FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
Section 10 , RULE -13
"Cheque Acceptance Terminal with acknowledgement to depositor and bank."
Ajay P Mazire, Flat No. 8, Chintamani Apts, Kothrud, Pune, Maharashtra, India. x Ni D \ A N
Rajesh Radhakrishnan, #A2, Manek Apts, Opp. Ashish Garden, Shastri Nagar, Kothrud, Pune, Maharashtra, India. X M t> \ A H
The following specification particularly describes the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:

Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to improvement in present existing system for unattended Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) cheque acceptance terminals. More specifically this invention relates to a method and system for deposit of cheques in the proposed automated unmanned terminals, with a facility of providing an immediate acknowledgement to the user and the corresponding bank through a wireless network.
Background of the Invention:
Last couple of years has witnessed an immense automation in every possible field of mankind. This has reflected in the banking sector too, which earlier were utilizing manned operations in each and every operation but now are heavily depended on automated processes which are reliable, efficient and cost effective too.
One area of banking which needs further exploration is cheque related services. In the widely used process, cheque is deposited at the banks counter by the customer. The counter employee provides the customer with a deposit receipt without performing a foolproof checking of the account number and amount filled by the customer. Moreover the deposit receipt provided is handwritten which can be tampered by a malicious customer to gain some financial benefit from the bank at any later stage.
In one of the other method cheque deposit drop boxes are provided. Here the drop boxes are placed at customer convenient locations to provide the facility of any time cheque deposit. No deposit receipt is available in this process. Moreover the cheques are collected by a bank employee one or more times a day from the drop boxes for further processing. The status of the drop boxes containing the cheques is unknown to the bank, which causes further wastage of time and money by repeatedly checking the drop box for cheques.
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In one method, some Automatic Teller Machines have the facility of cheque deposit. This is similar to the drop box method since no deposit receipt is provided to the customer and moreover the status of the cheques in the deposit machine is unknown to the bank thus wasting time and money for employing person for regular checking of the deposit machines for cheques.
In one of the recent method, deposit receipt with image acknowledgement is provided and account verification is also performed. Here the system is connected to the banks central database. It is not common that banks will provide their highly confidential and sensitive database for these cheque deposit purposes. The system cost is also too high compared to the purpose for which it is used. Moreover the system is a manned counter, thus only being installed in restricted premises. It is also likely that the banks sensitive database can be fiddled by some person known to the technology used, causing immense problems for the banks financial system.
The above mentioned approaches have the drawback either because of the orthodox banking hour restrictions, no foolproof deposit receipt and acknowledgement to the customer and the bank. These methods have also the security issues since some are requiring the banks highly confidential and sensitive database and the cost factor too comes into account along with restricted manned stations. The considerable loss of time, money and endangered security concerns are the major issues with the above mentioned systems.
Objectives and Summary of the Invention:
It is an objective of the instant invention to overcome the above drawbacks by providing a method and system for MICR cheque deposit with a better acknowledgement mechanism to the customer and the concerned bank.
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It is an objective of the present invention to verify the cheques validity through a MICR based system while depositing the cheque.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a printed deposit receipt of the deposit made by the customer.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a foolproof status acknowledgement to the bank of the cheques in the deposit machines.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide details of the transaction log to the bank.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the present invention provides for a method and system that accepts cheque from the customer in a user interactive based automated system and after preliminary verification provides a printed deposit receipt to the customer. The system also stores the log of the cheque details along with the transaction details in machines local database. The system sends a message to the bank regarding the status of the cheques in the deposit machine along with the details of the transaction.
Brief Description of the Drawings:
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the automated user interactive cheque deposit terminal.
Figure 2 is a block diagram of the internal structure of the automated machine as per the invention.
Figure 3a-3d is a flowchart exhibiting the cheque deposit process at an automated deposit machine.
Figure 4 is a process of reporting the bank regarding the status and details of the cheques in the deposit terminal.
