EP0320713A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Document image processing system
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
•
Filing: 1988-12-02
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2008-12-02
Abstract
Abstract Documents, such as bank checks, are processed at a high rate of speed on an image processing system which optically scans the documents and converts optically perceptible data on the documents into video image data. The video image data from the scanner (20) is compressed (26) by data compression techniques and the compressed data is sent over a high speed data channel (30) to a high speed mass storage device (40) which receives and temporarily stores the data. A lower speed mass data storage device (54), such as an optical disk, is connected for receiving at a lower data transfer rate the compressed video image data and for storing the video image data for subsequent retrieval. The system also includes real-time quality control systems (24) for monitoring the quality of the image data to detect the existence of unacceptable image quality data and for generating a signal which can be used for immediately stopping the generation of unacceptable quality image data.
Inventors
- 👤 Raymond F. Dinan
- 👤 James F. Dubil
- 👤 Jerald Robert Malin
- 👤 Robert R. Rodite
- 👤 Clair Frederick Rohe
- 👤 Gene Dale Rohrer
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-04 22:05
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/32; H04N1/32609; H04N1/21; H04N1/2166; H04N1/32625; H04N1/3263; H04N1/32646
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 46
Claim 1
Independent Claim
170 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means (14) for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, data compression means (26) associated with said scanner means (20) for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, a high speed mass data storage device (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, and a relatively lower speed mass data storage device (54) for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
170 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means (14) for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, data compression means (26) associated with said scanner means (20) for receiving and compressing the video image data obtained from the documents, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, a high speed mass data storage device (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, and a relatively lower speed mass data storage device (54) for receiving the compressed video image data from said high speed data storage device and for storing the compressed video image data for subsequent retrieval.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
19 words
The system according to claim 1 wherein said relatively lower speed mass data storage device comprises optical disk means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
20 words
The system according to claim 1 wherein said high speed mass data storage comprises a direct access magnetic storage device.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
69 words
The system according to claim 1 including pre-channel data buffer means (28) connected between said data compression means and said high speed data channel (30) for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed data channel to avoid loss of data in the event the rate of data transfer from said data compression means temporarily exceeds the data transfer rate of said high speed data channel.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
80 words
The system according to claim 1 or 4 including post-channel (32) data buffer means connected between said high speed data channel (30) and said high speed mass data storage device (40) for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed mass data storage device to avoid loss of data in the event the rate of data transfer from said data channel temporarily exceeds the rate at which said high speed mass data storage device can accept data.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
67 words
The system according to claim 1 wherein said document scanner (20) means includes means for optically scanning both the front and the back of each of a series of successive documents, and wherein said high speed data storage device (40) and said low speed data storage device (54) include means for storing video image data for both the front and the back of each of said documents.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
49 words
The system according to claim 1 including image processor means (23) cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and for converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
118 words
The system according to claim 7 wherein said image processor means includes resolution reduction means for reducing the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, and thresholding means for converting the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution into digital black and white video image data of said first resolution, and wherein said image data compression means includes means for receiving and compressing both the gray scale video image data of said second resolution and the black and white video image data of said first resolution for storage by said high speed mass data storage device.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
54 words
The system according to claim 7 including real-time image quality control means cooperating with said image processor means for monitoring the characteristics of the video image data and for generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a predetermined prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system according to claim 9 wherein said real time image quality control means includes means for monitoring the distribution of gray scale values of the digital gray scale video image data and for generating said signal if the distribution of gray scale values is outside of a predetermined acceptable distribution.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system according to claim 9 or 10 including means responsive to said signal for immediately stopping said document transport means (14) to thereby immediately halt the generation of unacceptable quality image data from the documents.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
60 words
The system according to claim 1 including real-time image quality control means (24) cooperating with said data compression means for monitoring the degree of compression of said image data by said data compressions means and for generating a signal in the event that the degree of data compression falls outside of predetermined parameter which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system according to claim 12 including means responsive to said signal for immediately stopping said transport means to thereby immediately halt the generation of unacceptable quality image data from the documents.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system according to claim 1 including image workstation means (60) connected to said lower speed mass data storage device (54) for accessing and retrieving video image data for a selected document stored on said mass data storage device and for creating therefrom a visually perceptible representation of the stored image.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
