Method and apparatus for sorting documents into a pre-defined sequence
First Claim
1. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients, comprising the steps of:
- conveying documents along a document path;
scanning the documents as the documents are conveyed along the document path to determine a characteristic indicative of the recipient of each document;
providing a plurality of bins for receiving the documents, wherein the number of bins is less than the number of recipients;
selecting a radix for logical sequence numbers for the documents, such that the radix corresponds to the number of bins;
assigning logical sequence numbers to the documents, wherein the logical sequence number for each document corresponds to the recipient of the document; and
sorting the documents into the bins according to the logical sequence numbers.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for sorting documents. The documents are scanned to determine a characteristic of each document and then sorted in response to the scanned characteristic. In particular, a method is provided for multi-pass processing of documents. In accordance with one method, each document is assigned a logical sort number corresponding to the recipient of the document. The documents are then sorted in sequential order according to the logical sort numbers. A method is also provided that compares data scanned during a pass with data obtained during a previous pass to determine the recipient of the document. In addition a method is provided for marking the documents and sorting the documents so that the markings provide indicators of pre-defined groups of documents.
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Citations
45 Claims
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1. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients, comprising the steps of:
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conveying documents along a document path;
scanning the documents as the documents are conveyed along the document path to determine a characteristic indicative of the recipient of each document;
providing a plurality of bins for receiving the documents, wherein the number of bins is less than the number of recipients;
selecting a radix for logical sequence numbers for the documents, such that the radix corresponds to the number of bins;
assigning logical sequence numbers to the documents, wherein the logical sequence number for each document corresponds to the recipient of the document; and
sorting the documents into the bins according to the logical sequence numbers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients, comprising the steps of:
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providing a batch of documents;
conveying the documents along a document path;
scanning each of the documents in the batch to determine a characteristic indicative of the recipient of each document;
providing a sorting apparatus for sorting the documents according to the determined characteristic, wherein the sorting apparatus has a number of bins for receiving the documents and the number of bins is less than the number of recipients; and
optimizing the number of times for feeding the documents into the sorting apparatus to sort the documents into an ordered series.
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11. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients utilizing a sorting apparatus having a number of bins, comprising the steps of:
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providing a batch of documents;
conveying the documents along a document path;
scanning each of the documents in the batch to determine a characteristic indicative of the recipient of each document;
selecting the number of times for feeding the documents into the sorting apparatus to sort the documents into an ordered series; and
optimizing the number of bins in the sorting apparatus for the number of times the documents are fed into the sorting apparatus and the number of recipients.
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12. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients utilizing a sorting apparatus having a number of bins, comprising the steps of:
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conveying documents along a document path;
scanning the documents as the documents are conveyed along the documents path to determine a characteristic indicative of the recipient of each document;
assigning logical sequence numbers to the documents, wherein the logical sequence number for each document corresponds to the recipient of the document;
sorting the documents into a plurality of bins according to the logical sequence numbers; and
selecting the radix of the logical sequence numbers, wherein the radix corresponds to the number of bins. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. a method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients, comprising the steps of:
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performing a first pass sort comprising the steps of;
conveying a document along a document path;
scanning the document as the document is conveyed along the document path to determine a first characteristic indicative of the recipient of the document;
scanning the document as the document is conveyed along the document path to determine a second characteristic of the document;
determining the recipient of the document in response to the scanned first characteristic;
performing a second pass sort comprising the steps of;
conveying the document along the document path;
scanning the document as the document is conveyed along the document path to determine the second characteristic of the document; and
determining the recipient of the document based on the scanned second characteristic. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for processing documents, comprising the steps of:
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performing a first pass comprising the steps of;
serially conveying a first document and a second document along a document path;
scanning the first and second documents as the documents are conveyed along the document path to determine a first characteristic of the documents;
sorting the documents;
performing a second pass comprising the steps of;
serially conveying the documents along the document path;
scanning the first document as the first document is conveyed along the document path to determine the first characteristic of the first document;
comparing the first characteristic for the first document scanned during the second pass with the first characteristic for the first document scanned during the first pass to determine a characteristic of the second document during the second pass. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. A method for processing documents for a plurality of recipients, comprising the steps of:
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performing a first pass, comprising the step of;
serially conveying a first document and a second document along a document path;
determining the recipient of the documents;
performing a second pass, comprising the steps of;
serially conveying the first and second documents so that the first document precedes the second document along the document path;
scanning the first document to determine a characteristic of the first document;
determining the recipient of the first document in response to the determined characteristic; and
determining the recipient of the second document in response to the determined recipient for the first document. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
the first pass comprises the steps of;
conveying a third document along the document path;
scanning the third document to determine a characteristic of the third document;
determining the recipient of the third document in response to the determined characteristic of the third document;
sorting the third document in response to the determined recipient for the third document; and
the second pass comprises the steps of;
serially conveying the third document so that the third document immediately succeeds the second document along the document path;
scanning the third document to determine the characteristic of the third document;
determining the recipient of the third document in response to the determined characteristic of the third document; and
determining the recipient of the second document in response to the determined recipients for the first and third documents.
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37. A method for processing documents, comprising the steps of:
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performing a first pass, comprising the steps of;
scanning a document to obtain data regarding a first characteristic of the document;
determining the recipient of the document;
sorting the document in response to the determined recipient;
performing a second pass, comprising the steps of;
scanning the document to obtain data regarding the first characteristic of the document;
comparing the scanned data obtained during the second pass with the scanned data obtained during the first pass;
determining the recipient of the document in response to the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
scanning the document to obtain data regarding a second characteristic of the document during the first pass;
scanning the document to obtain data regarding the second characteristic of the document during the second pass;
comparing the scanned data obtained during the second pass regarding the second characteristic with the scanned data obtained during the first pass regarding the second characteristic; and
determining the recipient of the document in response to the comparison of the data regarding the first and second characteristics.
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41. The method of claim 40 wherein the second characteristic is the height, width or thickness of the document.
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42. The method of claim 40 wherein the second characteristic is the image of at least a portion of the document.
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43. A method for processing documents, comprising the steps:
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conveying documents along a document path;
scanning the documents to determine a characteristic of each document;
determining a print location on each document in response to the scanned characteristic for each document;
printing a mark in the determined print location for each document; and
sorting the documents into groups wherein documents in the same group have the same print location. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45)
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Specification