Patent ID: 8496245

Claim:
A method, comprising the steps of: interfacing one or more documents with a document processor: routing the one or more documents along a document path of the document processor; and determining a document processing situation of a plurality of document processing situations of the one or more documents, wherein the plurality of document processing situations include a single document situation, and a double document situation, wherein the double document situation includes a partially-overlapped, double document situation, and a completely overlapped, double document situation, wherein, prior to the determining step, further comprising the steps of: transmitting an amount of light across the document path from a light transmitter to a light receiver; utilizing the light receiver to derive an analogue signal that is based upon the transmitted amount of light; communicating the analogue signal from the light receiver to an analogue-to-digital converter; utilizing the analogue-to-digital converter to derive a digital signal from the analogue signal; communicating the digital signal to a controller for conducting the determining the document processing situation step, wherein the digital signal includes a plurality of sensor value samples; determining a minimum sensor value of the plurality of sensor value samples; determining that the document situation is the completely overlapped, double document situation if the determined minimum sensor value is greater than a pre-programmed complete overlap threshold value; utilizing one of at least two sensor value samples of the plurality of sensor value samples for determining a partially overlapped threshold value; and determining that the document situation is the partially-overlapped, double document situation if the partially overlapped threshold value is less than the other of the at least two sensor value samples.