39 words
The system according to claim 14 wherein said image workstation means is also connected to said high speed mass data storage means (40) for accessing and retrieving video image data stored on said high speed mass data storage means.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
374 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel at a rate in excess of 1000 documents per minute, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, said image processor means including means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital video image data, data compression means (26) for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving and conveying the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate pre-channel data buffer means (28) connected between said data compression means and said high speed data channel for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed data channel to avoid loss of data in the event that the rate of data transfer from said data compression means temporarily exceeds the data transfer rate of said high speed data channel, high speed direct access magnetic storage means (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, post-channel data buffer means (32) connected between said high speed data channel and said high speed mass data storage device for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed direct access magnetic storage means to avoid loss of data in the event that the rate of data transfer from said data channel temporarily exceeds the rate at which said high speed direct access magnetic storage device can accept data, optical data storage means (54) having a data transfer rate substantially lower than that of said high speed data channel, and a relatively low speed data channel for receiving the image data stored temporarily on said high speed direct access magnetic storage means and for transferring the data to said optical data storage means for permanent storage.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
374 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel at a rate in excess of 1000 documents per minute, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, said image processor means including means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital video image data, data compression means (26) for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving and conveying the compressed video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate pre-channel data buffer means (28) connected between said data compression means and said high speed data channel for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed data channel to avoid loss of data in the event that the rate of data transfer from said data compression means temporarily exceeds the data transfer rate of said high speed data channel, high speed direct access magnetic storage means (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, post-channel data buffer means (32) connected between said high speed data channel and said high speed mass data storage device for receiving and buffering the flow of data to said high speed direct access magnetic storage means to avoid loss of data in the event that the rate of data transfer from said data channel temporarily exceeds the rate at which said high speed direct access magnetic storage device can accept data, optical data storage means (54) having a data transfer rate substantially lower than that of said high speed data channel, and a relatively low speed data channel for receiving the image data stored temporarily on said high speed direct access magnetic storage means and for transferring the data to said optical data storage means for permanent storage.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
167 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and for converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data; a mass data storage device (40) connected to said image processor means for receiving and storing the digital video image data, and real-time quality control means cooperating with said image processor means for monitoring the characteristics of the video image data and for generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 20
Independent Claim
167 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said document scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and for converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data; a mass data storage device (40) connected to said image processor means for receiving and storing the digital video image data, and real-time quality control means cooperating with said image processor means for monitoring the characteristics of the video image data and for generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system according to claim 17 wherein said real time image quality control means includes means for monitoring the distribution of gray scale values of the digital gray scale video image data and for generating said signal if the distribution of gray scale values is outside of a predetermined acceptable distribution.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
35 words
The system according to claim 17 or 18 including means responsive to said signal for immediately stopping said document transport means to thereby immediately halt the generation of unacceptable quality image data from the documents.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
84 words
The system according to claim 17 including data compression means associated with said image processor means for receiving and compressing the digital gray scale video image data, and wherein said real-time image quality control means includes means cooperating with said data compression means for monitoring the degree of compression of said image data by said data compressions means and for generating a signal in the event that the degree of data compression falls outside of predetermined parameter which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system according to claim 20 including means responsive to said signal for immediately stopping said transport means to thereby immediately halt the generation of unacceptable quality image data from the documents.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
308 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising, document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, said image processor means including means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, resolution reduction means for reducing the gray scale video image data to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, and thresholding means for converting the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to black and white video image data of said first resolution, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the lower resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for receiving and compressing the higher resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, and a high speed mass data storage device (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and storing both the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data.
