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The Fe2.75Mn0.25O4nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by using the coprecipitation method, while the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI materials were successfully fabricated by using the in situ polymerization method. This research aimed to investigate the magnetic properties and nanostructure of the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4nanoparticles and Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI materials. Some characterizations of the samples were successfully carried out by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) instruments, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) each of which was conducted to characterize the crystal structure, functional groups, morphology, and the magnetic properties of the materials. The XRD analysis results showed that the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI materials had a crystal size of 8.09 nm. Meanwhile, the FTIR spectrum represented vibrations due to the atomic bonds that made up the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI materials. Furthermore, the hysteresis curve from the VSM characterization results showed that the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI material saturation magnetization value was around 2.85 emus/g. From those characterization results, the Fe2.75Mn0.25O4@PANI materials are very potential to be applied as magnetic ink

Currently, the burden on the cheque clearing houses in financial institutions is increasing day-by-day, which necessitates the upgrading of the existing cheque truncation system (CTS). It is a manual process which uses Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR), where cheques have been scanned and sent to the clearing house for further processing. The limitations of existing CTS are — illegal duplication of cheque images, invisible ink usage, visibility issues in beneficiary name, and amount on the cheque. To handle the aforementioned issues of the existing CTS, blockchain has emerged as a new technology which is a distributed ledger that is timestamped and immutable. Being immutable, forgeries related to images of cheques during clearance cycles are not allowed. This provides trust and consensus among all participating entities in the network. Motivated by the above discussion, in this paper, we propose a framework named MudraChain for automated cheque clearance, where clearance operations are handled by the blockchain network, instead of existing CTS. It includes: (i) A multi-level authentication scheme to make the blockchain-based framework secure and tamper-proof among participating financial stakeholders, (ii) A quick-response (QR) code generation algorithm which performs digital signing of a cheque, and (iii) A novel two-factor authentication protocol to generate a time based one-time password (TOTP) for secure funds transfer. The obtained results are examined against state-of-the-art approaches to indicate the supremacy of the proposed framework. Thus, MudraChain allows a seamless flow of clearance operation via blockchain for the payer and the payee without any intermediaries. Finally, it addresses the requirements of building a secure application for cheque clearance in view of decentralized blockchain 4.0 applications.

This chapter examines the effects of technical innovations in record keeping on accounting and the nature of accounting work. Magnetic ink character recognition cheque systems have evolved and are still in use, but other elements of the mechanical accounting systems soon became uneconomic compared to the emerging computer-based systems. The transition from the type of computerised accounting discussed in the last section and the next phase is far from clear cut. The increasing integration of earlier accounting and business-related transaction and information systems continued and accelerated throughout the computerisation period, in particular the development and widespread implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The chapter concludes with a review and reflections on the further development of information systems in accounting and their impact. The fiscal and economic management of the Byzantine Empire varied enormously over its existence. Islamic accounting can be said to have had its inception rooted in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Currently, the magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology has been widely used in the anti-counterfeiting manufacture of RMB, bank tickets, credit cards and other valuable tickets. However, the advantages and disadvantages of the anti-counterfeiting function are directly related to the vital interests of the state and the public. The intelligent manufacturing level of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology is increasingly higher, with the improvement of modern technology. This paper firstly searches, counts and analyzes the domestic and foreign patents of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology, summarizes the trend of patent application for magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting, and analyzes the patents of key nodes. Secondly, The development route of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting patent technology from technical issues, patent application time, key technologies and other dimensions, and depicts the evolution map of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology are summarized. Finally, the development trend of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology is summarized and analyzed, and then the future development direction of patent technology and reference ideas for future technology development and patent application are provided in this paper, this contributes to the improvement of magnetic ink anti-counterfeiting technology.

