Document processing system

Claim 1

Apparatus for processing documents, comprising: (a) transport means for continuously transporting said documents along a transport path; (b) encoding means disposed adjacent said transport path for selectively encoding machine readable data upon said documents, said encoding means comprising a plurality of fixed dies, a plurality of electronically controlled hammers, and a magnetic ink bearing ribbon interposed between said documents and said dies and being transported at the same velocity as the velocity of transport of said documents; (c) reader means disposed adjacent said transport path for reading machine readable data on said documents while said documents are transported, without interruption, past said reader means; and (d) image capture means disposed adjacent said transport path for capturing and digitizing an image of at least a portion of said documents, said image capture means comprising means for vertically scanning said documents, means for horizontally analyzing consecutive vertical scans to identify black and white sections as well as repetitive patterns of said image, and means for generating distinctive codes representative of said analyzing.