Abstract: A system and method for electronically creating, presenting, paying and reconciling bills includes an electronic bill presenter in electronic communication with bill originators, bill payers and respective banks. The electronic bill presenter receives bill data from bill originators, creates bills in a graphical format for electronic presentation to bill payers, and transmits bill payment instructions received from bill payers to bill payers' banks for transfer of payments to bill originators' banks. The electronic bill presenter also sends a confirmatory reconciliation message to the bill originator for payment instructions received from bill payers.

Abstract: An image processing and retrieval system in which images are captured and stored at the remote site where the document processor is located which codelines from the documents are captured and transmitted to a central host computer site, whereby the accounting and financial records may be done at the host computer at the central site and image statements and other image processing activity to process the image may be done at remote sites.

Abstract: An image processing and retrieval system in which images are captured and stored at the remote site where the document processor is located, with codelines from the documents captured and transmitted to a central host computer site, whereby the accounting and financial records may be done at the host computer at the central site and image statements and other image processing activity to process the image may be done at remote sites.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for processing checks and deposit tickets. The deposit ticket and its corresponding checks are transported through a portion of the apparatus where data representing the monetary amounts displayed on the documents is entered into a computer. The checks are held in a buffer area until all of the checks in the group corresponding to the deposit ticket have had their amounts entered. When the computer indicates that the total of the entered amounts equals the amount on the deposit ticket, the checks are individually withdrawn from the buffer and delivered to an inscriber which encodes or prints monetary data on the checks. By inscribing the checks only after balancing, the need to make corrections to inscribed checks is significantly reduced.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of processing data is disclosed for recognizing unknown characters of a known character set, some of the characters having diacritical marks. The method includes the steps of storing the image data of an unknown character which may contain a diacritical mark. From the stored image data a predetermined localized area of data is extracted that corresponds to the expected location of the diacritical mark. The extracted diacritical mark image data and at least a portion of the stored image data of the unknown character are examined to recognize the character and any diacritical mark associated therewith. Also disclosed are video preprocessing techniques for segmenting the characters using profiles thereof, inclusive-bit-coding to separate characters based upon differences in size, justification of the extracted diacritical mark image data, unique encoding of the recognition results, and post-processing verification for characters including diacritical marks.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of processing data is disclosed for recognizing unknown characters of a known character set based in part upon the frequency of occurrence of the characters. The method includes the steps of storing the image data of the unkown characters and then sequentially applying discrete sets of tests capable of first recognizing data and identifying characters having a higher frequency of occurrence. A second stage of discriminatory tests is sequentially applied to the unrecognized data for recognizing data and identifying characters having a lower frequency of occurrence than the first group of characters.

Abstract: In the machine recognition of hand printed characters it is desirable that the characters be constrained to a uniform size. This may be accomplished by taking a relatively unconstrained hand printed character and, through simple logical processes involving eliminating and/or combining portions of the unconstrained character, obtain a constrained character of a specified size. To obtain this specified character, the unconstrained characters are stored in a video line buffer as a plurality of rows of binary bits. When a row character is located in the video line buffer a process of vertical and horizontal consolidation is initiated. In the vertical consolidation, which is performed first, predetermined rows of the bits of the row character are selectively combined with other rows of stored bits or selected without change to reduce the height of the character to a predetermined desired height. Unselected rows are ignored.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for segmenting character images in an optical image system where the character images have a predetermined pitch. The optical image system generates character information in the form of a successive series of scan lines of data. Profiles of the character images being scanned are generated, and a profile segment meeting certain criteria is selected. The center of the selected profile segment is located, and segmentation points between the character images are established as a linear function of the character image pitch and located center. The segmentation points are integer multiples of the pitch.