11. A method of implementing a phase angle based magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) system, comprising: generating a set of phase angle components from a Fourier transform of temporal MICR data for an inputted arbitrary character, wherein the set of phase angle components comprises a plurality of harmonics; calculating a phase angle difference between adjacent harmonics of the plurality of harmonics to generate a set of phase angle differences; and comparing the set of phase angle differences with each of a set of reference waveforms to determine an identity of the inputted arbitrary character.
11. A method of implementing a phase angle based magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) system, comprising: generating a set of phase angle components from a Fourier transform of temporal MICR data for an inputted arbitrary character, wherein the set of phase angle components comprises a plurality of harmonics; calculating a phase angle difference between adjacent harmonics of the plurality of harmonics to generate a set of phase angle differences; and comparing the set of phase angle differences with each of a set of reference waveforms to determine an identity of the inputted arbitrary character. 13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of phase angle components comprises five harmonics.