Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network supporting a plurality of mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) systems
First Claim
1. An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network, comprising:
- a data collection and processing center operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and including a RDBMS for storing and managing shipping information;
a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles, wherein each said pickup/delivery vehicle is equipped with a mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) system for(i) at points of shipment pickup, capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents, bearing embedded bar codes,(ii) automatically decoding embedded bar codes in said shipping documents, and performing optical character recognition (OCR) on text presented in said shipping documents,(iii) formatting captured digital images of the shipping documents with said OCR recognized information, and(iv) transmitting the formatted digital images to said data collection and processing center, for automatic recognition processing and population of said RDBMS maintained by said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network.
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Abstract
An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network including a data collection and processing center operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and including a RDBMS for storing and managing shipping information, and a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles. Each pickup/delivery vehicle is equipped with a mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) system for (i) capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents, bearing embedded bar codes, at the point of pickup, (ii) automatically decoding embedded bar codes in said shipping documents, and performing optical character recognition (OCR) on text presented therein, (iii) formatting captured digital images of the shipping labels with such decoded/recognized information, and (iv) transmitting the formatted digital images to said data collection and processing center, for automatic recognition processing and population of the RDBMS maintained by said network.
197 Citations
11 Claims
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1. An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network, comprising:
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a data collection and processing center operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and including a RDBMS for storing and managing shipping information; a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles, wherein each said pickup/delivery vehicle is equipped with a mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) system for (i) at points of shipment pickup, capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents, bearing embedded bar codes, (ii) automatically decoding embedded bar codes in said shipping documents, and performing optical character recognition (OCR) on text presented in said shipping documents, (iii) formatting captured digital images of the shipping documents with said OCR recognized information, and (iv) transmitting the formatted digital images to said data collection and processing center, for automatic recognition processing and population of said RDBMS maintained by said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network comprising:
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a plurality of mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) systems, wherein each said MICAP system includes a digital image capture and processing instrument mounted within a pickup/delivery vehicle, for quickly capturing, and processing digital images of shipping documents and transmitting said digital images over a wireless communications infrastructure to a data collection and processing center on said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network; and wherein each said digital image capture and processing instrument can upload digital images of shipping documents to one or more application servers and/or human-operated data-keying workstations supported on said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network for machine and/or human-assisted recognition-processing, and acquisition of shipping information contained in said digital images and the entry of said shipping information into a RDBMS maintained on said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network for the purpose of supporting its shipping, tracking, and delivery operations; and wherein each said digital image capture and processing instrument can automatically read machine-readable content graphically represented in shipping documents during the digital imaging of said shipping docements, and then automatically encode said machine-readable content in a header of a digital image file, and use an item of said machine-readable content to name the digital image file prior to transmission to said one or more application servers and/or human-operated data-keying workstations supported on said Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification