Check Sleeve for Accurate Image Capture
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in capturing high-quality images of checks for electronic presentment, as existing methods often include irrelevant portions and require precise orientation, especially when dealing with multiple checks or varying check sizes, which can lead to optical interference and flawed image capture.
Innovation Solution
A check sleeve made of flexible materials like plastic, equipped with mechanisms such as flaps, corners, and barcodes, helps hold checks in place and provides markings for orientation, allowing for accurate image capture by distinguishing check areas from non-check areas, and can accommodate multiple checks or varying sizes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ordinary image capture technology (scanner or digital camera) is used to capture check images, then the basic image capture function is achieved, but the captured images include excess portions that do not represent the check and require additional processing to identify check boundaries
Solution Approach 1:
The check sleeve divides the image capture area into distinct check and non-check portions through physical boundaries and optical differentiation. The sleeve structure segments the captured image so that the check occupies a defined region while the sleeve background occupies another region, allowing the system to automatically identify and process only the relevant check portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The check sleeve acts as an intermediary object between the check and the image capture device. It provides a controlled background and physical constraints that facilitate accurate image capture and automatic identification of check boundaries, eliminating the need for complex post-processing to distinguish check from non-check areas.
2Ease of operation
If checks are held loosely without constraints, then the checking process is simple, but optical interference occurs and image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The check sleeve provides different properties in different regions: the background area provides optical contrast for boundary detection, while the check-holding area provides physical constraints (flaps, corners, or adhesive) to prevent movement. This localized differentiation ensures both ease of insertion and reliable image capture without optical interference.
3Productivity
If multiple checks are placed in a single sleeve, then processing throughput increases, but distinguishing individual check boundaries and orientations becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The check sleeve design with uniform spacing and identical holding mechanisms for multiple checks allows the same image processing algorithms to be applied to each check individually. The consistent structure enables automatic detection of multiple checks, their individual orientations, and their boundaries, maintaining measurement precision while enabling batch processing of multiple checks simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
Images of a plurality of checks to be presented for payment may be captured through the use of a check sleeve. The check sleeve includes check-holding mechanism to hold one or more checks in place in the sleeve, and contains various types of markings or other features that allow an image of the sleeve to be oriented, and to allow the portion of the image that represents a check to be distinguished from portions of the image that do not represent a check. One or more algorithms may be used to distinguish check from non-check portions of the image, and to orient the image. The check sleeves may have one or more barcodes imprinted thereon, which may encode various types of information.