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

• US 8,714,336 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2012
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• 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:
  US13/437,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20120189186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 194/206, 194/207, 209/534, 209/583, 382135-140, 235/379, 902 8- 21
• US Class Current: 194/207
• 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 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; and

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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying occurs simultaneously to the transporting.

3. The method of claim 2, 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.

4. The method of claim 3, 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.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising displaying a plurality of selectable elements on the display unit.

6. The method of claim 5, 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.

7. The method of claim 6, 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.

8. The method of claim 5, 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.

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

receiving a plurality of currency bills in an input receptacle;

transporting the plurality of currency bills 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 currency bills with the image scanner 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;

determining in the document processing system whether the image data associated with each individual currency bill satisfies one or more flag criteria; and

in response to the image data associated with one of the individual currency bills satisfying one of the flag criteria, stopping the transporting of currency bills such that the one of the individual currency bills is transported to the output receptacle in a predetermined location when the transporting is stopped.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined location is the last currency bill transported to the output receptacle.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying on a display unit of the document processing system a flag code associated with a reason that the image data associated with the one of the individual currency bills satisfied the one of the flag criteria.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the flag code is a no-call denomination code, a no-call serial number code, a suspect code, a doubles code, an overlap code, a fitness code, a soil code, or any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying a plurality of selectable elements on a display unit of the document processing system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of selectable elements are each associated with a distinct alphanumeric character, and wherein the selection of one of the selectable elements associates the associated distinct alphanumeric character as a missing character of a currency bill serial number that failed to be extracted from the image data.

15. A method of processing documents in a document processing system, comprising the acts of:

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

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

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

authenticating each of the documents to determine if any of the documents is a suspect document;

determining that a document is a suspect document based on the authenticating; and

in response to the determining that a document is a suspect document, displaying at least a portion of the generated image data as a visually readable image of the suspect document on a display unit of the document processing system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of authenticating each of the documents includes authenticating by testing the documents with one or more authentication sensors distinct from the image scanner.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of authenticating each of the documents includes authenticating by using the image data associated with each document.

18. The method of claim 15, in response to the act of determining, further comprising the act of detecting a selection of one of a plurality of selection elements.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the selection elements are softkeys, push button, mechanical buttons, virtual buttons, or a combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the output receptacle is exactly two output receptacles, one of the two output receptacles being a reject receptacle;

and in response to the act of determining that a document is a suspect document, the method further comprising transporting the suspect document to the reject receptacle.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the output receptacle is exactly one output receptacle;

and in response to the act of determining that a document is a suspect document, the method further comprises the act of stopping the transporting the documents such that the suspect document is the last document transported to the exactly one output receptacle.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the document processing system includes a document processing device communicatively connected to one or more computers.