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Detailed Description of the Drawings:
The invention aims to provide automation and improved Quality of Service while depositing a cheque and foolproof acknowledgement regarding the status and details of the cheques in the deposit machines to the bank. The invention comprises of the following method to achieve the desired result:
1. Keying in the account number written on the cheque by the depositor.
2. Keying in the amount written on the cheque by the depositor.
3. Inserting the MICR cheque in the reader slot of the machine.
4. Reading the cheque number from MICR decoding.
5. The MICR would give the cheque number, Bank Name and Bank Branch details.
6. The scanned image of the cheque will be taken for banks further processing.
7. The complete cheque log details along with the transaction detail would be stored in the machines local database.
8. The cheque deposit receipt would contain the following details:

• Account Number
• Transaction Number
• Cheque number and details
• Date and time of deposit
• Location of deposit
• Amount entered
• Bank name and branch details
9. The cheques for outstation clearing would be sorted into a
separate section on the basis of Bank code as read by the
MICR reader.
10. The cheques issued by banks located in the areas where clearing house is located, system would identify such cheques on the MICR code basis and sort them for separate section.
11. The complete cheque log details along with the transaction details stored in the machines local database can be accessed by bank employee and these data can be transferred to any
of the storage media available like CD, USB drive etc.
12. The status and details of the cheques in the deposit machine
is sent by text message (SMS) or e-mail to the banks
to collect the cheques accordingly.
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The complete system can be implemented as a cheque deposit and acknowledgement station for an unmanned or a manned terminal. The system can be constructed by using MICR reader, image scanner, GSM/GPRS modem, printer and other computing device.
The invention has various utilities like:
• Deposit MICR cheque.
• Give acknowledgement to the depositor.
• Give acknowledgement to the bank.
• Send cheque details to the bank.
• Store the cheques MICR data along with the image.
• The scanned image would be used for forwarding to RBI when cheque truncation is launched, there would be no need to separately scan the cheques again.
• The complete cheque data and log can be retrieved for any future purpose.
The present invention provides an enhanced, efficient and cost effective mechanism for depositing MICR cheques and also reduces the crucial man hour spent on cheques for collection.
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the automated user interactive deposit machine to accept MICR cheques and issue a printed deposit receipt to the depositor and give a status acknowledgement to the bank.
A depositor can deposit cheques in the unmanned/manned Cheque Acceptance Terminal (CAT). The customer interacts with the user operative deposit machine by entering the account number and the amount on the cheque.
The cheque is deposited through the machines MICR (1) cheque reader slot. The authenticity of the cheque is verified. The various cheque details read through the MICR code includes cheque number, city code, bank code, branch code etc.
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The cheque is scanned through the image scanner (2) and the image is stored in the systems local database for banks further processing. The cheques are stored in a strong metal enclosure of the system which is protected by a physical locking mechanism. A deposit receipt is given to the depositor through the printer (3) containing the cheque transaction details.
The CAT informs the bank regarding the status and details of the cheques in the deposit terminal through GSM/GRPS modem (4) by text messaging (sms) or through e-mail for collection and for cheque processing.
The proposed system can have various alterations depending on the need such as the status acknowledgement and details of the cheques and deposit terminal to the bank can be via sms or through e-mail. The system can ask for more information to the depositor like the date written on the check etc.
Figure 2 is a block diagram of the internal structure of the proposed cheque deposit terminal. The system has a central processing unit (10) that binds together the user interactive application and all the peripherals to perform the entire automated processing. The graphical user interface application (11) will guide the depositor through the entire operation of depositing cheques and collecting the printed deposit receipt in conjunction with the LCD screen (13) for display and the key board/pad (12) which helps a user to enter the account number and amount. The cheques deposited should be MICR only as the system supports only MICR cheques. The cheques are read through the MICR reader (14) and the authenticity of the depositing cheques is confirmed and is intimated to the depositor through proper display messages. The cheques are scanned through an image scanner (15) and a copy of which is stored in the systems local database for further processing by banks. On completion of a proper deposit process, the system gives a printed copy of the deposit receipt containing all the transaction details through printer (16). On completion of the entire process the entire transaction details log is stored in systems local storage unit (18) which can be retrieved by banks at any given time. The
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status of the cheques and their details is informed to the bank through GSM/GPRS modem (17) which allows the banks to collect the cheques accordingly and processing is eased due to the entire transaction log availability.
