Patent Issued for Virtual teller check system (USPTO 11446949): United Services Automobile Association

2022 OCT 12 (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 11446949, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Buentello, Andre Rene (San Antonio, TX, US), Lopez, Mark Anthony (Oak Point, TX, US), Meyer, Gregory Brian (San Antonio, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Rapport, Garrett Rielly (San Antonio, TX, US), Romero, Jr., Jose L. (San Antonio, TX, US), Szentes, Michael Jay (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on September 23, 2019 and was published online on September 20, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for issuing and validating virtual teller checks.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Checks typically provide a safe and convenient method for an individual such as a payor to transfer funds to a payee. To use a check, the individual usually opens a checking account, or other similar account, at a financial institution and deposits funds, which are then available for later withdrawal. To transfer funds with a check, the payor usually designates a payee 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 By signing and transferring the check to the payee, the payor authorizes funds to be withdrawn from the payor’s account on behalf of the payee. Certain types of checks, such as teller checks (i.e., cashier’s checks) are backed by the issuing bank. Accordingly, they may be preferred for transactions in which the payor/payee wish to have additional levels of protection.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“Various embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for generating a check (i.e., a cashier’s check, a teller check) and/or an image of a check. More specifically, some embodiments of the present invention generate a teller check that includes a pattern or picture generated as part of the teller check and that functions to validate the check. Teller checks or cashier’s check are notes guaranteed by a bank and may be used in transactions in which the payor and the payee do not have an established payment relationship (e.g., security deposits, insurance or legal settlements). Because teller checks are guaranteed by the issuing bank, it may be desirable to generate teller checks that include enhanced security features that discourage counterfeiting. While certain types of security features, such as specialized check paper stock, may be available for physical teller checks, such features cannot be used for virtual teller checks as well. Provided herein is a teller check system with enhanced security features that may be used in conjunction with virtual and/or physical teller checks. The enhanced security features may include a visible pattern or picture on the teller check that is rendered in a manner such that the pattern or picture may be extracted from an image of the teller check. In certain embodiments, a physical teller check or a virtual teller check may be provided. That is, in certain embodiments, the teller check is not printed and is provided electronically through all stages of the issuing to verification and funds distribution process.

“The pattern or picture may be relatively difficult to duplicate, such that verification that a correct pattern or picture is on the teller check serves at the enhanced security feature. In one embodiment, the pattern or picture is generated based on a function that uses user data or check data as an input. In one embodiment, the pattern may seem random (e.g., random dots or swirls), but may be generated based on a seed by a random seed generator. That is, the pattern may be recreated only if the initial seed is known. The initial seed functions as a key to the pattern, and may be linked to the check-issuing institution or user (e.g., an account holder). The pattern or picture may be unique and issued on-demand in response to a request such that each teller check is associated with only one unique pattern or picture. In one embodiment, the unique pattern or picture encodes certain check information that may include account information, timestamp data, remitter data, location data, etc.

“In contrast to barcodes or watermarks, which may be copied and duplicated even if a counterfeiter does not know how to reverse engineer the encoded information, the disclosed patterns and/or pictures may be relatively complex. That is, a change in orientation, scale, color, or other characteristic may be sufficient to render a teller check unverified. Further, in certain embodiments, the patterns and/or pictures may appear to be merely decorative, such that it would not be readily apparent that the features are enhanced security features. Further, having access to cancelled or old teller checks would not provide information as to a likely pattern on newly issued teller checks.

