Fujitsu & A2iA Team Up to Offer Recognition Capabilities at ATMs

Fujitsu has announced a new check-imaging prototype powered with A2iAs recognition engine, designed for automatic teller machines.In addition to its image-capture and display capabilities, Fujitsu?s prototype will demonstrate features to reduce fraud, speed processing, improve accuracy and reduce costs: - Maker signature detection - items are rejected without a maker signature - Endorsement signature detection - users are asked to endorse if payee signature is missing - Courtesy amount recognition (CAR) and Legal amount recognition (LAR) - the application compares read amount(s) with what the user is asked to enter - Online Banking-based review of deposited items - customer can view image of deposited check; improves customer confidence - Image Quality Assurance - items are scanned to ensure legitimacy and readability of all required fields before acceptance and/or truncation According to the Federal Reserve Board, approximately 50 billion checks are written in the United States annually. This prototype is being developed, in part, as a result of new legislation that will allow the banking industry to exchange check images so that a substitute check will have the same legal standing as the original. The United States Senate passed the Check Truncation Act of 2003 in June. The bill is similar to H.R. 1474, commonly called Check 21, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year and was signed into law by President Bush in late October. The bills are targeted to go into effect in 2005.