Check reading ATMs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lrCeN-_htMThese new ATMs were starting to get installed by my bank (KeyBank) in the Seattle area a little bit ago. It was a novel concept when I first saw them around. I was wondering how this was better.Then I started thinking about the process deeper.In the olden days, you type in the number on the check and the bank gives you access to some small portion of it. A human in the bank's back-end system (or an OCR running on a computer) eventually gets to look at the check and they type (or submit in the case of the computer) it in as well.The only difference in the new system is the loop is closed. The back-end processing is done in real time and not batch. This not only limits the workload on the end user, it limits the amount of fraud as well since the end user isn't entering the data in the first place. The amount of work from the bank's perspective is almost the same, the only add-on is that they have to ensure a higher uptime for the back-end processing. (Though, they could fall back to the user entering the information themselves I suppose)Anyway, it's interesting to look at the advancements and see what's going on under the surface and how it moves things forward.