Mail processing tracking system and method
First Claim
1. A method for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility, comprising:
- scanning a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom;
sorting the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy;
placing the sorted mail pieces into a container together with a marker comprising an RFID tag;
in a computerized control system, associating identifiers for the RFID marker with a sequence of mail pieces in the container;
scanning the RFID tag to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the container;
transporting the container; and
video tracking the container from the position at the time of scanning to a later different position.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method is described for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility. It includes steps of scanning a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom, sorting the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy; and placing the sorted mail pieces into a container together with a marker comprising an RFID tag. In a computerized control system, identifiers for the RFID marker are identified with a sequence of mail pieces in the container. The RFID tag is scanned to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the container. The container is then transported, e.g. by loading a tray as the container onto a cart and then moving the cart. The method further includes video tracking the container from the position at the time of scanning to a later, different position at which a further postal operation takes place, such as loading of the trays onto a truck or feeding the mail from the trays onto the feeding ledge of a sorting machine hen a subsequent sorting step is needed.
59 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility, comprising:
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scanning a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom; sorting the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy; placing the sorted mail pieces into a container together with a marker comprising an RFID tag; in a computerized control system, associating identifiers for the RFID marker with a sequence of mail pieces in the container; scanning the RFID tag to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the container; transporting the container; and video tracking the container from the position at the time of scanning to a later different position. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer-implemented process of tracking mail during postal handling at a postal processing facility, comprising:
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initially sorting an incoming stream of mail on an automated sorting machine to a series of pockets based on a sort scheme; during sorting, introducing RFID-tagged, machine-sortable markers into the incoming mail stream at intervals and sorting the RFID-tagged markers with the mail into pockets of the sorter; sweeping the mail and RFID-tagged markers from the pockets into trays, wherein the markers are introduced such that at least one marker is swept to each of a set of trays containing the sorted mail; transporting the trays containing the mail and RFID-tagged markers from the automated sorting machine; during a postal operation subsequent to the initial sorting, scanning one or more of the RFID-tagged markers; and identifying mail from the initial sorting from the scanned RFID-tagged markers; and tracking the position of each tray during the transporting step using a video tracking system. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility, comprising:
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an automated sorting machine which scans a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom and sorts the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy; markers each comprising an RFID tag; containers for holding mail sorted by the sorting machine and one or more markers; carts for transporting a number of containers of mail at a time; a computerized control system associating identifiers for each RFID marker with a sequence of mail pieces in the container; an RFID gateway which scans RFID tags present on a cart passing through the gateway, which gateway is connected to the control system to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the containers on the cart; and a video tracking system which tracks the cart from its position at the time of scanning to a later different position.
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Specification