METHOD OF STORING A PLURALITY OF ARTICLES WITH INFORMATION BEING SCRUTINIZED

• US 20110215035A1
• Filed: 07/06/2009
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solystic
• Original Assignee: Solystic
• Inventors: Lagrange, Herve, Caillon, Christophe
• Granted Patent: US 8,672,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 209/552
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 3/14 using light-responsive detecting means for information carriers G06K7/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/424 Postal images, e.g. labels or addresses on parcels or postal envelopes

Abstract

A method of sorting a plurality of articles (A, B, C), in which each article goes through a sorting installation in at least two passes, comprises the steps of recording the image of each article that is generated during the first sorting pass in a memory and in correspondence with a data item indicating a sorting outlet to which the article is directed during the first sorting pass. If an article is misrouted, a correctly routed reference article is chosen in the vicinity of the misrouted article in the sequence of articles obtained during the last sorting pass, the memory is searched (22-28) for an image of said correctly routed reference article, and, on the basis of said reference article image, a set of article images grouped together in the memory and that includes the image of the reference article is looked through (29-34) to identify an image of the misrouted article.

Claims

1. A method of sorting a plurality of articles (A, B, C), in which method each article has a surface provided with an indication of a routing point to which the article is to be routed, and in which method each article goes through a sorting installation in at least two passes;

while a current article is passing through the installation on its first sorting pass, a digital image is generated of the surface of the article that bears said indication, said image of said indication is read automatically (4) so as to direct the article towards a sorting outlet of the installation, a unique identifier for the article is also generated (6) from the image, and said unique identifier is recorded (7) in a database in correspondence with the image of the article and with the result of the reading; and

during each of the following sorting passes of each article through the installation, a current digital image of the article bearing said indication is generated again in order to derive (12) a current identifier for the article, and a match (13) is sought between said current identifier and the identifiers recorded in the database during the first sorting pass of the articles through the installation, so as to direct the current article to a sorting outlet of the installation;

and in which method a search (20) is made in the database for at least one image generated during a pass in the sorting installation for at least one misrouted article in order to scrutinize the information recorded for that article in the database;

said method being characterized in that, during said last sorting pass for each article through the installation, a grouping data item is recorded in correspondence with an image of said article in the database so as to obtain, in a memory, various groups of images corresponding to respective ones of the groups of articles in the sorting outlets, and the following steps are performed for the misrouted article in order to scrutinize the information;

searching (22-28) the database for an article image that is the image of a reference article that is correctly routed; and

on the basis of said reference article image, looking through (29-34) a grouped set of article images including the image of the reference article so as to identify an image of the misrouted article.

2. A method according to claim 1, in which said grouping data item is a data item indicating a sorting outlet or a sorting outlet storage tray to which the article is directed.

3. An installation for sorting a plurality of articles, each of which has a surface provided with an indication of a routing point to which the article is to be routed, the installation being arranged so that, while a current article is passing through the installation on its first sorting pass, a digital image is generated of the surface of the article that bears said indication, said image of said indication is read automatically so as to direct the article towards a sorting outlet of the installation, a unique identifier for the article is also generated from the image, and said unique identifier is recorded in a database in correspondence with the image of the article and with the result of the reading, and so that, during each of the following sorting passes of each article through the installation, a current digital image of the article bearing said indication is generated again in order to derive a current identifier for the article, and a match is sought between said current identifier and the identifiers recorded in the database during the first sorting pass of the articles through the installation, so as to direct the current article to a sorting outlet of the installation, the installation also including a scrutiny system (20) for searching the database for at least one image generated during a sorting pass for at least one misrouted article in order to scrutinize the information recorded for said misrouted article in the database;

said installation being characterized in that it is also arranged so that, during said last sorting pass for each article through the installation, a grouping data item is recorded in correspondence with an image of said article in the database so as to obtain, in a memory, various groups of images corresponding to respective ones of the groups of articles in the sorting outlets or sorting outlet trays, and the scrutiny system (20) is arranged so as to search (22-28) the database for an article image that is the image of a reference article that is correctly routed; and

, on the basis of said reference article image, so as to look through (29-34) in the memory a grouped set of article images including the image of the reference article.