The proposed machine would be a computing system having a microprocessor/microcontroller, RAM for temporary storage of data during processing, hard disk/Flash memory for permanent storage of application, MICR database and transaction log, monitor to display the menu and other data transfer devices such as CD or a pen drive. The system would also have a MICR reader, Scanner, GSM/GPRS modem, printer. The mentioned machine would have the components depending on the requirement and need of the usage.
Figure 3a-3d is a flowchart exhibiting the cheque deposit process at an automated cheque acceptance terminal. The figure shows a main screen, the welcome screen at the cheque depositing system. The user then selects the option of depositing the cheque. This can be done through a keypad or a touch sensitive screen. Once the user selects the cheque depositing option, the machine asks for the account number on the cheque, which is of a particular length depending on the bank. And then amount written on the cheque is to be entered.
The machine displays a message on the screen asking the user to deposit the cheque at the reader slot. Once the cheque is entered it is verified for the MICR code and after verification from the stored MICR code in the machines local database the validity of the cheque is assessed.
Then the cheque image is scanned and is stored in systems local storage unit for banks further processing.
Once the above actions are complete, a printed receipt of the transaction details is issued and the depositor can collect the receipt from the print slot of the machine. Simultaneously the
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transaction details log is also stored in the machines local storage unit which is available to the bank at any point of time. The user is then asked if he desires to deposit any more cheques. If yes, the depositor is shown the screen to enter the account number and amount written on cheque. Else, a thank you screen is displayed for specific time duration.
Figure 4 shows the steps for reporting the bank regarding the status and details of the cheques in the deposit terminal. The status and details of the cheques in the deposit terminal is informed to the bank at specific time duaration by a GSM/GPRS modem. The banks can collect the cheques according to the status and can terminate the collection process if no cheques are deposited in the terminal.
The cheques can be collected from the deposit station along with all the transaction details and the image of the cheque from the systems local database by using any of the available storage medium like CD, USB for further processing by banks. These features are only available to the bank by a password protected bank interactive application screen.
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We Claim:
1. A method for depositing a MICR cheque by a user at a
automated deposit station with acknowledgement to the user
and bank, said methods comprising the steps of:
- depositing a MICR cheque and entering amount and account number of the cheque at the said station,
- reading and storing cheque related data by the said station,
- printing an acknowledgement receipt with the said stored data by the said station,
- acknowledging the bank regarding the status of the said station by the said station, and
- sending the said stored data to the bank by the said station.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said deposit station can be a manned or unmanned counter equipped with means to read the cheque details, means to store the cheque related data and means to print the acknowledgement receipt.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the deposit station can be situated in bank premises, ATM premises, shopping mall premises, petrol pump premises or any convenient feasible user premises.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said deposit station is a user operated automated cheque deposit and automated acknowledgement machine.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the status of cheques in the said deposit station is acknowledged to the bank through sms or through email by the said station.
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6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of transferring the said stored data for processing and verification of cheques.
7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the stored data in the said deposit station is sent by establishing a wireless connection and sending the updated copy of the backend database.
8. A system for depositing a cheque by a user at a deposit station with acknowledgement, said system comprising of:

- one or more cheque deposit stations,
- said stations with wireless medium for sending the said stored data to bank, and
- means for status acknowledgement of the said deposit stations.
9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said deposit
stations comprise of:
- processing means to execute instructions for depositing the cheques,
- said instruction being stored in permanent and temporary memory means,
- the result of transactions being stored in permanent memory means,
- display unit to guide the user while depositing the cheque,
- means for entering cheque deposit related data,
- means for reading the MICR code,
- means for printing the receipt of the cheque deposit, and
- means for sending the said stored data to the bank.
10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said station
further comprises means to capture the depositor's
fingerprint.
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11. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said data is sent to bank by an automatic wireless network configuration utility.

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Abstract:
The proposed invention relates to an unmanned automated system for depositing Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) cheques in a bank with proper acknowledgement. The cheque acceptance terminals as per the invention are machines which accept cheques and provide acknowledgement to the depositor, and also acknowledges the status and details of the deposit machines and cheques to the bank.
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