“The pattern or picture may be used to validate the check and/or to provide information about one or more check validating characteristics, such as a valid time frame (e.g., to define a time period that during which the check is valid), an expected route from which the check was generated (generating bank information, bank routing information) and/or an expected return path to the issue bank (requesting entity or return path being associated with a designated payee of the check). Each individual pattern or picture may be unique and distinguishable from one another such that each individual pattern or picture is associated with a specific or with a single transaction and not with any other transaction. In an embodiment, certain features of the pattern or picture associated with the issuing bank may remain constant between checks while other features may change according to the individual information associated with each specific transaction to yield the unique pattern or picture. In one example, the information regarding the payee and the valid time frame may not be available until the request for the check is generated and the check is issued. Accordingly, the pattern or picture may be generated on demand.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, via a teller check generator processor of a teller check generator, a request from a user to issue a teller check for a transaction, wherein the request comprises check information; storing, via the teller check generator processor, the check information in memory as stored check information; electronically generating, via the teller check generator processor, an image of the teller check using a check template, wherein the image comprises the check information in fields of the check template; encoding, via the teller check generator processor, the check information into a unique visible pattern or a unique visible picture; incorporating, via the teller check generator processor, the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture into the image, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture comprises a constant portion and a variable portion, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture extends across a threshold area of the check template, and wherein the variable portion comprises encoded data corresponding to the check information; sending, via a communication interface of the teller check generator, the image incorporating the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture along a first communication pathway to a user computing device; causing, via a processor of the user computing device, the user computing device to display the image of the teller check comprising the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture; receiving, via a teller check verifier processor of a teller check verifier, the image of the teller check comprising the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture; extracting, via the teller check verifier processor, the encoded data corresponding to the check information from the variable portion of the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture; retrieving, via the teller check verifier processor, the stored check information from the memory; comparing, via the teller check verifier processor, the encoded data with the stored check information; verifying, via the teller check verifier processor, the image of the teller check for the transaction based on the encoded data matching the stored check information; and delivering, via a communication interface of the teller check verifier, funds associated with the user to a recipient for the transaction along a second communication pathway in response to verifying the image of the teller check.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the teller check is a digital image.

“3. The method of claim 1, comprising providing the image of the teller check to the user, wherein the image is a physical check.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture comprises a background image of the check template.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture is generated on demand in response to receiving the request.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture is generated using a random seed generator.

“7. The method of claim 1, comprising: accessing, via the teller check generator processor, an account associated with the user; encoding, via the teller check generator processor, account information from the account; and incorporating, via the teller check generator processor, the account information into the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture.

“8. The method of claim 7, comprising: receiving, via the teller check verifier processor, the image of the teller check; extracting, via the teller check verifier processor, the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture from the image; and accessing, via the teller check verifier processor, the account information from the extracted unique visible pattern or the extracted unique visible picture.

“9. The method of claim 1, comprising encoding, via the teller check generator processor, validation information of the teller check using the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the validation information comprises a timestamp, issuing location data, or a combination thereof.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the image comprises rendering, via the teller check generator processor, the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture in a lighter color value than the check information.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture extends across the threshold area of the check template such that a distance between edges of the unique visible pattern or the unique visible picture comprises at least 50% of a longest dimension of the check template in the image.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the constant portion comprises information associated with an issuing institution of the teller check that is constant between different teller checks.

“14. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, via a teller check generator processor of a teller check generator, a request from a user to generate a teller check, wherein the request comprises check information; storing, via the teller check generator processor, the check information in memory as stored check information; electronically generating, via the teller check generator processor, a unique pattern in response to receiving the request by encoding the check information into the unique pattern, wherein the unique pattern comprises a constant portion and a variable portion, and wherein the variable portion comprises encoded data corresponding to the check information; incorporating, via the teller check generator processor, the unique pattern into an image of the teller check; sending, via a communication interface of the teller check generator, the image of the teller check incorporating the unique pattern along a first communication pathway to the user; printing, via a printer, the image of the teller check incorporating the unique pattern onto a tangible version of the teller check such that the unique pattern extends across a threshold area of the teller check and is visible to the user; capturing, via a user input device, a captured image of the tangible version of the teller check; receiving, via a teller check verifier processor of a teller check verifier, the captured image of the teller check from the user input device, the captured image comprising the encoded data from the variable portion representative of the check information; extracting, via the teller check verifier processor, the encoded data representative of the check information from the variable portion of the captured image; retrieving, via the teller check verifier processor, the stored check information from the memory; comparing, via the teller check verifier processor, the encoded data with the stored check information; verifying, via the teller check verifier processor, the captured image of the teller check based on the encoded data matching the stored check information; and delivering, via a communication interface of the teller check verifier, funds associated with the user to a recipient along a second communication pathway in response to verifying the teller check.

“15. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 14, comprising generating, via the teller check generator processor, the unique pattern using a random seed generator, wherein a seed used in the random seed generator is associated with the user or the teller check.

“16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein extracting the encoded data via the teller check verifier processor comprises identifying features in the unique pattern and, based on the identified features, identifying the user or an institution securing the teller check.

“17. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the features comprise one or more of a spacing between pattern elements or a size of one or more pattern elements.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Buentello, Andre Rene. Virtual teller check system. U.S. Patent Number 11446949, filed September 23, 2019, and published online on September 20, 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=11446949.PN.&OS=PN/11446949RS=PN/11446949

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