Apparatus and system for imaging currency bills and financial documents and method for using the same

A method of processing currency bills in a document processing system comprising:

• receiving a plurality of currency bills in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each currency bill being associated with a serial number;
• transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path, in a serial fashion, from the input receptacle;
• imaging each of the plurality of currency bills with an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path to produce image data, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each currency bill including the associated serial number;
• extracting at least a portion of each one of the serial numbers from the image data to generate an extracted serial number associated with each one of the plurality of currency bills;
• storing each of the extracted serial numbers in a memory;
• receiving a target serial number;
• comparing the target serial number with each of the extracted serial numbers to determine if the target serial number exactly matches one of the extracted serial numbers;
• determining that the target serial number does not exactly match any of the extracted serial numbers;
• and
• displaying a wildcard search element on a display of the document processing system.

A method of processing currency bills in a document processing system comprising:

• receiving a plurality of currency bills in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each currency bill being associated with a serial number character string;
• transporting the plurality of currency bills along a transport path, in a serial fashion, from the input receptacle to an output receptacle;
• imaging each of the plurality of currency bills with an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path to produce image data, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each currency bill including the associated serial number character string;
• extracting at least a portion of each one of the serial number character strings from the image data to generate an extracted serial number character string associated with each one of the plurality of currency bills;
• storing each of the extracted serial number character strings in a memory;
• receiving a target serial number character string via an input device communicatively connected to the document processing system;
• comparing the target serial number character string with each of the extracted serial number character strings stored in the memory to determine if the target serial number character string exactly matches one of the extracted serial number character strings;
• and
• in response to the target serial number character string not exactly matching any of the extracted serial number character strings, displaying a 1-degree-of-freedom element.

A method of processing documents in a document processing system comprising:

• receiving a plurality of documents in an input receptacle of the document processing system, each document being associated with a document identifier;
• transporting the plurality of documents along a transport path, one at a time, from the input receptacle to one or more output receptacles;
• imaging each of the plurality of documents with an image scanner positioned adjacent to the transport path to produce image data, the image data being reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of each of the plurality of documents including the associated document identifier;
• extracting at least a portion of each one of the document identifiers from the image data to generate an extracted document identifier associated with each one of the plurality of documents;
• storing each of the extracted document identifiers in a memory;
• receiving a target document identifier;
• and
• comparing the target document identifier with each of the extracted document identifiers stored in the memory to determine if the target document identifier exactly matches one of the extracted document identifiers;
• determining that the target document identifier does not exactly match any of the extracted document identifiers;
• and
• displaying a wildcard search element on a display of the document processing system.

A method of processing financial transactions in a document processing system comprising:

• receiving a target document identifier having an integer number, M, of characters via a input device of the document processing system;
• searching a memory having a plurality of stored document identifiers, each stored document identifier having an integer number, N, of characters;
• comparing the target document identifier with each of the stored document identifiers to determine if the target document identifier matches one of the stored document identifiers;
• in response to the target document identifier matching one of the stored document identifiers, displaying a visually readable image of at least a portion of a document associated with the one of the stored document identifiers on a display of the document processing system, the document including the document identifier having the integer number, N, of characters;
• and
• in response to the target document identifier not matching any of the stored document identifiers, displaying a wildcard selectable element on the display of the document processing system.

A method of using a document processing system, the method comprising the acts of:

• receiving a suspect serial number via an input device communicatively connected to a document processing system;
• determining if the suspect serial number matches one of a plurality of stored serial numbers stored in a memory, each stored serial number being associated with a record, each record including customer account identification information that can be used to identify a customer account previously credited for a deposit of a currency bill having the stored serial number, each record further including image data that is reproducible as a visually readable image of at least a portion of the respective currency bill having the stored serial number;
• determining that the suspect serial number fails to exactly match any of the stored serial numbers;
• and
• in response to the suspect serial number failing to exactly match one of the stored serial numbers, automatically displaying a broader search element,
• wherein in response to an activation of the broader search element, automatically comparing the suspect serial number with each of the stored serial numbers stored in the memory on a basis which does not require the suspect serial number to exactly match one of the stored serial numbers.

A method of using a document processing system comprising:

• receiving a target serial number via an input device communicatively connected to a document processing system;
• determining if the target serial number exactly matches one of a plurality of stored serial numbers stored in a memory, each stored serial number being associated with a record, each record including customer account identification information that can be used to identify a customer account previously credited for a deposit of a currency bill having the stored serial number;
• and
• in response to the target serial number not exactly matching any of the stored serial numbers, displaying a wildcard search element on a display of the document processing system.