Patent Issued for Systems and methods for remote deposit of checks (USPTO 11461743): United Services Automobile Association

2022 OCT 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11461743, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Gavia, Gabriel Glenn (San Antonio, TX, US), Harpel, Greg Alan (San Antonio, TX, US), Major, Frank Kyle (San Antonio, TX, US), Medina, III, Reynaldo (San Antonio, TX, US), Morlen, Randy Ray (San Antonio, TX, US), Morris, Michael Frank (San Antonio, TX, US), Oakes, III, Charles Lee (San Antonio, TX, US), Pollack, Jeffrey Neal (San Antonio, TX, US), Prasad, Bharat (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on October 18, 2019 and was published online on October 4, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/321,025, checks typically provide a safe and convenient method for an individual to purchase goods and/or services. To use a check, the individual usually must open a checking account, or other similar account, at a financial institution and deposit funds, which are then available for later withdrawal. To pay for goods and/or services with a check, the payor (i.e., the buyer) usually designates a payee (i.e., the seller) and an amount payable on the check. In addition, the payor often signs the check. Once the check has been signed, it is usually deemed negotiable, meaning the check may be validly transferred to the payee upon delivery. By signing and transferring the check to the payee, the payor authorizes funds to be withdrawn from the payor’s account on behalf of the payee in return for the goods and/or services provided by the payee.

“Checks have certain advantages over other forms of payment, such as cash. For example, while often considered the most liquid type of asset, cash also may be the least secure. Unlike a check, cash is usually freely transferable and does not have to be endorsed. Thus, the owner and possessor of cash is most often the same individual. Because cash is freely transferable, cash that is lost or stolen typically cannot be recovered. Therefore, the risks associated with cash transactions are often unacceptable, particularly with respect to transactions not conducted in person (e.g., by mail) and/or involving large sums of money. A check, on the other hand, provides a payor with more security because the check usually requires a payor to specify both the person and amount to be paid. Furthermore, as noted above, the check is usually not valid until it is properly signed by the payor. These safeguards help to reduce the risk that money will be lost and/or stolen and ensure that the proper payee receives the proper amount of money.

“Cash may have other disadvantages as well. For example, because cash is freely transferable, there may be little or no verifiable transaction history. It is often desirable for a payor and/or payee to have physical proof that a particular transaction took place. This typically requires that the payor receive a receipt. However, receipts may contain errors and can be easily misplaced. In contrast, a bank processing a check will ordinarily create a transaction history, which may include the identity of the payee, the amount to be paid, the date of the payment, and the signature of the payor. This enables both a payor and payee to independently verify the accuracy of most transactions involving a payment by check.

“While a check may provide a payor with a convenient and secure form of payment, receiving a check may put certain burdens on the payee, such as the time and effort required to deposit the check. For example, depositing a check typically involves going to a local bank branch and physically presenting the check to a bank teller. In addition to the time commitment that may be required, visiting a bank branch may be problematic for the payee if the bank’s hours of operation coincide with the payee’s normal hours of employment. Thus, the payee may be required to leave work early and/or change work schedules.

“A check may pose other burdens for the payee. As noted above, a check may not be freely transferable, thereby limiting the payee’s ability to use funds from the check. For example, it is usually difficult to for the payee to purchase goods and/or services using a check issued by the payor. While the check may be endorsed and accepted by a third party, such transactions are often disfavored because the third party may not know the payor and, thus, may not be willing to accept the risk that the payor has insufficient funds to cover the check. Therefore, the payee may not have access to the funds from the check until the payee deposits the check at the bank, the check has cleared and the funds have been credited to the payee’s account. The payee may have to wait even longer if the payee chooses to deposit the check by mail. Therefore, there is a need for a convenient method of remotely depositing a check while enabling the payee to quickly access the funds from the check.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The described embodiments contemplate a system, method and computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions for remotely redeeming a negotiable instrument. In an embodiment, a novel system may include financial institution electronics, such as a server equipped with appropriate hardware and software for facilitating deposit of a check. Such electronics may be configured for receiving from a customer computer an identification of an account for deposit of a check, and an amount of said check. They may be further configured for receiving an image of a front side of said check, and for analyzing said image to determine if it meets at least one criterion. The criterion could be, for example, image size, image legibility, image orientation, image format, presence of certain image features that indicate the image in fact represents a check, and so forth. Financial institution electronics may be also configured for determining if there is an error in a deposit transaction. Numerous errors are possible candidates for detection, and several exemplary errors are provided herein. If there are no errors that warrant aborting the transaction, then such electronics may be further configured to initiate a deposit of the check.

“In another embodiment, a novel system may include, for example, a computer readable medium bearing instructions that can configure a customer’s general purpose computer to facilitate a check deposit. Acting under direction of such instructions, the general purpose computer may instruct a customer, for example via a display coupled such computer, in utilizing an image capture device to generate an electronic image of a front side of a check, such that said electronic image of a front side of a check meets at least one first criterion such as image size, image legibility, image orientation image quality, and location and/or orientation of the check within the image. Instructions may further be provided for receiving the image of a front side of a check from said image capture device, and optionally instructing the customer to process the image, e.g., by approving the image and/or modifying it to meet at least one second criterion. A second criterion might also be, for example, one or more of image size, image legibility, image orientation, image quality, and location and/or orientation of the check within the image. Finally, the customer computer, acting under direction of the instructions, may deliver an approved electronic image to financial institution electronics.

