Ncr Corporation

Stewart B Kelland

Steven D Williamson

Hui Wu

Neil P Boyd

A method is provided of operating an image-based self-service check depositing terminal. The method comprises receiving from a self-service depositor a check to be deposited, illuminating the check with infrared radiation to improve contrast between pre-printed characters on the check and non-pre-printed check data on the check, and electronically on an imager capturing an image of the check while the check is illuminated with infrared radiation to provide a captured infrared check image with improved contrast between at least one pre-printed character on the check and non-pre-printed check data on the check so as to allow location of a check field associated with the check to be more easily located.

Methods of operating an image-based self-service check depositing terminal to improve locating a pre-defined check field and an apparatus therefor

A method of processing a deposit slip item in a check processing system comprises the steps of (a) capturing an image of the deposit slip item, (b) extracting account owner data from the captured image of step (a), (c) recognizing an account owner name from the extracted account owner data of step (b), and (d) storing the recognized account owner name of step (c) in memory to provide a lexicon against which extracted payee data from a check item can be compared. The method may further comprise the steps of (e) generating a number of equivalent account owner names based upon the extracted account owner data of step (b), and (f) storing the equivalent account owner names of step (e) in memory to provide other lexicons against which extracted payee data from a check item can be compared.

Method of processing items in a check processing system and an apparatus therefor

A method of processing documents in an image-based document processing system to associate recognition results from a primary source results list with corresponding recognition results from a secondary source results list to improve assistance to an operator of the image-based document processing system during, operation of the image-based document processing system comprises the steps of (a) scanning a first type of document to obtain scanned data representative thereof, (b) scanning a second type of document to obtain scanned data representative thereof, (c) processing scanned data representative of the first type of document to provide recognition results associated with the first type of document, (d) processing scanned data representative of the second type of document to provide recognition results associated with the second document, (e) storing recognition results associated with the first type of document in a primary list, (f) storing recognition results associated with the second type of document in a secondary list, (g) comparing recognition results from the primary list with recognition results from the secondary list to determine if an exact match occurs and thereby to associate a first set of recognition results from the primary list and a first set of recognition results from the secondary list, and (h) comparing recognition results from the primary list with recognition results from the secondary list to determine if an approximate match occurs when an exact match fails to occur in step (g) and thereby to associate a second set of recognition results from the primary list and a second set of recognition results from the secondary list.

Method of processing documents in an image-based document processing system and an apparatus therefor

A method of locating a monetary amount in a binary image, with a binary 1 representing a black pixel and a binary 0 representing a white pixel. An examining window is positioned over a portion of the binary image and a list of objects is generated, with an object being defined as a set of contiguous black pixels. The objects are classified into classes of parts depending on predetermined criteria. The classes of parts are then examined to determine whether or not they fit into a certain sequence which is indicative of a monetary amount. For example, for US currency, one sequence is 'character, dot, character, character' which might stand for $2.46. The next step is to examine the classes of parts to determine whether or not they conform to certain geometric criteria to be indicative of a monetary amount. At this time, the classes of parts within the window may indicate that a monetary amount is present; however, a subsequent character recognition operation would have to be performed to determine what the individual characters are. The window is moved to a next portion of data, and the process described is repeated.

Method for detecting machine printed monetary amounts in binary images

A method of searching a matrix of binary data to find search regions in which straight lines may be found, with the straight lines being those which are perpendicular to the original direction of scanning which produced the matrix of binary data. The method comprises the steps: (a) determining a number of search scans to cover a predetermined area of the matrix of binary data; (b) scanning the predetermined area in a direction which is parallel to the original direction of scanning to search for the presence of binary indicia like binary ones along the predetermined number of search scans to generate search results for each of the search scans, with a binary one indicating the presence of data; (c) ANDing the search results of preselected search scans to generate AND-scans; (d) ORing preselected AND-scans to generate OR-scans; and (e) using the OR-scans to define the search regions in which to look for straight lines which are perpendicular to the original direction of scanning.

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Waterloo, Canada

Stewart B Kelland