Due to varying wireless standards in different regions, there is a big desire to have reconfigurable and tunable components which can be tuned to the frequency of interest. At present a single wireless device, such as a mobile phone contains multiple antennas, filters, all of them working at different frequencies. It will be great if an antenna or a filter can be tuned to work at different frequencies, thus the overall number of antennas or filters in a device can be reduced. This control is possible through a magnetic field, if these components are built on a magnetic substrate. Traditional magnetic substrates are expensive that involve complicated fabrication process and operate the material in saturated state making them inefficient. A better approach would be to operate the antenna or any other microwave device in the partially magnetized state. In this work, the authors present the theory and design of a polarization reconfigurable patch antenna with frequency tunablity in the unsaturated state. Operating away from the saturated state can improve the overall efficiency of the RF components. The analytical model is initially verified using a high frequency simulator to predict the antenna performance on a magnetic substrate with normal bias. A low-cost printing technique where the substrate could be realized using magnetic ink is used for the implementation of the antenna. A circular patch antenna working at 6 GHz is used for the validation of the theory. When triggered by an external magnetic field, the as-fabricated antenna shows a maximum tuning range of ∼16% and ∼5% for the two splitted frequency points. A good match is achieved between the theory, simulations and measurements of the antenna.

Magnetic stripe cards and magnetic recording paper are commonly used in credit cards, identity cards, and transportation tickets. Barium ferrite was used to prepare magnetic inks and the magnetic ink was coated onto the paper substrate to obtain the magnetic papers. The crystal structure of barium ferrite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the magnetic property of barium ferrite was tested by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) The performance of the magnetic recording paper and the surface morphology of the coating magnetic layer were also characterized. The results show that the magnetic ink based on barium ferrite with the formula of 41wt% of the barium ferrite powder, 14wt% of polyurethane, 36wt% of solvent and 9wt% of PVP has good printing characteristics and the magnetic recording papers have good performance.

Deinking is a fundamental part of paper recycling. As the global paper consumption rises and exceeds even the annual paper production, recycling of this raw material is of high importance. Magnetic ink based on carbon coated magnetic nanoparticles enables an alternative approach to state of the art paper deinking. Magnetic deinking comprises three steps (preselection, washing, and magnetic separation of fibers). Preseparation of printed from nonprinted scraps of paper is feasible and reduces the paper mass which has to be fed into a deinking process. A consecutive washing process removes surficial magnetic ink that can be collected by application of a permanent magnet. Still, printed parts are subjected to a further continuous magnetic deinking step, where magnetic and nonmagnetic paper fibers can be separated. Magnetic deinking of a model print allows recovery of more than 80% of bright fibers without any harsh chemical treatment and the re-collection of more than 82% of magnetic ink.

Inkjet printing or printing in general has emerged as a very attractive method for the fabrication of low cost and large size electronic systems. However, most of the printed designs rely on nano-particle based metallic inks which are printed on conventional microwave substrates. In order to have a fully printed fabrication process, the substrate also need to be printed. In this paper, a fully printed multi-layer process utilizing custom Fe 2 O 3 based magnetic ink and a silver organic complex (SOC) ink is demonstrated for tunable antennas applications. The ink has been characterized for high frequency and magnetostatic properties. Finally as a proof of concept, a microstrip patch antenna is realized using the proposed fabrication technique which shows a tuning range of 12.5 %.

Automated bank cheque processing is becoming an important technology due to the massive amount of cheques to be processed daily by banks. Across the world still today many financial transactions are carried out using bank cheques. Everyday a large set of handwritten bank cheques are processed manually by the banking authorities. While performing a manual verification, handwritten textual information and machine printed shapes including Bank logo, date, signature, legal and courtesy amounts present on each cheque has to be visually verified. As many countries use cheque truncation systems (CTS) nowadays, much time, effort and money can be saved if this entire process of recognition, verification and data entry is done automatically using images of cheques. In this paper an attempt is made in this paper to present a systematic technique for automatic processing of Indian bank cheque images for identification and recognition of a specific types of bank cheques based on geometrical shapes of bank logo.

The check is a popular form for the non-cash payment and accounts for more than 50% of the non-cash transactions. Magnetic ink character recognition system can recognize the check magnetic code automatically and get the information of the bank and account. In magnetic ink character recognition system, the recognizing algorithm is mostly based on correlation coefficient. The computational cost of this algorithm is very high. This paper has proposed a new algorithm based on the peak-valley code and peak-valley distance after analyzing the characteristics of magnetic code signals in E-13B standards to simplify the calculations and system design. Firstly, the magnetic code signal is normalized and separated into magnetic character signals by the thresholds of peak and valley. Secondly, the features of the peak-valley code and peak-valley distance of each magnetic character signal are extracted, then the recognition based on peak-valley code and the nearest neighbor recognition algorithm based on peak-valley distance are utilized to recognize the magnetic code. The recognition results and statistical parameters from a large number of experiments show that the new method has high recognition rate, good robustness and low computational cost.