“Additional advantages and features of the invention are described below.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for facilitating deposit of a check, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory in communication with the processor and storing a plurality of processor executable instructions and a list of deposited checks for a depositor, the memory also storing a remote deposit processing component wherein the plurality of processor executable instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of: transmitting, over a communications network, the remote deposit processing component to the a depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, instructions to the depositor to position a front side of the check in front of an image capture device associated with the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, an image of the front side of the check to the depositor on the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, instructions to the depositor to select portions of the image of the front side of the check for cropping; receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, portions of the image for cropping and cropping, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, the image using the received portions; receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, the cropped image from the depositor-controlled device; generating optical character recognition (OCR) data for the check by performing OCR on the image of the front side of the check; comparing, in real-time, the generated OCR data to the list of deposited checks for the depositor and determining, in real-time based on the comparison that the check was not previously deposited; and initiating deposit of the check into an account of the depositor wherein initiating comprises forwarding the image to a bank of the depositor.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step: authenticating an identity of the depositor that is operating the depositor-controlled device.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step of: receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, and from the depositor-controlled device, an image of a back side of the check.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step: determining whether a signature appears on the backside of the check.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step of: prior to performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image of the front side of the check, to execute the step of: analyzing the image and determining that the image meets an image criterion.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step of: wherein the image criterion comprises a presence of a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line in the image and determining that the image includes the MICR line and performing the OCR on the image in response to determining that the image includes the MICR line.

“7. The system of claim 5, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step of: wherein the image criterion comprises image format and performing the OCR on the image in response to determining that the image is in the image format.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores processor executable instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform the step of: receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, amount of the check from the depositor-controlled device; identifying from the OCR data generated for the check an OCR determined amount of the check; determining whether amount matches the OCR determined amount; and aborting deposit of the check in response to determining that the depositor-entered amount does not match the OCR determined amount.

“9. A method for remotely depositing a check using an image of a check using a server having a processor in communication with a memory containing a remote deposit processing component, the method comprising: transmitting, over communication network, the remote deposit processing component to a depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, instructions to a depositor to position a front side of the check in front of an image capture device associated with the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, an image of the front side of the check to the depositor on the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via a display of the depositor-controlled device, instructions to the depositor to select portions of the image of the front side of the check for cropping; and receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, portions of the image for cropping and cropping, via the transmitted remote deposit Processing component, the image using the received portions; receiving, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, the cropped image transmitted from the depositor-controlled device; generating optical character recognition (OCR) data for the check by performing OCR on the image of the front side of the check; comparing, in real-time, the generated OCR data to a list of deposited checks for the depositor and determining, in real-time, based on the comparison that the check was not previously deposited; and initiating deposit of the check into an account of the depositor wherein initiating comprises forwarding the image to a bank of the depositor.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising authenticating, by the server, an identity of the depositor that is operating the depositor-controlled device.

“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving, by the server and via the transmitted remote deposit processing component and, from the depositor-controlled device, an image of a back side of the check.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining, by the server, whether a signature appears on the back side of the check.

“13. The method of claim 9, further comprising, prior to performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image of the front side of the check, the method further comprising: analyzing, by the server, the image and determining that the image meets an image criterion.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the image criterion comprises a presence of a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line in the image, the method further comprising: determining that the image includes the MICR line and performing the OCR on the image in response to determining that the image includes the MICR line.

“15. The method of claim 13, wherein the image criterion comprises a image format, the method further comprising: performing the OCR on the image in response to determining that the image is in the image format.

“16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for depositing a check, that when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the steps of: transmitting, over a communications network, a remote deposit processing component to a depositor-controlled device remotely located from the processor; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, instructions to a depositor to position a front side of the check in front of an image capture device associated with the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit Processing component, an image of the front side of the check to the depositor on the depositor-controlled device; displaying, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, instructions to the depositor to select portions of the image of the front side of the for cropping; and receiving via the remote deposit processing component, portions of the image for cropping and cropping, via the transmitted remote deposit processing component, the image using the received portions; receiving, the via the remote deposit processing component, the cropped image from the depositor-controlled device; generating optical character recognition (OCR) data for the check by performing OCR on the image of the front side of the check; comparing, in real-time, the generated OCR data to a list of deposited checks for the depositor and determining, in real-time, from a based on the comparison whether that the check was not previously deposited; and initiating deposit of the check into an account of the depositor wherein initiating comprises forwarding the image to a bank of the depositor.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor, via the remote deposit processing component, to perform the steps of receiving from the depositor-controlled device an image of a backside of the check.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor, via the remote deposit processing component, to perform the steps of determining whether a signature appears on the back side of the check.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Gavia, Gabriel Glenn. Systems and methods for remote deposit of checks. U.S. Patent Number 11461743, filed October 18, 2019, and published online on October 4, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11461743.PN.&OS=PN/11461743RS=PN/11461743

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