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

• US 9,971,935 B1
• Filed: 12/30/2014
• Issued: 05/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Cummins-Allison Corporation (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Mennie, Douglas U., Susai, Antony D., Jones, William J., Csulits, Frank M., Anderson, Matthew L., Klein, Robert J., Jaeger, Ralf H., Badalamenti, David R., Beutel, Dale E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rush, Eric
• Application Number:
  US14/585,838
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 382100, 382135, 382137, 382138, 382140, 902 1, 902 6, 902 7, 902 11, 902 17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/96 Management of image or video recognition tasks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/98 Detection or correction of errors, e.g. by rescanning the pattern or by human intervention; Evaluation of the quality of the acquired patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/30 Tracking or tracing valuable papers or cassettes
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 2211/00 Paper-money handling devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/00 Testing specially adapted to determine the identity or genuineness of valuable papers or for segregating those which are unacceptable, e.g. banknotes that are alien to a currency
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/003 using security elements using digital security elements G07D7/004
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/004 using digital security elements, e.g. information coded on a magnetic thread or strip
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/202 using pattern matching
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/2033 Matching unique patterns, i.e. patterns that are unique to each individual paper
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/202 Depositing operations within ATMs depositing in general G07D11/00

Abstract

Currency bills are transported past an image scanner to one or more output receptacles. Each of the bills is imaged to produce image data from which a visually readable image of each bill can be reproduced. The serial number, denomination, and/or secondary identifiers of a bill is attempted to be extracted and/or determined from the image data associated with the bill. The serial number of the bill has an integer number, X, of characters. One or more of the X characters of the serial number of the currency bill is not extracted with a predetermined confidence. In response to failing to extract all of the X characters of the serial number of the bill with the predetermined confidence, a serial number field in an electronic record associated with the bill is populated with a serial number snippet image. The electronic record is stored in a non-transitory memory.

Claims

1. A method of processing a stack of currency bills using a document processing system, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving a stack of currency bills in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each of the currency bills having a denomination, a serial number, and a set of secondary identifiers;

transporting the currency bills from the input receptacle in a serial fashion, past an image scanner, to one or more output receptacles;

imaging each of the currency bills via the image scanner to produce image data from which a visually readable image of each currency bill can be reproduced;

attempting to extract, from the image data associated with a first one of the currency bills, the set of secondary identifiers of the first currency bill, the set of secondary identifiers including one or more secondary identifiers, each of the one or more secondary identifiers having a respective integer number of characters;

failing to extract all of the respective integer number of characters of one of the secondary identifiers included in the set of secondary identifiers of the first currency bill;

in response to failing to extract all of the respective integer number of characters of the one of the secondary identifiers included in the set of secondary identifiers of the first currency bill, populating a corresponding secondary identifier field in an electronic record with a corresponding secondary identifier snippet image associated with the one secondary identifier that failed to be completely extracted; and

storing the electronic record in a memory device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

attempting to determine the denomination of the first currency bill;

failing to determine the denomination of the first currency bill; and

in response to failing to determine the denomination of the first currency bill, populating a denomination field in the electronic record with a denomination snippet image of the first currency bill.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

attempting to extract, from the image data associated with the first currency bill, the serial number of the first currency bill, the serial number of the first currency bill having an integer number, X, of characters;

failing to extract all of the X characters of the serial number of the first currency bill; and

in response to failing to extract all of the X characters of the serial number of the first currency bill, populating a serial number field in the electronic record with a serial number snippet image of the first currency bill.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory device is located within the document processing system, communicatively connected thereto, or both.

5. A method of processing currency bills using a document processing system, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving currency bills in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each of the currency bills being associated with a denomination, a serial number, and a set of secondary identifiers;

transporting the currency bills from the input receptacle in a serial fashion, past an image scanner, to one or more output receptacles;

imaging each of the currency bills via the image scanner to produce image data from which a visually readable image of each currency bill can be reproduced;

attempting to determine the denomination of a first one of the currency bills;

attempting to extract the serial number from the image data associated with the first currency bill;

attempting to extract the set of secondary identifiers from the image data associated with the first currency bill; and

generating an electronic record including a denomination field, a serial number field, and a plurality of secondary identifier fields, the act of generating the electronic record comprising;

(i) populating the denomination field in the electronic record with a denomination snippet image;

(ii) populating the serial number field in the electronic record with a serial number snippet image;

(iii) populating each of the plurality of secondary identifier fields in the electronic record with a corresponding secondary identifier snippet image;

(iv) in response to determining the denomination of the first currency bill, further populating the denomination field in the electronic record with the determined denomination;

(v) in response to extracting the serial number of the first currency bill, further populating the serial number field in the electronic record with the extracted serial number; and

(vi) in response to extracting one or more of the secondary identifiers of the first currency bill, populating corresponding ones of the plurality of secondary identifier fields in the electronic record with corresponding ones of the extracted one or more secondary identifiers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the act of transporting comprises transporting the currency bills in a wide-edge leading manner and wherein the act of imaging comprises imaging the currency bills at a resolution of about 400 DPI by 400 DPI, the method further comprising storing the electronic record in a non-transitory memory device.