Identifier eligibility

• US 9,530,039 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2014
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• 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: Simske, Steven J, Vans, Marie, Gritti, Cesare
• Primary Examiner(s): Marshall, Christle I
• Application Number:
  US14/533,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20150053762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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;

(a) 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, wherein the first set of identifiers includes a plurality of unique identifiers;

(b) 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;

(c) determine that the selected identifier is an eligible identifier for the mass serialization if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria;

(d) adding the selected identifier to a mass serialization identifier set; and

(e) repeating (a)-(d) for at least one additional identifier from the first set of identifiers.

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:

(a) 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, wherein the first set of identifiers includes a plurality of unique identifiers;

(b) 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

(c) if the indication of the difference satisfies a threshold criteria, determining that the selected identifier is an eligible identifier for the mass serialization and adding the selected identifier to a mass serialization identifier set;

(d) if the indication of the difference does not satisfy the threshold criteria, determining that the selected identifier is an ineligible identifier; and

(e) repeating at least the steps (a)-(d) for at least one additional serialization identifier from the first set.

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:

(a) 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, wherein the first set of identifiers includes a plurality of unique identifiers;

(b) 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;

(c) 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;

(d) computer code for adding the selected identifier to a mass serialization identifier set; and

(e) computer code for repeating execution of (a)-(d) for at least one additional identifier from the first set of identifiers.

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.