Patent ID: 7480403
Filing Date: 2009-01-20
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. An apparatus to detect fraud, the apparatus comprising: an MICR module that scans a single row of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (“MICR”) characters imprinted on a medium using magnetic ink, recognizes individual MICR characters within the single row of MICR characters, and detects a magnetic signal strength of the magnetic ink of the MICR characters; a first OCR module that scans the single row of MICR characters and recognizes individual MICR characters within the single row of MICR characters, the first OCR module recognizes the individual MICR characters using a first Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) algorithm; a second OCR module that scans the single row of MICR characters and recognizes individual MICR characters within the single row of MICR characters, the second OCR module recognizes the individual MICR characters using a second OCR algorithm, wherein the second OCR algorithm differs from the first OCR algorithm; a voting module that determines if a MICR character is potentially fraudulent based on the recognition results of the MICR module, the first OCR module, and the second OCR module, wherein determining that a MICR character is potentially fraudulent comprises one or more of the MICR module determining that the magnetic signal strength of the MICR character is lower than a predetermined value and the character recognized by the MICR module, the character recognized by the first OCR module, and the character recognized by the second OCR module are not identical; and a results module configured to communicate a fraud indicator if the voting module determines that a MICR character is potentially fraudulent, wherein the MICR module, the first OCR module, the second OCR module, the voting module, and the results module comprise one or more of logic hardware and a processor executing executable code, the executable code stored on one or more computer readable media.