Magnetic Ink Character Recognition MICR

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MICR

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

In today's high tech world, nearly everyone takes electronic banking for granted and seldom gives a second thought to automated teller machines, electronic funds transfers, on-line statements, or even utilizing the computer to pay their bills electronically. However, few, if any, realize that these capabilities can be traced back to events that occurred over half a century ago and to the invention and proliferation of Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). MICR was devised to allow computers to electronically read and recognize consumer and business account information for the purpose of automating check processing and to automate the debit and credit of bank accounts electronically (http://www.rosistem.ro/www/technologies/micr/). Although most people were unaware they were using it, MICR could well be considered the first electronic banking innovation used by consumers.

It is said that necessity is the "mother of invention" and that is certainly true in the case of MICR. MICR was invented in direct response to the economic boom that followed World War II. Prior to that time, the vast majority of people used cash to complete their financial transactions and the use of checking accounts were limited primarily to businesses and the wealthy. As such, processing the quantity of checks that cleared each day was, at worst, a minor inconvenience to the banking industry and could be accomplished by a small number of people using an entirely manual process. However, as more and more Americans of the period experienced a significant increase in both prosperity and purchasing power, the use of cash wasn't always practical and, as a result, the number of checking accounts increased sign...

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...s in Mexico, France, Spain, and in most Spanish speaking countries (http://www.idautomation.com/fonts/micr/).

With technology advancing as quickly as it has over the last five decades, it's hard to imagine that the MICR technology has survived for more than fifty years. MICR has seen numerous improvements over the years and has been upgraded using the latest technologies. The hardware used to implement MICR has gotten smaller, lighter, and cheaper as a result of newer materials and technologies and MICR readers can now be found accompanying just about every cash register across America. Even so, the basic principles of operation remain exactly the same as they were fifty years ago. MICR is a true success story and a true testament to the ingenuity and inventiveness of the engineers that worked to implement the MICR system with the limited technology of the 1950s.

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