Information storage and monitoring relies on sensitive transducers with high robustness and reliability. This paper shows a methodology enabling the qualification of magnetic sensors for magnetic pattern readout, in applications different than hard disk magnetic recording. A magnetic tunnel junction MTJ sensor was incorporated in a reader setup for recognition of the magnetization of patterned arrays made of CoCrPt thin films and magnetic ink. The geometry of the sensor (in particular, the footprint and vertical distance to the media) was evaluated for two sensor configurations. The readout conditions were optimized to cope for variable media field intensity, resulting from CoCrPt film or magnetic ink thickness, with fixed reading distance and dimensions of the pattern. The calibration of the ink magnetic signal could be inferred from the analytical calculations carried out to validate the CoCrPt results.

M.V. and F.A.G. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge financial support from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR). The authors would also like to thank Nini Wei, Shuai Yang, Dr. Alessandro Genovese, Dr. Rachid Sougrat, and Dr. Venkatesh Singaravelu for their work and assistance with SEM, TEM, and magnetic analyses of the powder sample and films.

Variable data printing (VDP), combined with precision registration of multiple ink layers, empowers a layered deterrent using variable print strategies on each of the multiple layers. This shifts the need for specialized printing techniques to the need to accommodate variable ink approaches. Such layered deterrents can incorporate infrared/ultraviolet fluorescent inks, infrared opaque and transparent black inks, inks containing taggants, magnetic ink, and inks with differential adhesive properties to enable sandwich printing. Overt features printed as part of the same layered deterrent provide excellent payload density in a small printed area. In this paper, the statistical and hardware processes involved in qualifying two layers of such a deterrent for their deployment in product (e.g., document and package) security are presented. The first is a multicolored tiling feature that provides overt security protection. Its color payload is authenticated automatically with a variety of handheld, desktop, and production scanners. The second security feature is covert and involves the underprinting or overprinting of infrared information with the covert tiles. Additional layers using existing security deterrents are also described, affording the user information densities as high as 560 bits/cm2 (70 bytes/cm2).

In this chapter we discuss about the use of Paraconsistent Artificial Neural Network on computer pattern recognition. Computer pattern recognition is one of the most important Artificial Intelligence tools present in numerous knowledge areas with applications in several themes, including character recognition. Our focus is the investigation of an automated computational process able to recognize numeric characters furnishing a technical basis to recognize digital images and documents. The methodology employed for the task is based on Paraconsistent Artificial Neural Networks for being a tool with the ability to work with imprecise, inconsistent and paracomplete data without trivialization.

This study was motivated by the need of the identification of the ICT devices used in the Nigerian microfinance sector and the formulation of infusion models for each identified ICT device. 126 Structured questionnaires were used to collect information regarding the use of the ICT devices used among respondents of nine (9) microfinance institutions selected from South-Western Nigeria. The different ICT devices identified consisted of smartphones, SMS, e-mails, computer hardware, telephone banking, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) cheque, bank websites or mobile banking applications, teleconferencing, electronic point-of-sale (E-POS) services and financial ERP software applications. The results showed that majority of respondents who used ICT tools were customers who were traders with a majority age group of around 21-30 years. The results of the study also showed that all ICT tools were adopted in the same year (1999) by bank staffs. The results showed that although all the ICT devices identified were adopted in the same year, it was observed that about 65% of the respondents adopted smartphones and SMS while less than 16% of the respondents acquainted themselves with the other devices. Polynomial functions of degree, m were used to formulate the infusion model for each ICT devices identified based on the yearly cumulative distribution of the number of users. The infusion models formulated can be used to estimate the number of users of ICT devices for any given year from the year of adoption of the ICT device.

To solve the problem of the not high localization degree of China's urban rail transit automatic fare collection systems, a bill acceptor is designed for the rail transit AFC systems. The bill acceptor makes use of magnetic and optical inspection circuit to extract the banknote features like magnetic ink, UV fluorescence, and infrared image. And then apply the PCA algorithm to reduce the dimensionality and build the template. Define two Euclidean distances between the test banknote and the template as the similarity to discriminate the currency. The tests have shown the effectiveness of the system. The banknote jammed rate and receive rate can achieve the industry engineering requirement and the processing speed is significantly improved.

