Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone
First Claim
1. A Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone for use in an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, said Web-based MICAP cell-phone comprising:
- a hand-supportable housing;
a digital image capture and processing engine, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for (i) capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents at a point of shipment pickup, and (ii) recognizing bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in said digital images;
a display panel, intergrated with said hand-supportable housing, for displaying said digital images;
a microprocessor, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, along with program memory and non-volatile memory;
an RF transceiver circuit disposed in said hand-supportable housing, along with an RF antenna coupled to said RF transceiver circuit supporting wireless data communication protocols on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network;
a rechargeable battery disposed in said hand-supportable housing for providing electrical power to components with said Web-enabled MICAP cell-phone;
wherein said microprocessor and said program memory provides a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS) and one or more application programs, including a Web browser program, and a client application program; and
wherein said one or more application programs support automatic reading of bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in said digital images, and automatic generation of digital image files (i) named or titled using said bar-coded shipment tracking numbers, and (ii) having headers that are encoded with said bar-coded shipment tracking numbers.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone for use on a Web-based shipping, tracking and delivery network. The cell-phone include a hand-supportable housing, and a digital image capture and processing engine for capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents at a point of shipment pickup. An image-based bar code reading engine is integrated with the housing for recognizing 1D and/or 2D bar-coded labels in captured digital images. A display panel displays digital images. An RF transceiver circuit, with an RF antenna, supports wireless data communication protocols. A microprocessor and memory aboard the cellphone provides a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS) and one or more application programs, including a Web browser program, and a client application program. At least the application program supports the automatically reading of bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in the captured digital images, and automatically generates digital image files (i) having headers that are encoded with machine-recognized shipment tracking numbers, and (ii) which are named or titled using the machine-recognized shipment tracking numbers.
-
Citations
7 Claims
-
1. A Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone for use in an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, said Web-based MICAP cell-phone comprising:
-
a hand-supportable housing; a digital image capture and processing engine, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for (i) capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents at a point of shipment pickup, and (ii) recognizing bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in said digital images; a display panel, intergrated with said hand-supportable housing, for displaying said digital images; a microprocessor, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, along with program memory and non-volatile memory; an RF transceiver circuit disposed in said hand-supportable housing, along with an RF antenna coupled to said RF transceiver circuit supporting wireless data communication protocols on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network; a rechargeable battery disposed in said hand-supportable housing for providing electrical power to components with said Web-enabled MICAP cell-phone; wherein said microprocessor and said program memory provides a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS) and one or more application programs, including a Web browser program, and a client application program; and wherein said one or more application programs support automatic reading of bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in said digital images, and automatic generation of digital image files (i) named or titled using said bar-coded shipment tracking numbers, and (ii) having headers that are encoded with said bar-coded shipment tracking numbers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. A method of operating a Web-based mobile image capture and processing (MICAP) cell-phone in connection with an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, said method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) upon generation of a trigger signal from said MICAP cell-phone, said MICAP cell-phone automatically capturing a digital image of an original shipping document associated with a shipment of a packages, and then buffering said digital image in onboard memory storage aboard said MICAP cell-phone; (b) automatically processing said buffered digital image so as to read machine-readable information graphically represented in said digital image of the original shipping document, and produce data representative thereof; (c) automatically encoding, said data into the header of a digital image file containing said digital image; (d) using said data to name or title said digital image file; (e) transmitting said digital image file to a network application server on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, whereupon, digital image file is transmitted to at least one of a computer-assisted information recognition system, and a human-operated data-keying workstation for reading shipping information graphically represented in said digital image, and storing said shipping information in a relational database management system (RDBMS) on said Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network; and (f) using a Web-enabled client application or a Web browser program running on said Web-based MICAP cell-phone so as to access and view at least one of said digital image files and shipping information stored in said RDBMS. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
-
Specification