Patent US 6,567,546

A data medium handling apparatus and a data medium handling method suitable for use for handling of documents, for example, in a financial organ. The data medium handling apparatus (30) for recognizing, based on an image (19) read from a data medium on which information is described in an arbitrary format, the information, is constructed such that it comprises means (2) for extracting characteristics unique to the data medium including the format from the read image data (19) and specifying, from the characteristics, a position at which information to be recognized is present, and image recognition means (3) for recognizing the image (19) at the position specified by the is preceding means (2) to discriminate the information, so that the data medium handling apparatus (30) can handle documents having various formats such as private slips.