Ncr Corporation

Khaled S Hassanein

Slawomir B Wesolkowski

Geoffrey G Marlow

Raymond L Higgins

Cameron W Woloshyn

A device captures an image of a check having a payee and/or a payor field. Payee data and/or payor data contained in the payee field and/or the payor field is extracted from the captured image. Extracted payee data and/or extracted payor data is stored in a data warehouse to allow a user to generate business-related information based upon the extracted payee data and/or the extracted payor data.

Method of processing a check and an apparatus therefor

A method of processing a document comprises the steps of (a) scanning a document to obtain gray scale image data associated with the document, (b) generating a two-dimensional histogram based upon the gray scale image data obtained in step (a), (c) applying a clustering algorithm to the two-dimensional histogram to determine a set of cluster center parameters associated with a first cluster of pixels and a set of cluster center parameters associated with a second cluster of pixels, (d) parameterizing a threshold curve associated with a binarization program based upon the set of cluster center parameters associated with the first cluster of pixels and the set of cluster center parameters associated with cluster of pixels, and (e) applying the binarization program to the gray scale image data associated with the document using the parameterized threshold curve obtained in step (d) to provide a binarized image data representative of a binary image of the document. Preferably, step (d) includes the steps of (d- ) calculating an average value associated with the first and second clusters of pixels, and (d- ) parameterizing at least a portion of the threshold curve based upon the average value calculated in step (d- ). The clustering algorithm includes a k-means clustering algorithm. The one cluster of pixels is representative of background of the document and the other cluster of pixels is representative of foreground of the document. One cluster of pixels is located above the other cluster of pixels. The above cluster of pixels is representative of background of the document and the other cluster of pixels is representative of foreground of the document.

Method of parameterizing a threshold curve for a binarization program and an apparatus therefor

A document processing apparatus comprises a scanner for scanning a bank check to obtain gray scale image data associated with the bank check. A processor is provided for (i) selecting one of a plurality of binarization programs based upon the gray scale image data, and (ii) applying the binarization program selected to at least a portion of the gray scale image data to provide a binary image of at least a portion of the bank check.

Method of selecting one of a plurality of binarization programs

A method of processing a matrix of gray scale picture elements derived from lifting an image of a document to extract strokes from the image of the document comprises the steps of (a) calculating a global average value of the gray scale picture elements, (b) placing a window over a portion of the matrix of gray scale picture elements, (c) calculating a local average value of the gray scale picture elements contained in the window of step (b), (d) comparing the global average value of step (a) with the local average value of step (c), (e) calculating a relative figure of importance (RFI) value for each gray scale picture element contained in the window of step (b) when the local average value calculated in step (c) is less than the global average value calculated in step (a), (f) increasing the size of the window of step (b) and replacing the window of step (b) with this increased sized window when the local average value calculated in step (c) is greater than the global average value calculated in step (a), and (g) repeating step (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f) using the increased sized window obtained in step (f) until the local average value calculated in (c) is less than the global average value.

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Waterloo, Canada

Khaled S Hassanein