Mailer detection and manifest system
First Claim
1. A process for the automated detection of an item in a stream of items from different sources as originating from a specific source, comprising:
- identifying specific item characteristics that uniquely identify the source of an item;
detecting these characteristics as the stream of items passes through a material handling system;
comparing the detected characteristics to records of a database containing sets of characteristics identified with each source to determine if a match can be made; and
recording the number of items in the stream that originated from the specific source.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides a system and method for the automatic detection of items as originating from a specific source, e.g. client or customer, identifying specific characteristics of the items, comparing these characteristics to a database of sets of such characteristics identified with or more sources, and providing an output of items that match the characteristics. In one embodiment of the invention, a mailer detection and manifest system detects mail pieces that were sent by specific mailers using mail piece characteristics that are unique to the mail pieces of each mailers'"'"' job within a mixed mailer mail stream. This is preferably accomplished in real-time or near real-time while sorting the mail pieces after the mailers'"'"' specific mail piece characteristics have been determined.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A process for the automated detection of an item in a stream of items from different sources as originating from a specific source, comprising:
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identifying specific item characteristics that uniquely identify the source of an item;
detecting these characteristics as the stream of items passes through a material handling system;
comparing the detected characteristics to records of a database containing sets of characteristics identified with each source to determine if a match can be made; and
recording the number of items in the stream that originated from the specific source.
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2. A process for the identification of a mail piece in a stream of mail pieces being sorted in a sorting machine as belonging to a specific mailer, wherein the stream of mail pieces is a mixed mail stream containing mail originating from two or more mailers, comprising:
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identifying sets of mail piece characteristics that identify mail pieces originated by each mailer;
detecting these characteristics for each mail piece as the stream of mail pieces passes through the sorting machine;
comparing the detected characteristics to a database containing the sets of characteristics identified with mailers to determine if the detected characteristics match one set of the characteristics, thereby identifying the mail piece with its mailer; and
recording the number of mail pieces in the stream that belong to that mailer. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification