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

• US 9,189,780 B1
• Filed: 12/24/2014
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Jones, William J., Csulits, Frank M., Hallowell, Curtis W., Mennie, Douglas U., Anderson, Matthew L., Klein, Robert J., Jaeger, Ralf H., Badalamenti, David R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W
• Application Number:
  US14/582,330
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/146 Aligning or centring of the image pick-up or image-field
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/148 Segmentation of character regions
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0047 using checkcodes, e.g. coded numbers derived from serial number and denomination
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/04 Testing magnetic properties of the materials thereof, e.g. by detection of magnetic imprint G07D7/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/12 Visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/202 using pattern matching

Abstract

A first prompt is displayed to insert a deposit slip that includes declared information. The deposit slip is received, transported at a first speed, and imaged. A total declared cash-in amount and a total declared check amount are extracted from image data associated with the deposit slip. The total declared cash-in amount is determined to be a non-zero number. A second prompt is displayed to insert currency bills. The currency bills are received, transported at a second speed, and imaged. Deposit information is generated from image data associated with each of the currency bills. The deposit information at least includes a calculated total cash deposit amount. The deposit information is compared with the declared information to determine if the deposit transaction is balanced.

Claims

1. A method of processing a deposit transaction involving a plurality of documents on a document processing device, the method comprising:

receiving a customer account number via an interface of a teller system;

transmitting the received customer account number from the teller system to a document processing device;

prompting a user to input documents associated with the deposit transaction and the received customer account number into an input receptacle of the document processing device;

receiving a plurality of documents associated with the deposit transaction and the received customer account number in the input receptacle of the document processing device, the plurality of documents including one or more checks and a deposit slip;

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

imaging each document with the image scanner to produce image data associated with the deposit transaction, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each document;

automatically generating deposit information from the image data associated with the deposit transaction, the deposit information at least including a total deposit amount;

automatically associating the customer account number and the generated deposit information with the image data associated with the deposit transaction;

automatically transmitting the deposit information to at least one of one or more interfaces of the document processing device, the at least one of the one or more interfaces being communicatively connected to the teller system; and

automatically transmitting at least a portion of the image data associated with the deposit transaction to at least one of the one or more interfaces of the document processing device, the at least one of the one or more interfaces being communicatively connected to a proof of deposit system, the at least a portion of the image data being associated with the one or more checks and the deposit slip included in the plurality of documents.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of documents further include currency bills.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the deposit slip includes a total declared deposit amount, a total declared check deposit amount, a total declared cash deposit amount, a total declared cash withdrawal amount, the customer account number, or any combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the automatically generating comprises extracting the total declared deposit amount from the deposit slip.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the automatically generating comprises extracting the total declared deposit amount, the total declared check deposit amount, the total declared cash deposit amount, the total declared cash withdrawal amount, or any combinations thereof from the deposit slip.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the deposit information includes the total declared deposit amount, the total declared check deposit amount, the total declared cash deposit amount, and the total declared cash withdrawal amount extracted from the deposit slip.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the deposit information includes the total declared deposit amount, the total declared check deposit amount, the total declared cash deposit amount, and the total declared cash withdrawal amount extracted from the deposit slip and the deposit information further includes a determined total cash-in amount, a determined total cash-out amount, a determined total check amount, and a determined total deposit amount.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the automatically generating comprises:

denominating, counting, and totaling the currency bills to determine a total cash-in amount;

extracting a legal amount, a courtesy amount, or both from each of the checks;

determining a check amount for each check based on the extracted legal amount, courtesy amount, or both;

totaling the determined check amounts to determine a total check amount; and

totaling the determined total cash-in amount and the determined total check amount to determine a total deposit amount.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the deposit information includes the total cash-in amount, the total check amount, and the total deposit amount.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically generating a provisional credit instruction based on the transmitted deposit information, the provisional credit instruction being associated with the customer account number.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the provisional credit instruction is a memo posting to a bank accounting system that maintains customer accounts.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically associating a transaction identifier with the generated deposit information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the transaction identifier is a unique transaction identifier.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically associating a teller identifier with the generated deposit information.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving the teller identifier via at least one of the one or more interfaces of the document processing device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more interfaces is a user input interface physically attached to the document processing device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more interfaces is a communications interface and the customer account number is entered via a user input interface located remotely from the document processing device, the user input interface being communicatively connected with the interface of the document processing device and operable to transmit the customer account number to the document processing device.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically transmitting the associated customer account number along with the deposit information.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising automatically transmitting at least a portion of the image data along with the deposit information and the associated customer account number.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the image data associated with the deposit transaction and the associated customer account number and the associated deposit information in a memory, wherein the memory is an electronic storage device located within the teller system, within the document processing device, or remote from both.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the image data associated with the deposit transaction is stored in the memory by the customer account number, a teller identifier, a transaction identifier, or any combination thereof and wherein the memory is searchable by the customer account number, the teller identifier, the transaction identifier, or any combination thereof.