ATMs attempting to be intelligent

Bank of America installed new ATMs sometime this year which, for the most part, are pretty user friendly. They're touch screen based (along with a physical keypad) and automatically scan in checks. You have to insert the check in the correct direction or the ATM spits it out because it can't OCR the check. While OCR does take time, it would seem that the ATM could simply flip the image and try the OCR again instead of spitting it out. This isn't rocket science to add that code:

if (!OCRsuccess)
{
	rotate image;
	do_ocr;
}

It would have saved the bank lots of money on printing "insert check this way" labels.

Comments

December 10th, 2007
Ben Combee

It’s probably not just OCRing the check but also reading the magnetic ink used on real checks for the computer-readable account numbers on the bottom. Allowing either orientation would require multiple readers in one ATM or some sort of flipping mechanism.

December 10th, 2007
Scott Gruby

Good to know. From an outsider’s point of view, it still seems like it could be possible.

December 11th, 2007
Ben Combee

Looks like some other people are annoyed at depositing checks in BOA ATMs: http://consumerist.com/consumer/annoying/depositing-checks-in-a-bank-of-america-atm-is-a-huge-pain-in-the-butt-332211.php