This paper presents an automated computational process able to recognize a handwritten numerical characters and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition used on bank checks based on Paraconsistent Artificial Neural Networks. The methodology employed was chosen for being a tool able to work with imprecise, inconsistent and paracomplete data without trivialization. The recognition process is performed from some character features previously selected based on some Graphology and Graphoscopy techniques and, the analysis of such features as well as the character recognition are performed by Paraconsistent Artificial Neural Networks.

This paper considers the relationship between space, place and the convergence of industrial structures and organizational forms by way of an analysis of the retail banking industry in the USA and the UK. The paper examines this process from two theoretical positions. It does so firstly by viewing the process of convergence through the analytical lens of political economy, which looks for explanation in broad structural forces, such as changes in regulatory space and pressures on profitability. The paper then goes on to draw attention to some of the limitations of interpretations of this kind by drawing attention to the importance of place-based evolutionary economic change, and the ways in which conventions of industrial restructuring are transmitted over space. By way of illustration the paper focuses upon the organizational and practical implications of the implementation of two banking technologies: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) and telephone banking. In doing so, the paper calls for accounts of economic change to pay attention to the rich histories of industrial sectors and for a more active account of economic change which pays attention to the ways in which outcomes are produced through the mixing and borrowing of technologies and practices through space and over time.

Invisible bar codes such as magnetic ones play an important role in systems requiring security. The magnetic bar code system described in this paper uses magnetic anisotropy as a carrier of information. Three kinds of magnetic ink were used, containing iron base alloy, Mn-Zn ferrite powder, and carbonyl iron powder. Although the level of the output voltage needs subsequent amplification, all of these magnetic ink can be used for making magnetic bar codes, especially the one containing iron base alloy. We explain a possible mechanism for two sub-peaks occurring berfore and after the main peak.

Perhaps General Electric got into the "Computer Business" without tremendous foresight, but the first steps in that direction were immensely successful. Starting with the Bank of America's Electronic Recording Method of Accounting (ERMA) system, and combined with the development of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) for the rapid processing of bank checks, and backed by one of the largest corporations in the world, GE had the opportunity to effectively chase and catch IBM in the field of data processing. Succeeding developments also portended well for the future but the continuing reluctance of the GE headquarters to support the Computer Department competitively with other companies whose one and only product was a computer eventually led to the sale of the operation to Honeywell Corporation. This is the story of those beginnings as seen and remembered by the first general manager of the Computer Department.

The use of electronically-based physical access cards to secure premises such as government buildings and large corporate offices has been in operation since the inception of barcode and magnetic stripe cards in the 1970s. Over time, for secure access control, these first generation card technologies, based on optical character recognition (OCR) and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR), were replaced by more sophisticated technologies such as smart cards and biometrics, containing encrypted data and techniques that were more difficult to dupe or to replicate (Michael, 2003a). An employee today, wanting to gain access to their place of work, typically carries a photo identity card in addition to a contactless smart card based on radio-frequency technology, and may also use one of his/her unique

This paper describes a method to extract the magnetic ink characters (MICR E-13B font) printed on bank-checks for the purpose of using OCR as supporting MICR. In the case of OCR, the colorful background patterns and the overlapped signatures on MICR characters make it difficult to extract characters respectively by using simple binarization and labeling. Our method estimates the color and pitch of MICR characters in order to separate the characters in contact with sign strokes, then the remaining sign strokes are removed by tracing them. In the experiment, we use circulated bank-checks and samples provided by SEIKO EPSON and show the performance of our method.

For part 1, see ibid., vol.15, no.1, pp.44-57 (1993). In the early 1950s, Bank of America and Stanford Research Institute collaborated to produce ERMA (electronic recording machine-accounting). After a successful demonstration in 1955, the Bank of America was besieged by companies interested in manufacturing the computer system. Following an extensive selection process, the bank gambled on General Electric. Together the bank and GE worked to produce 32 ERMA systems in a remarkably short time. The leading-edge system was transistorized and incorporated the newly accepted MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) method for reading checks. The system's impact was felt by the entire banking industry. It is suggested that the ERMA effort clearly demonstrates that a knowledgeable user working with competent technologists can design and implement a system that meets critical needs with state-of-the-art technology. >

Magnetic bar codes can be used in dirty environments instead of optical bar codes or as invisible codes in order to enhance the security of prepaid cards. In this article, we propose a high density magnetic bar code system in which the existence or nonexistence of a bar element is detected by a magnetic bridge. A micro head constituting a magnetic bridge is fabricated with thin amorphous cores and thin copper wire coils. The magnetic bar elements are printed with magnetic ink. The basic characteristics, such as signal separation from neighboring bar elements, are discussed in terms of the element width and the space between two adjacent elements.

