Method and apparatus for encoding labels

• US 20080186175A1
• Filed: 02/02/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avery Dennison Retail Information Services LLC (Avery Dennison Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Avery Dennison Retail Information Services LLC (Avery Dennison Corporation)
• Inventors: Stern, Mitchell G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,097,111 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/36 for portability , i.e. hand-held printers or laptop printers B41J3/4075 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/4075 Tape printers; Label printers
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/02 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/025 Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0265 Handheld, portable ear thermometers G01J5/049
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/028 using a charging unit or battery
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/08 Optical arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0893 Arrangements to attach devices to a pyrometer, i.e. attaching an optical interface; Spatial relative arrangement of optical elements, e.g. folded beam path G01J5/049 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing

Abstract

There is disclosed method and apparatus for encoding labels with information relating to temperature, life expectancy and/or discard dates and times of products such as perishable items. A hand-held portable printer mounts a thermometer which can sense the temperature of an item and the printer can print a label bearing the sensed temperature and/or other related data.

Claims

1. Method of encoding labels with a hand-held portable printer having a hand-held portable housing and a print head capable of printing labels, wherein a print head and a thermometer are mounted on the hand-held portable housing, the method comprising:

determining an end-of-shelf-life for a product based on a temperature and the nature of the product, and

printing a label with an indication of the end-of-shelf life expectancy.

2. Method of encoding labels with a printer with a thermometer and an on-board microprocessor controller storing shelf-life information of a plurality of perishable items based on initial temperatures, the method comprising:

taking the temperature of a perishable item,

calculating the end-of-shelf-life time and date for the item of which the temperature was taken, and

printing a label bearing the end-of-shelf-life time and date.

3. An encoder, comprising:

a printer having a microprocessor controller and a thermometer capable of sensing the temperature of perishable items and coupled to the microprocessor controller, the improvement comprising;

wherein the microprocessor controller is capable of storing shelf-life information of a plurality of different perishable items based on an initial temperature and of determining the end-of-shelf-life time based on the temperature of the perishable item sensed by the thermometer.

4. An encoder having a printer with an microprocessor controller and a thermometer coupled to the microprocessor controller, the thermometer being capable of taking the temperature of a perishable item, the improvement wherein the microprocessor controller is capable of storing shelf-life information of a plurality of different perishable items based on initial temperature, the microprocessor controller configured to calculate the end-of-shelf-life time and date for the item of which the temperature was taken, and the microprocessor controller configured to cause the printer to print a label bearing the end-of-shelf-life time and date.

5. The encoder of claim 4, further including a module selected from the list consisting of a RFID module for reading RFID tags, and a wireless or wired communication port module.

6. Method of encoding a label, comprising:

receiving input regarding an ingredient of a product;

determining the temperature of the product;

determining an end-of-shelf-life for the product based on the ingredient and the temperature; and

printing a label indicating the end-of-shelf-life and/or a bar code.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of receiving input comprises receiving a selection of an ingredient from a user interface module.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the label includes individual color graphics each representing different days of a week and the printing comprises marking the color graphic that representative the day to which that the end-of-shelf-life corresponds.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of determining the end-of-shelf-life comprises:

determining an expected shelf-life for the ingredient based on the determined temperature and a look-up table;

determining a current time; and

determining the end-of-shelf-life based on the expected shelf-life and the current time.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of printing the label is done automatically in response to the determining of the end-of-shelf-life.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of printing the label including providing an indication of the user causing the label to be printed.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of receiving input comprises:

scanning a RFID chip to determine the product type; and

determining at least one ingredient associated with the product type.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining the at least one ingredient comprises wirelessly querying a remote host to obtain information regarding the at least one ingredient.

8. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of receiving input comprises:

scanning a bar code label to obtain bar code data; and

determining ingredients associated with the bar code data.