INDENTIFIER ELIGIBILITY

• US 20140252092A1
• Filed: 03/05/2013
• Published: 09/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Vans, Marie, Simske, Steven J, Gritti, Cesare
• Granted Patent: US 8,915,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/437
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 5/00 Methods or arrangements for verifying the correctness of markings on a record carrier; Column detection devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1434 Barcodes with supplemental or add-on codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1473 error correction

Abstract

In various disclosed examples, an identifier is selected from a first set of identifiers, the selected identifier having a representation of at least two different characters. An indication of a difference between the representation of the selected identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers is calculated, and the selected identifier is determined to be an eligible identifier if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device including computer program code, the memory device and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

select an identifier from a first set of identifiers, the selected identifier having a representation of at least two different characters, the first set of identifiers including candidate identifiers for mass serialization;

calculate an indication of a difference between the representation of the selected identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers; and

determine that the selected identifier is an eligible identifier for the mass serialization if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the representation of the selected identifier has a binary representation of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second set of identifiers includes point-of-sale identifiers.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the difference is a Hamming distance between the representation of the selected identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the Hamming distance satisfies the threshold criteria when the Hamming distance is greater than an error correction threshold associated with the second set of identifiers.

6. A method, comprising:

selecting a serialization identifier from a first set of serialization identifiers, the selected serialization identifier having a representation of at least two different characters, the first set of identifiers including candidate identifiers for mass serialization;

determining an indication of a difference between the representation of the selected serialization identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers; and

if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria, determining that the selected identifier is an eligible identifier for the mass serialization; and

,

if the indication of the difference does not satisfy the threshold criteria, determining that the selected identifier is an ineligible identifier and repeating at least the steps of selecting a serialization identifier from the first set and determining an indication of the difference.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the representation of the selected identifier is a binary representation of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the second set of identifiers includes point-of-sale identifiers.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the indication of the difference is a Hamming distance between the representation of the selected serialization identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the Hamming distance satisfies the threshold criteria when the Hamming distance is greater than an error correction threshold associated with the second set of identifiers.

11. A computer program product, embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

computer code for selecting an identifier from a first set of identifiers, the selected identifier having a representation of at least two different characters, the first set of identifiers including candidate identifiers for mass serialization;

computer code for calculating an indication of a difference between the representation of the selected identifier and representations of one or more identifiers from a second set of identifiers; and

computer code for determining that the selected identifier is an eligible identifier for the mass serialization if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the representation of the selected identifier is a binary representation of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the second set of identifiers includes point-of-sale identifiers.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the indication of the difference is a Hamming distance between the representation of the first identifier and representations of the one or more identifiers from the set of identifiers.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the Hamming distance satisfies the threshold criteria when the Hamming distance is less than an error correction threshold associated with the set of identifiers.