In today's business environment where the security of accepting checks can sometimes be a burden, many businesses are turning to verification services to provide security for funds accepted as checks. In this paper we propose a new recognition system for processing the optical code, the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code. located at the bottom of bank checks and in some security documents. The proposed method is based on the use of a novel fuzzy descriptive feature using cross correlation to classify the characters. This method is fast robust and is not affected by shift or distortion of characters after thresholding. A 100% recall rate for the trained patterns and a recognition rate of 100% for distorted and skewed patterns with less than 1/spl deg/ skewness were obtained.

This paper provides a solution unique in that the speed varies with the person swiping the check past the head, and the recognition is made without any additional timing information. Techniques applied and researched vary from neural networks to various heuristics based on the properties of the signal derived from the magnetic sense head. The neural network recognition is explored in more detail to find the most optimal solution. >

Presents a technique for extracting the filled information from bankchecks. We have analyzed the bankchecks characteristics and propose a model that can be used to locate and extract the filled information of any bankcheck. This model is based on prior knowledge about check layout structure and in check identification through reading the magnetic ink character recognition line. The redundant information, such as the background pattern, and printed lines and characters, is eliminated from the check image. We maintain a sample of the check's background pattern stored and use it in order to eliminate the original background pattern from digitized checks. Next, the areas where the filled information is supposed to appear are extracted through a template. The baselines are eliminated using an approach based on projection profiles, while the printed characters are eliminated through a subtraction operation. Experimental results from testing real Brazilian bankchecks show that the proposed method is capable of extracting the filled items from bankchecks as an accuracy rate of 88.7-98.3%.

This paper describes a Chinese cheque processing system currently under development at the Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (CENPARMI). The information on Chinese bank cheques is not the same as that on alphanumeric bank cheques. The legal amount in a Chinese bank cheque is the Chinese character text associated with each currency unit. This paper discusses a technique using each currency unit as a key word to locate/extract the legal amount in bank cheques. In the analysis and recognition process, the system tries to locate the smallest currency units in the image and identifies it first. Then, the system tries to locate the image strings associated with each currency unit. Each image string is separated and recognized. Next, a set of rules and context are applied to recognize the characters. In order to choose the correct one, the recognized character string is accepted only if it satisfies all the conditions governed by rules.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) technology has widely been used for processing bank checks. Since the MICR character set is a special type font, and the ink is also readable by human being, optical approach can also be used. This report will describe the design of a low-cost, but highly accurate, microprocessor-based optical character recognition (OCR) check reader. The performance of our OCR reader is affected by a number of factors, mainly the noise generated by the lens system and the colour image at the check background. In this paper we describe how our software solution can alleviate these problems. As speed is another concern, special attention is paid to the design of recognition algorithm, such as the avoidance of floating point arithmetics, hardware limitations, etc.

In the business transactions of large corporations such as utility companies and banks, many cheques must be processed on a regular basis. In this paper, we describe algorithms currently under development to automatically process the information contained on them. These procedures are designed to preprocess the scanned image of a cheque, locate and extract different items of information from it, and produce recognition results for these items by classifiers developed for each function.

In collaboration with financial institutions and utility companies, we have carried out substantial research on document analysis and handwriting recognition. This paper describes our prototype which can differentiate between cheques and remittance slips, between English and French cheques, and recognize their contents. A new technique of sorting handwritten cheques and financial documents will be described. It is based on the detection of the structural properties printed on such documents. Handwritten numeric amounts are recognized by a multiple-expert system. These systems have been applied to read handwritten cheques and numerous financial documents with a great variety of backgrounds, colours, and designs in real-life environments. Their performance will be presented and analyzed.

