System and method for comparing documents

1. A system for comparing documents, said system comprising

at least one document reader configured to read information on a first document and on a second document, said first and second documents being different types of documents that are carried by an individual; and

at least one device comprising a processor responsive to the information read by said document reader, said processor executing instructions to:

determine the type of the first document and the type of the second document based on the read information;

identify common fields that are included in the first document and the second document, wherein the first document and the second document have at least one field in common; and

based on the determined type of the first document and the determined type of the second document, compare the information read from the first document with the information read from the second document to determine whether any of the information read from the first document is identical to any of the information read from the second document, wherein the comparison is performed by comparing the information from the identified common fields of the first document with the information from the identified common fields of second document.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the reading of information on said first and second documents by said document reader are independent of one another.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said reading of information on said first and second documents follows furnishing of these documents by the individual.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said document reader reads out information on said first and second documents without any system query from a system user, such query specifying specific information inputted by said system user that limits the information read out by said document reader.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said first document and said second document are selected from a group consisting of: a driver's license, a passport, a credit card, a benefit card, a military identification, a government issued identification, a non-government issued identification, and a bank card.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said device further comprises a memory coupled to said processor, and a display coupled to said processor.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein said display provides an output indicative of whether any of the information read from said first document is identical to any of the information read from said second document.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said document reader is a magnetic stripe reader.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said document reader is a bar code reader.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said document reader is a smart card reader.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said document reader is a machine readable zone (“MRZ”) reader.

12. A system for comparing documents, comprising:

a computer processor executing instructions to:

receive information from a first document and a second document, said first and second documents being different document types that are each capable of being carried by an entity and provided by that entity for purposes of identification, each first document and each second document having at least one document field containing information content corresponding to the document field;

determine the type of the first document based on the received information from the first document;

determine the type of the second document based on the received information from the second document; and

based on the determined type of the first document and the determined type of the second document, determine whether any of the information content received from the first document is identical to any of the information content received from the second document by determining whether any document fields in said first and second documents are common; and then, only if such determination reveals that there are one or more common document fields, determining whether the information content in at least one of such common document fields is the same.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the common document field types are selected from a group consisting of entity's identification characteristics and entity's biometric parameters.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said first document and said second documents are selected from a group consisting of a driver's license, a passport, a credit card, a benefit card, a military identification, a government issued identification, a non-government issued identification, and a bank card.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the document fields on said first and second documents are defined by their respective document types.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising a document reader coupled to said processor and a memory coupled to said processor.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein said document reader is a magnetic stripe reader.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein said document reader is a bar code reader.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein said document reader is a smart card reader.

20. The system of claim 12 wherein said document reader is a machine readable zone (“M”) reader.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said output is characterized by at least one of: color, sound, and text.

22. The system of claim 12 further including a display coupled to said device that provides an output indicative of whether any of the information content received from the first document is identical to any of the information content read from the second document.

23. A computer processor implemented method for comparing documents, said processor carrying out the method comprising the steps of:

reading information on a first document and on a second document, said first and second documents being different types of documents that are carried by an individual;

determining, from the information read from the first and the second documents, the type of the first document and the type of the second document;

identifying common fields that are included in the first document and the second document, wherein the first document and the second document have at least one field in common;

based on the determined types of the first and second documents, comparing the information read from the first and second documents to determine whether any of the information read from the first document is identical to any of the information read from the second document, wherein the comparison is performed by comparing the information from the identified common fields of the first document with the information from the identified common fields of the second document; and

displaying an output indicative of whether any of the information read from the first document is identical to any of the information read from the second document.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the reading of information on said first document is independent of the reading of information on said second document.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein said reading of information on said first and second documents follows furnishing of these documents by the individual.

26. A computer processor implemented method of comparing documents, said method implemented via said processor comprising the steps of:

receiving information from a first document and a second document, said first and second documents being different document types that are each capable of being carried by an entity and provided by that entity for purposes of identification, each first document and each second document having at least one document field containing information content corresponding to the document field;

determining the type of the first document based on the received information from the first document;

determining the type of the second document based on the received information from the second document;

based on the determined type of the first document and the determined type of the second document, determining whether any of the information content received from the first document is identical to any of the information content received from the second document by determining if any document fields in said first document and said second document are common; and then, only if such determination reveals that there are one or more common document fields, determining whether the information content in at least one of the common document fields is the same; and

displaying an output indicative of whether the information content in at least one of the common document fields is the same.