Patent ID: 8615124

Claim:
A method for testing a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) character printed on a document for compliance with a character standard, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a location associated with the MICR character on the document; obtaining a magnetic signal data indicative of dimensional features of the MICR character associated with the location; obtaining optical image data indicative of the dimensional features of the MICR character associated with the location; comparing the optical image data against a plurality of optical image templates and failing to determine a matching character of the MICR character, such that each of the plurality of optical image templates is associated with a unique character of a set of characters; comparing the magnetic signal data against a plurality magnetic signal templates to determine the matching character of the MICR character; and determining at least one magnetic signal defect of the dimensional features of the matching character from the magnetic signal data indicative of the failure to determine the matching character by the comparison of the optical image data; wherein the optical image data and the magnetic signal data are obtained from corresponding readers located in the same housing.