Feeder control system and method

• US 20050149225A1
• Filed: 08/30/2004
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bell & Howell LLC (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Bowe Bell & Howell Company
• Inventors: Rawlings, David, Richards, Bob, Boston, Michael, Spitzig, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 7,804,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00459 Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00491 Mail/envelope/insert handling system
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00556 Ensuring quality of print
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00709 Scanning mailpieces

Abstract

A feeder control system and method are disclosed. The system includes a feeder information detector, and a feeder information leverager to provide integrity verification, system control and/or reporting. The method includes the steps of detecting feeder information, and leveraging the feeder information to provide integrity verification, system control and/or reporting.

Claims

1-46. -46. (canceled)

47. A feeder control system utilizing a legacy reader for processing new information on a work piece comprising:

a detector positioned relative to a feeder path for detecting information on the work piece; and

a translator receiving an output of the detector for translating the information of a first format into a second format corresponding to that of the legacy reader and outputting the information in the second format to the legacy reader.

48. The system according to claim 47, wherein the detector is a line-scan camera.

49. The feeder control system according to claim 47, wherein the detector is a line-scan camera for scanning the work piece while it is moving;

and

the feeder control system further comprises a processor for processing a first line of the scanned work piece while a second line of the scanned work piece is at least concurrently being read, and iterating the processing to preclude having to stop the work piece during its progression through the feeder path.

50. The system according to claim 49, wherein the line-scan camera is placed approximate the beginning of the feeder path.

51. The system according to claim 49, further comprising an archiver for archiving the work piece image for later use.

52. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a print stream extractor for extracting a print stream; and

a processor for processing the extracted print stream to enhance feeder management.

53. The feeder control system according to claim 48, further comprising:

a light-leveler for light-leveling a three-dimensional character captured by the line-scan camera to determine peaks of the three-dimensional character; and

an image converter for converting the three-dimensional character into a two-dimensional character in accordance with the determined peaks.

54. The feeder control system according to claim 47, wherein the detector is a scanning camera for capturing light reflected when scanning the work piece;

and

the feeder control system further comprises a light intensity balancer for changing intensity of the reflected light to balance field of view intensity to pre-process the scan.

55. The system according to claim 54, further comprising at least one process selected from the group consisting of brightness flattening, automatic light adjustment, and thresholding, to enhance extraction of information from the scan with known difficulties selected from a group consisting of skewing, black on black printing, watermarks, and write-overs.

56. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a control grid; and

a region of interest (ROI) delineated by positioning the control grid over the work piece and associating parameters with the ROI to focus one or more processes on a target area of the work piece.

57. The system according to claim 56, wherein blob masking algorithms are used to search for data fields within the ROI.

58. The system according to claim 56, wherein the ROI and its associated parameters are archived for later re-use.

59. The system according to claim 56, wherein an archived ROI can be retrieved by detecting a barcode on the work piece.

60. The system according to claim 56, wherein more than one ROI is delineated from the target area of the work piece.

61. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

an anchor point determined from a fixed element in the information detected; and

a processor for locating a variable element within the information detected guided by the anchor point.

62. The system according to claim 61, further comprising a page focuser for focusing processing at a particular page to more efficiently pinpoint the anchor point.

63. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a data indexer for matching one element of the work piece to another by indexing detected information to determine likelihood of an accurate match in accordance with established probabilities; and

a Data Driven Inserter (DDI) for driving a feeder function guided by results from the indexing of detected information.

64. The system according to claim 63, further comprising a region of interest (ROI) parameterized to search for and compare information of what should have a logo present with what is being inserted or printed upon the work piece.

65. The feeder control system according to claim 47, wherein the detector is a scanning camera for imaging the work piece;

and

the system further comprises a parallel decoder for decoding imaged work pieces in parallel with scanning.

66. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

an machine control process; and

an embedded operator interface located on the same computer as the machine control process but in a separate memory area from the machine control process to avoid undesirable interaction.

67. The system according to claim 66, wherein the interface is a web browser.

68. The system according to claim 66, wherein the interface is given a lower priority for resources than that of the machine control process to ensure the machine control process is given highest priority access to system resources.

69. The feeder control system according to claim 47, further comprising:

a single centralized interface to improve operational efficiency by centralizing multiple control points in a single location; and

a closed-loop integrity checker to leverage information gathered from multiple locations throughout a feeder system at a single centralized location to maximize productivity and minimize errors.

70. A feeder control method for processing new information utilizing a legacy reader comprising the steps of:

(i) scanning source information into a first format;

(ii) translating the first format into a second format corresponding to that of the legacy reader; and

(iii) outputting the information of the second format to the legacy reader.

71. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) scanning a target work piece while it is moving;

(ii) processing a first line of the scanned work piece while a second line of the scanned work piece is at least concurrently being read; and

(iii) iterating the processing to preclude having to stop the work piece during its progression through the feeder path.

72. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) extracting a print stream; and

(ii) processing the extracted print stream to enhance feeder management.

73. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) sensing areas having a specific light intensity of a scanned three-dimensional character;

(ii) determining peaks of the three-dimensional character based on the sensed area; and

(iii) converting the determined peaks into a two-dimensional character.

74. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) capturing light reflected when scanning the work piece; and

(ii) changing relative intensity of the reflected light to balance field of view intensity to pre-process the scan.

75. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) providing a control grid;

(ii) positioning the control grid over the work piece target area to delineate a region of interest (ROI); and

(iii) associating parameters with the ROI.

76. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) determining an anchor point relative to a fixed element in the scanned source information; and

(ii) processing the information detected to locate a variable element guided by the anchor point.

77. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) indexing the scanned source information; and

(ii) driving a feeder function in response to the indexing.

78. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) imaging the work piece; and

(ii) decoding the imaged work piece in parallel with scanning.

79. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) providing a machine control process; and

(ii) embedding an operator interface in the same computer but in a separate memory area to avoid undesirable interaction.

80. The feeder control method according to claim 70, further comprising the steps of:

(i) centralizing multiple control points at a single centralized interface; and

(ii) leveraging information gathered from the multiple control points.

81. A computer program product for controlling a feeder, the computer program product comprising instructions which may be embodied in a machine readable medium, for causing a programmable device to implement the steps as in any one of claims 70-80.