Claim 26
Independent Claim
308 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising, document transport means (14) for transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel, document scanner means (20) cooperating with said transport means for optically scanning the successive documents and for converting optically perceptible images thereon into video image data, image processor means (23) cooperating with said scanner means for receiving video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, said image processor means including means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, resolution reduction means for reducing the gray scale video image data to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, and thresholding means for converting the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to black and white video image data of said first resolution, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the lower resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for receiving and compressing the higher resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel (30) for receiving the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, and a high speed mass data storage device (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and storing both the compressed lower resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed higher resolution black and white video image data.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
71 words
The system according to claim 22 wherein said image processor means includes a plurality of image processor units, each including said resolution reduction means and said thresholding means, and means connecting said image processor units for operating in parallel to receive video image data from respective documents and for concurrently producing said lower resolution gray scale image data and said higher resolution black and white image data for the respective documents.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
44 words
The system according to claim 23 including process control logic means cooperating with the respective image processor units for controlling the flow of document images to an available image processor unit while processing of other document images is being carried out in other units.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
69 words
The system according to claim 22 wherein said document scanner means includes means for optically scanning both the front and the back of each of the successive documents, and wherein said high speed mass data storage device includes means for storing compressed lower resolution gray scale image data and compressed higher resolution black and white image data for both the front and the back of each of said documents.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
43 words
The system according to claim 25 wherein said image processor means and said image data compression means each include means defining parallel data paths for concurrent image processing and compression of the video image data from the front and back of the document.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
68 words
The system according to claim 25 wherein said document transport means includes means for transporting a series of successive groups of documents along a predetermined path of travel, and said document scanner means includes means for successively optically scanning each of the documents in the group, and wherein said image processing means includes respective document buffers for receiving image data from each of the documents in the group.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
48 words
The system according to claim 27 wherein said data compression means includes a plurality of respective data compression units associated respectively with said plurality of document buffers, said compression units being operable in parallel for concurrently compressing the video image data from the respective documents in each group.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
367 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising a high speed document sorter having a hopper for receiving a supply of documents for processing, a plurality of output bins into which the documents are sorted, and document transport means for transporting the documents therethrough at a rate in excess of a 1000 documents per minute, document scanner means associated with said sorter for optically scanning both the front and back of the documents as they are transported through the sorter and for converting optically perceptible images present thereon into separate streams of video image data for the front and back of the documents, image processor means cooperating with said scanner means for (a) receiving the separate streams of video image data along parallel data paths and for (b) concurrently processing the separate streams of image data to produce for each stream of image data, (a) relatively low resolution gray scale image data and (b) relatively high resolution black and white image data, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the relatively low resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for concurrently receiving and processing the relatively high resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed relatively low resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed relatively high resolution black and white video image data for both the front and the back of said documents from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, high speed direct access magnetic storage means (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, optical data storage means (54) having a data transfer rate substantially lower of than that of said high speed data channel, and a relatively low speed data channel for transferring the video image data stored temporarily on said high speed direct access magnetic storage means to said optical data storage means for permanent storage.
Claim 34
Independent Claim
367 words
A system for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising a high speed document sorter having a hopper for receiving a supply of documents for processing, a plurality of output bins into which the documents are sorted, and document transport means for transporting the documents therethrough at a rate in excess of a 1000 documents per minute, document scanner means associated with said sorter for optically scanning both the front and back of the documents as they are transported through the sorter and for converting optically perceptible images present thereon into separate streams of video image data for the front and back of the documents, image processor means cooperating with said scanner means for (a) receiving the separate streams of video image data along parallel data paths and for (b) concurrently processing the separate streams of image data to produce for each stream of image data, (a) relatively low resolution gray scale image data and (b) relatively high resolution black and white image data, image data compression means for receiving and compressing the video image data from said image processor means, said image data compression means including means for receiving and compressing the relatively low resolution gray scale video image data from said image processor means, and means for concurrently receiving and processing the relatively high resolution black and white video image data from said image processor means, a high speed data channel for receiving the compressed relatively low resolution gray scale video image data and the compressed relatively high resolution black and white video image data for both the front and the back of said documents from said compression means at a relatively high data transfer rate, high speed direct access magnetic storage means (40) connected to said high speed data channel for receiving and temporarily storing the compressed video image data, optical data storage means (54) having a data transfer rate substantially lower of than that of said high speed data channel, and a relatively low speed data channel for transferring the video image data stored temporarily on said high speed direct access magnetic storage means to said optical data storage means for permanent storage.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
75 words
The system according to claim 29 wherein said image processor means comprises means for converting the video image data from said scanner means into digital high resolution gray scale video image data, resolution reduction means for reducing the high resolution gray scale video image data into low resolution gray scale video image data, and thresholding means for converting the high resolution gray scale video image data into high resolution black and white video image data.
