Claims
- 1. An apparatus for determining the orientation of a document receivable in differing orientations relative to said apparatus, said document including magnetic ink markings on a surface of the document, and said apparatus comprising:
- a) a document transport for transporting the document along a selected path of movement;
- b) a magnetizing element along the path of movement for magnetizing the magnetic ink markings on said document;
- c) a detector along the path of movement for detecting magnetized ink markings on said document; and
- d) orientation-determination means responsive to the detector for determining patterns of magnetic ink markings detected by the detector and for determining that said document is in a first defined orientation, or that said document is in some other orientation different from the first orientation dependant on the patterns of magnetic ink markings determined for the document.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the orientation-determination means is responsive to the detector for determining that said document is at least in a second defined orientation.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the orientation-determination means is responsive to the detector for determining that said document is in a least one of four defined orientations.
- 4. A method for determining the orientation of a document receivable in differing orientations, said document including magnetic ink markings on a surface of the document, and said method comprising the steps of:
- a) magnetizing the magnetic ink markings on said document;
- b) detecting magnetized ink markings on said document;
- c) determining patterns of the magnetic ink markings detected on said document; and
- d) determining that said document is in a first defined orientation, or that said document is in some other orientation different from the first orientation dependent on the patterns of ink markings determined for the document.
- 5. The method of claim 4 including the step of determining that said document is in at least a second defined orientation.
- 6. The method of claim 4 including the step of determining that said document is in one of at least four defined orientations.
RELATED CASES
This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/382,656, filed Feb. 2, 1995, which will issue on Jul. 30, 1996, as U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,338, which is itself a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/114,196, filed Aug. 30,1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,003, dated Mar. 14, 1995, which is itself a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/720,413, filed Jun. 25, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,116, dated Aug. 31, 1993, which itself is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 07/363,511, filed Jun. 8, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,918, dated May 26, 1992, which is itself a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 06/904,966, filed Sep. 5, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,037, dated Sep. 5, 1989, each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
904966 |
Sep 1986 |
|
Continuations (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
382656 |
Feb 1995 |
|
Parent |
114196 |
Aug 1993 |
|
Parent |
720413 |
Jun 1991 |
|
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
363511 |
Jun 1989 |
|