Mobile Data Acquisition Device for Payment Document Recognition
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Private and small users lack the resources to automatically and efficiently record and store data from printed or written documents related to payment transactions, such as receipts and invoices, without expensive hardware and software.
Innovation Solution
A data acquisition device and method utilizing a mobile phone or similar data communication device to capture images of documents, which are then sent to a server with sufficient resources for processing recognition software, allowing for the extraction and storage of relevant transaction data, including service, price, and time information, without requiring powerful hardware on the user's device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If recognition software is processed on the user's data communication device, then data processing speed and efficiency are improved, but device complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
A server acts as an intermediary between the user's data communication device and the recognition software. The server hosts the resource-intensive recognition software and processes images uploaded by users, returning results without requiring the user's device to have sufficient processing power. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining high productivity through centralized processing while keeping user devices simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The recognition software processing function is extracted from the user's data communication device and relocated to a dedicated server. This extraction removes the burden of running complex recognition software from user devices, allowing them to remain simple while still achieving efficient data processing through the server's computational resources.
2Measurement precision
If powerful hardware is provided for processing recognition software, then recognition accuracy and processing capability are improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server providing recognition software processing serves multiple users simultaneously, making the expensive hardware resources universally accessible. Instead of each user needing their own powerful device, one server can handle recognition tasks for many users, distributing the cost and achieving high recognition accuracy without proportionally high individual costs.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring each user to own expensive hardware, the system uses software copying and centralized processing where the recognition software runs on the server and processes images uploaded by users. This allows high-accuracy recognition to be replicated for multiple users without duplicating expensive hardware for each user.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
A data acquisition device for capturing and systematically storing data relating to a document (3) concerning a payment transaction comprises a data communication device (1) having a camera (2), a display, and interfaces for communication via a data communication network (4, 5, 6), and a server (7) connected to the data communication network (4, 5, 6). The data communication device (1) does not have sufficient resources for the rapid processing of recognition software and is configured to acquire an image of the document (3) using the camera (2) in response to user input, store it as an image file, send the image file together with a user identifier to a predefined address via the data communication network (4, 5, 6), and receive reply messages.The server (7) is addressable at the specified address, has sufficient resources for the rapid processing of recognition software (8), and is configured to receive the image file and the user identification and process them using the recognition software (8), recognizing the alphanumeric information, recognizing whether it is a document relating to a payment transaction, and then compiling the data relevant to the payment transaction, which includes at least data identifying the service or product, associated price data, and data identifying a time, into a data record, placing the data record in a database (9) corresponding to the type of payment transaction, which has an assignment of the data record to the user identification, and sending a reply message to the data communication device (1) confirming the placement of the data in the database (9).