magical machine.

Been to a Chase ATM lately?

I absolutely HATE going thru the tellers at the bank. They are slow, people in their cars are slow, it's just an overall frustrating experience.
Did you know those little speakers stay on after you've pressed the call button? One time I was talking about buying my boyfriend a playstation 2 and the guy came over the speaker and said, "mam, I wasn't trying to listen but you should really wait until the playstation 3 comes out. It's going to be awesome."
I'm sure I shot him some "WTF?" look, but what could he really expect.

ANYWAYS....

About 6 months or so ago Chase installed all new ATMs in Norman. They are AMAZING!
They don't require envelopes! No more waiting on people, who weren't smart enough to just grab a stack of envelopes and keep them stashed in their car to fill out BEFORE they get to the ATM, to fill out their envelopes.

You simply insert your cash or check(s) into their respective slots and wa-la! {obviously not what the real ATM looks like}

It knows EXACTLY how much you've put in there! You don't even have to enter the amount.
Then if you deposited a check it prints the image of the check on your receipt.

GENIUS.

But here's the thing that has been driving me crazy...

How does the machine figure out the amount you put in?
I'm sure with cash there are some special lines in it that a light reads over, but checks.....
HOW DOES IT READ EVERYONE'S HANDWRITING?!?!
I mean I've had some poorly handwritten checks and the machine ALWAYS knows!!

We've come up with a theory around the office...
There has to be a person {I think more along a sweatshop looking warehouse somewhere in India full of people and computers} that checks the image. Like it pops up on their screen and they type in the amount and BAM! it reports back to your ATM.

I can't imagine what other kind of technology can scan the imagine...make out the numbers....and then spit it back out to you on the ATM screen. If there is...whoever invented that should win some huge award...seriously.

I'm so intrigued by this machine and its abilities....

Any theories you have to offer???