To prevent fraud it is critical to distinguish an authentic document from a counterfeit or altered document. Most current technologies rely on difficult-to-print human detectable features which are added to a document to prevent illegal reproduction. Fraud detection is mostly accomplished by human observation and is based upon the examiner's knowledge, experience and time allotted for examination of a document. Another approach to increasing the security of a value document is to add a unique property to each document. Data about that property is then encoded on the document itself and finally secured using a public key based digital signature. In such a scheme, machine readability of authenticity is possible. This paper describes a patent-applied-for methodology using the unique property of magnetic ink printing, magnetic remanence, that provides for full self- authentication when used with a recordable magnetic stripe for storing a digital signature and other document data. Traditionally the authenticity of a document is determined by physical examination for color, background printing, paper texture, printing resolution, and ink characteristics. On an initial level, there may be numerous security features present on a value document but only a few can be detected and evaluated by the untrained individual. Because security features are normally not standardized except on currency, training tellers and cashiers to do extensive security evaluation is not practical, even though these people are often the only people who get a chance to closely examine the document in a payment system which is back-end automated. In the context of this paper, one should be thinking about value documents such as commercial and personal checks although the concepts presented here can easily be applied to travelers cheques, credit cards, event tickets, passports, driver's licenses, motor vehicle titles, and even currency. For a practical self-authentication system, the false alarms should be less than 1% on the first read pass. Causes of false alarms could be the lack of robustness of the taggant discrimination algorithm, excessive document skew as it is being read, or errors in reading the recordable stripe. The false alarm rate is readily tested by reading the magnetic tags and digitally signing documents in one reader and performing authentication in at least two other reading devices. When reading the same check in the same reader where signed, the error metric is typically in the range of 0.0600. When comparing different checks in different readers, the error metric generally reports values in the range of 0.3930. It is clear from tests to date that the taggant patterns are randomly different for checks even when printed serially one after another using the same printing process. Testing results to date on the robustness of the taggant comparison and discrimination algorithms indicate that it is probable that low false alarms and very low false accept rates will be achieved.

Despite moves toward electronic funds transfer systems, the United States banking industry must continue to cope with the paper processing requirements associated with a payments system still heavily reliant upon checks. Through the development of MICR (magnetic ink character recognition), computers have been utilized to sort documents and post customer accounts. However, a labor intensive key encoding function is required to prepare documents for processing. An attempt to eliminate the labor intensity is the recent development of optical scanning capture equipment which ‘reads’ printed or hand-written documents and inscribes them with MICR characters. However, the utilization of optical scanning technology requires the scheduling and coordination of five processing activities. A mathematical programming model has been developed which minimizes the combination of payroll and float costs while recognizing machine capacity constraints in the scheduling of optical capture systems. The formulation was specifically designed to respond to the bank check processing scheduling problem. However, with minor modifications, the model is directly transferable to any multi-echelon processing system where penalties are incurred when the units of output fail to meet prespecified deadlines.

The timely processing of checks in large banks is critical to reducing float costs which, in many cases, total thousands of dollars per day. One of the steps in check processing is encoding where the dollar amount is imprinted in magnetic ink at the bottom of each check. Unencoded check arrival volumes exhibit substantial hourly and daily variability. This paper describes an encoder scheduling system and the problems of implementation at a large bank. Documented annual savings and other qualitative benefits are also presented.

Conversion of a base magnetic fluid into an ink for ink jet printing requires special chemical modifications. These are tailored for the fluid to meet specific properties such as magnetic moment, viscosity, colloidal stability, and jet directionality, as well as low evaporation rate, and drying time on paper. This paper will describe the set of simultaneous chemical modifications that are carried out on the base fluid in order to achieve the properties of a suitable ink for a jet printer.

When a character printed in magnetic ink passes beneath a magnetic reading head it generates a waveform. A method is described here to determine this waveform from the geometry of the printed character. The character shape is divided into elementary vertical units and the height of these units is then tabulated. A single set of experimental data is obtained in the laboratory by passing a magnetically printed bar beneath the same reading head which will be used to read the characters. Formulas are derived in this paper for combining the geometrical data obtained from the character with the experimental data obtained from the laboratory run with the head. A method is then described for programing a high-speed digital computer to derive the waveforms. The discussion explains why these waveforms are often superior to what might be obtained in an actual laboratory run of the printed characters.

