Method and system for thin client based image and transaction management

• US 8,566,186 B1
• Filed: 05/29/2009
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Research Development and Manufacturing Corporation
• Original Assignee: RDM Corporation (Deluxe Corp.)
• Inventors: Heit, Graham, Newman, Douglas, Shamroni, Dima, Botejue, Dhammika, Kavanagh, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US12/474,350
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: 705 10- 44, 382/139
• US Class Current: 705/30
• 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 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Provided is a system for coordinating collection and processing of digital data by a plurality of deposit modules with respect to a plurality of users over a communications network, the digital data based on a plurality of original paper deposits and including at least digital images of the original paper deposits and respective deposit information, the system comprising: a communications module that provides a list of one or more deposit functions assigned to each respective user, each of the deposit functions coordinated by a corresponding module of the plurality of deposit modules, and that provides a list of the respective digital data that is associated with each of the assigned deposit modules; the plurality of deposit modules that facilitates a distribution of the deposit functions for the collection and processing of the digital data with one or more users of the plurality of users, the deposit modules including a first module that monitors receipt of the digital images and respective deposit information of the digital data, the first module associated with a scanner function of the list of deposit functions, and including a second module for implementing on the digital data a second deposit function of the plurality of the deposit functions; and a workflow module that monitors a flow of the digital data between the first deposit module and the second deposit module based on a completion status of the digital data with respect to the first module.

Claims

1. A mobile device configured for coordinating collection and submission of digital data by interacting with an image capture module of a plurality of deposit modules, the digital data including at least a digital image of a document and respective document information, such that at least some of the plurality of deposit modules are on a server in communication with the mobile device over a communications network, the plurality of deposit modules facilitating a distribution of deposit functions for the deposit processing of the digital data, the mobile device including:

an imaging device for converting the document into the digital image;

a processor and associated memory having instructions stored thereon for execution by the processor to communicate with the image capture module by;

accessing the digital image captured by the imaging device;

generating the digital data and communicating the digital data to the server for further deposit processing by at least one deposit module of the at least some of the plurality of deposit modules in the event that the digital image is deemed acceptable; and

interacting with an item acceptance process of the image capture module on the digital image to determine whether the digital image is acceptable by checking if the digital image is of sufficient image quality;

wherein the at least some of the plurality of deposit modules are selected from the group consisting of;

a key data module that provides a key data deposit function of a list of deposit functions;

a balancing module that provides batch balancing deposit function of the list of deposit functions;

a workflow module that monitors a flow of the digital data between the deposit modules based on a completion status; and

an approval module that provides a batch approval deposit function of the list of deposit functions.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed for execution by a decisioning module of the plurality of deposit modules to provide decisioning of the digital data and generating a decision with respect to the decisioning.

3. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the decisioning of the digital data is part of a distributed decisioning environment between the server and the mobile device, such that the decisioning decides the digital data is not storable based on exception criteria.

4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the exception criteria is a minimum information exception where the digital data is deemed not to contain a minimum amount of transactional information.

5. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the exception criteria is a minimum information exception where the respective document information is deemed not to contain a minimum amount of transactional information.

6. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the decision requires the provision from the mobile device of data supplemental to the decisioned digital data in response to the decision.

7. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein the decision is selected from the group comprising:

the digital data contains erroneous data; and

the digital data is incomplete.

8. The mobile device of claim 1 further comprising a user interface for facilitating the collection and submission of the digital data, the user interface including a network browser application that provides remote access to the server and the deposit modules hosted by the server.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the network is the Internet and the network service is a Web service.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed for execution by a logging module of the plurality of deposit modules to monitor an event or an activity with respect to the digital data that is recorded in connection with a user identification (ID) of a respective user implementing the event or the activity, the event or the activity associated with at least one of the deposit functions for the digital data.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the event or activity is associated with an error message pertaining to the deposit function selected from the group comprising:

the collection of the digital data; and

processing of the digital data.

12. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the digital data representing the document is grouped as a batch deposit.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein two or more users of a plurality of users contribute to the digital data contained in the batch deposit.

14. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the at least some of the plurality of deposit modules include:

a communications module that provides a list of one or more deposit functions assigned to each respective user of a plurality of users, each of the deposit functions coordinated by a corresponding module of the plurality of deposit modules.

15. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the image capture module is provided by the server for network interaction by the mobile device.

16. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the image capture device is a peripheral reader.

17. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed as one of many mobile devices as part of a distributed payment collection system in communication with the server, such that each of the mobile devices contributes digital data as part of total deposit information that is coordinated through workflow partitioning by the plurality of deposit modules.

18. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the computer processor is further programmed for execution to not store any transactional data or images of the digital data in local memory of the mobile device.

19. A method for coordinating collection and submission of digital data by interacting with an image capture module of a plurality of deposit modules, the digital data including at least a digital image of a document and respective document information, such that at least some of the plurality of deposit modules are on a server in communication with a mobile device over a communications network, the mobile device configured for the submission of the digital data, the plurality of deposit modules facilitating a distribution of deposit functions for deposit processing of the digital data, the method comprising the acts of:

converting the document into the digital image by an image capture device;

accessing the digital image;

generating, using a computer processor, the digital data and communicating the digital data to the server for further deposit processing by at least one deposit module of the at least some of the plurality of deposit modules in the event that the digital image is deemed acceptable; and

communicating, using the computer processor, with an item acceptance process of the image capture module on the digital image in order to determine whether the digital image is acceptable by checking if the digital image is of sufficient image quality;

wherein the at least some of the plurality of deposit modules are selected from the group consisting of;

a key data module that provides a key data deposit function of a list of deposit functions;

a balancing module that provides batch balancing deposit function of the list of deposit functions;

a workflow module that monitors a flow of the digital data between the deposit modules based on a completion status; and

an approval module that provides a batch approval deposit function of the list of deposit functions.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the act of decisioning of the digital data and generating a decision with respect to the decisioning.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising the act of providing, using the computer processor, data supplemental to the decisioned digital data in response to the decision.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the decision is selected from the group comprising:

the digital data contains erroneous data; and

the digital data is incomplete.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the decisioning of the digital data is part of a distributed decisioning environment between the server and the mobile device, such that the decisioning decides the digital data is not storable based on exception criteria.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the exception criteria is a minimum information exception where the digital data is deemed not to contain a minimum amount of transactional information.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the exception criteria is a minimum information exception where the respective document information is deemed not to contain a minimum amount of transactional information.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein a user interface facilitates the collection and submission of the digital data, the user interface includes a network browser application that provides remote access to the server and the deposit modules hosted by the server.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the network is the Internet and the network service is a Web service.

28. The method of claim 19 further comprising the act of monitoring, using the computer processor, an event or an activity with respect to the digital data that is recorded in connection with a user identification (ID) of a respective user implementing the event or the activity, the event or the activity associated with at least one of the deposit functions for the digital data.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the event or activity is associated with an error message pertaining to the deposit function selected from the group comprising:

the collection of the digital data; and

processing of the digital data.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the digital data representing the document is grouped as a batch deposit.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising the act of receiving contributions to the digital data contained in the batch deposit from two or more users of a plurality of users.

32. The method of claim 19, wherein the respective document information includes at least one of digital Magnetic Image Character Recognition (MICR) data or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) data.

33. The method of claim 19 further comprising the act of receiving error checking information from the server during the interaction as part of the item acceptance process in the event that the digital data is deemed not storable based on at least one exception criterion.

34. The method of claim 19 further comprising the act of coordinating collection of the digital data from the mobile device without providing error checking information to the mobile device.

35. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program instructs a computer processor to perform the following steps:

accessing a digital image of a document captured by an imaging device;

generating digital data including at least the digital image of the document and respective document information;

communicating over a communications network the digital data to a server for further deposit processing by at least one deposit module of a plurality of deposit modules in the event that the digital image is deemed acceptable; and

interacting with an item acceptance process of an image capture module of the plurality of deposit modules on the digital image to determine whether the digital image is acceptable by checking if the digital image is of sufficient image quality;

wherein the at least one deposit module is on the server, the plurality of deposit modules facilitating a distribution of deposit functions for the deposit processing of the digital data, such that the at least one deposit module is selected from the group consisting of;

a key data module that provides a key data deposit function of a list of deposit functions;

a balancing module that provides batch balancing deposit function of the list of deposit functions;

a workflow module that monitors a flow of the digital data between the deposit modules based on a completion status; and

an approval module that provides a batch approval deposit function of the list of deposit functions.