzed to extract information relevant to creating a balance transfer. The extracted information is then communicated to a bank over a network connected with the mobile device, where the bank can process the information and create an offer to the customer for a balance transfer in real-time. An example financial statement is a credit card statement. These systems and methods may comprise capturing an image of a document using a mobile communication device; transmitting the image to a server; detecting relevant information within the image; transmitting the information to a bank; and transmitting a resulting balance transfer offer from the bank to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of processing balance transfers using a mobile device, comprising:

receiving a mobile image of a financial statement captured with the mobile device;

detecting the financial statement within the mobile image of the financial statement;

generating a document sub-image that includes a portion of the mobile image that corresponds to the financial statement;

geometrically correcting the document sub-image of the financial statement to generate a geometrically corrected image;

processing the geometrically corrected image to generate a processed image;

executing one or more mobile image quality assurance tests on the processed image to assess the quality of the processed image;

extracting information from the processed image;

transmitting the information to a remote server;

creating a balance transfer offer based on the information; and

transmitting the balance transfer offer to the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial statement is a credit card statement.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information includes at least one of a credit card number, a balance, an interest rate, an account number, a bank routing number, a yield, a cost, a fee, a user name, a user address, a user phone number, and a user e-mail address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information is extracted from the mobile image by identifying at least one of a credit card number field, a balance field, an interest rate field, an account number field, a bank routing number field, a yield field, a cost field, a fee field, a user name field, a user address field, a user phone number field, and a user e-mail address field.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the balance transfer offer on a display of the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a balance transfer offer based on a credit history of a user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote server is located at a financial institution.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the extraction of information from the processed image, the transmission of information to the remote server, the creation of the balance transfer offer and the transmission of the balance transfer offer to the mobile device are performed in real-time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of balance transfer offers is created and transmitted to the mobile device.

10. A system for processing balance transfers using a mobile device, comprising:

a receiving unit which receives a mobile image of a financial statement captured with the mobile device;

an image correction unit which is configured to;

detect the financial statement within the mobile image of the financial statement;

generate a document sub-image that includes a portion of the mobile image that corresponds to the financial statement;

geometrically correct the document sub-image of the financial statement to generate a geometrically corrected image;

process the geometrically corrected image to generate a processed image;

execute one or more mobile image quality assurance tests on the processed image to assess the quality of the processed image;

an extraction unit which extracts information from the processed image;

a communication unit which transmits the information to a remote server; and

a calculation unit at the remote server which creates a balance transfer offer based on the information;

wherein the communication unit receives the balance transfer offer from the calculation unit and transmits the balance transfer offer to the mobile device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the financial statement is a credit card statement.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the information includes at least one of a credit card number, a balance, an interest rate, an account number, a bank routing number, a yield, a cost, a fee, a user name, a user address, a user phone number and a user e-mail address.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the extraction unit extracts the information from the mobile image by identifying at least one of a credit card number field, a balance field, an interest rate field, an account number field, a bank routing number field, a yield field, a cost field, a fee field, a user name field, a user address field, a user phone number field and a user e-mail address field.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising an image capture unit on the mobile device which captures the mobile image of a financial statement.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a display unit on the mobile device which displays the balance transfer offer to a user.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the calculation unit determines the balance transfer offer based on a credit history.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the remote server is located at a financial institution.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the extraction of information from the processed image, the transmission of information to the remote server, the creation of the balance transfer offer and the transmission of the balance transfer offer to the mobile device are performed in real-time.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the calculation unit creates a plurality of balance transfer offers.