This paper is concerned with application of linear decision functions to the pattern identification problem and describes an experimental pattern recognition system for the magnetic ink character font now used in the banking industry. The system is based on a linear decision function determined by means of a variant of an "adaptive training" technique due to Rosenblatt. The system has been partially implemented (in part, through simulation with aid of a digital computer and, in part, by hardware) and experimental results in using the system are reported.

Magnetoresistive heads are very attractive for cheque reading. They are speed unsensitive and output signal is large compared to conventional coil heads. Many papers describe MR heads and some theoretical calculations predict output signal. In order to use MR head to read printed code on cheque with magnetic ink we need to know fringing field produced by printed characters with various geometries. We calculate the magnetic equilibrium when the character has been previously saturated. We use an iterative method based on field formulas and hysteresys loop characteristics. We found virtual magnetic charges localised on each side of the small magnetic bars. Complete field maps are given. In a second part we will discuss the magnetic behaviour concerning MR strip compared to conventional reading head. Variations of output signal according to different parameters (head to cheque distance, side definition of small bar, magnetic stain) are compared for MR and conventional heads. In conclusion MR strip exhibits many advantages compared to conventional gap head.

The application of a fluid jet used in printing has been proposed in the past. Most of the previous work was based on electrostatic deflection of the jet, i.e., the droplets in the jet are charged and deflected in an electric field. In this talk we shall discuss a technology which uses a magnetic fluid jet and magnetic forces for deflection. This system uses fine particle magnetite colloidal suspension as an ink and deflection is accomplished by pasasing the jet through an inhomogeneous magnetic field. It will be shown that by using some very basic deflection principles a class of ink jets can be designed and some examples will be shown.

This essay starts from the arguable proposition that the long history of pattern recognition and allied techniques, such as image analysis, has resulted in relatively little practical, i.e., commercial, application. The only significant commercial use is that of character recognition where, starting from the early systems for reading highly stylized character shapes printed (in magnetic ink) on bank checks, we now have devices capable of recognizing only lightly stylized handprinted characters, though at some cost.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) was developed about 10 years ago for the automation of cheque and transfer processing in banks and Postgiro’s. In the U.S.A. the E-13B type fount was developed and in Europe CMC-7; their general characteristic is eight characters per inch printing pitch, special printing equipment and a fairly high degree of print quality control. In continental Europe, MICR has not been applied extensively and there is a strong trend noticeable towards Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The primary reason for this is a ten character per inch printing pitch which allows for the use of regular printers, e.g. high-speed printers. It is felt that OCR can provide a better balance between document preparation and reading costs. The subject recognition system was developed specifically with this reasoning in mind. Details of this development are given below.

The IBM 1210 Sorter/Reader recognizes characters printed in a specified location on paper with magnetic ink. A schematic diagram of the machine system is given in Fig. 1. The characters first come to a writing head which induces a magnetic field in the special purpose ink with which the characters are written. Next this magnetic field is sensed by a multi-channel reading head. The utput of the reading head is a set of ten time-dependent voltage waves.

Magnetic printing is quite similar to electrostatic printing. The basic steps consist of recording a magnetic latent image, development of the recording with a magnetic ink and finally transferring the ink to a sheet of paper. Since papers on magnetic printing were first published in 1951, each step of this process has become highly developed. Impactless magnetic printers have been displayed at several conferences during the past few years. This review of the work on magnetic printers shows that printing speeds and print quality equal to electrostatic and ink jet printers can be achieved.

Many efforts have been made to discriminate, categorize, and quantitate patterns, and to reduce them into a usable machine language. The results have ordinarily been methods or devices with a high degree of specificity. For example, some devices require a special type font; others can read only one type font; still others require magnetic ink.

Synopsis: Computers for business applications are generally input limited and require excessive manpower for data preparation. This can be reduced, and gains can be made in speed and reliability if the data forms for the computer and the human being are compatible. Documents must be prepared for manual use in conjunction with many phases of automatic business or technical data handling, and such documents with suitable format arrangements can be fed directly to the computer input with the techniques described. The numbers and symbols on the document are printed in magnetic ink in conventional form and size, and machine reading can be accomplished at rates exceeding 5,000 characters per second. The documents themselves have been handled at rates up to 50 per second.