Claim 36
Independent Claim
142 words
A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, compressing the video image data obtained from the documents and transmitting the compressed video image data at a relatively high data transfer rate over a high speed data channel to a high speed mass data storage device, temporarily storing the compressed video image data on the high speed mass data storage device, and transferring the compressed video image data from the high speed data storage device at a relatively lower data transfer rate to a lower speed mass data storage device and storing the compressed video image data thereon for subsequent retrieval.
Claim 37
Independent Claim
142 words
A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks, comprising transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, compressing the video image data obtained from the documents and transmitting the compressed video image data at a relatively high data transfer rate over a high speed data channel to a high speed mass data storage device, temporarily storing the compressed video image data on the high speed mass data storage device, and transferring the compressed video image data from the high speed data storage device at a relatively lower data transfer rate to a lower speed mass data storage device and storing the compressed video image data thereon for subsequent retrieval.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
56 words
The method according to claim 31 wherein the step of optically scanning the successive documents comprises optically scanning both the front and back of each of the successive documents, and wherein said step of storing the video image data includes storing video image data for both the front and the back of each of the documents.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
117 words
The method according to claim 31 including the step of converting the video image data obtained from the documents into digital gray scale video image data of a predetermined first resolution, reducing the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution to digital gray scale video image data of a second resolution lower than said first resolution, thresholding the digital gray scale video image data of said first resolution into black and white video image data of said first resolution, and wherein said step of storing the video image data comprises storing both the gray scale video image data of said first resolution and the black and white video image data of said first resolution.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method according to claim 31 including monitoring the characteristics of the video image data and generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a predetermined prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method according to claim 34 wherein said step of monitoring the characteristics of the video image data comprises monitoring the distribution of gray scale values of the digital gray scale video image data and generating said signal if the distribution of gray scale values is outside of a predetermined acceptable distribution.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method according to claim 34 including the step of immediately stopping the transporting and scanning of documents in response to the generating of said signal to thereby immediately halt the generation of unacceptable quality image data from the documents.
Claim 43
Independent Claim
115 words
A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks comprising transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, receiving the video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data, and monitoring (24) the characteristics of the video image data obtained from the documents and generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 44
Independent Claim
115 words
A method for high speed capture, processing and storage of video image data from documents, such as bank checks comprising transporting a series of successive documents along a predetermined path of travel and optically scanning the documents to obtain video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents, receiving the video image data representing the optically perceptible images on the documents and converting the video image data into digital gray scale video image data, and monitoring (24) the characteristics of the video image data obtained from the documents and generating a signal if the video image data characteristics are outside of a prescribed range of values which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method according to claim 37 wherein the step of monitoring the characteristics of the video image data comprises monitoring the distribution of gray scale values of the digital gray scale video image data and generating said signal of the distribution of gray scale values is outside of a predetermined acceptable distribution.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
67 words
The method according to claim 37 including the step of compressing the digital gray scale video image data, and wherein said step of monitoring the characteristics of the video image data comprises monitoring the degree of compression of the image data and generating a signal in the event that the degree of data compression falls outside of a predetermined parameter which is indicative of acceptable image quality.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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