Method of identifying a plurality of labels having data fields within a machine readable border

• US 5,607,187 A
• Filed: 03/03/1994
• Issued: 03/04/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kiwisoft Programs Limited
• Original Assignee: Kiwisoft Programs Limited
• Inventors: Salive, Harold T., Slade, Kevin G., Salive, Rachel K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Han, Frances
• Application Number:
  US08/199,316
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 283/74, 283/70, 283/75, 283/81, 283/67, 235/462, 235/375
• US Class Current: 283/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06131 the marking comprising a target pattern, e.g. for indicating the center of the bar code or for helping a bar code reader to properly orient the scanner or to retrieve the bar code inside of an image
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1439 including a method step for retrieval of the optical code
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0297 including a machine-readable marking, e.g. a bar code digitally marked record carriers in general G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/205 specially adapted for electric cables, pipes or the like

Abstract

An identification system involves the labeling then tracking of grouped items such as logs, shipping containers, or packets of mail and reporting the current location of identified items during transport, processing, and storage. Machine-readable labels are provided, adapted for recognition and reading from within a cluttered scene. These labels have bordering indicia--used for locating purposes--distinguishable from inner informative indicia. Bordering indicia include either a series of small substantially similar marks like filled or hollow ovals, or one circle, or part of a circle, or a sequence of locating symbols or characters. Informative indicia include dots, bars, rings, or regional text characters. Multiple coding methods and spatial (e.g. Latin Square) replication of indicia are used to minimize errors. A machine-vision image decoder comprises a high-resolution camera adapted for field use and a remote image processing computer to analyze the image and make reports listing or showing items within the image as identified by labels.

Claims

1. A method of identifying each of a plurality of items at a site, comprising the steps of:

labelling each of said items with a unique machine-readable label, each of said labels being different from each other of said labels, said label carrying a data matrix data field readable by machine vision reading equipment, said data matrix data field containing information-carrying indicia, the data field of each label being disposed in a machine-readable border, and an area of the field of view able to be read by said machine vision reading equipment containing a plurality of said labels,

recording at least one image of the area of the field of view able to be read by said machine vision reading equipment, converting the image into a computer-compatible form, applying machine vision algorithms to detect the presence and position of each distinct data field within the image, and

decoding only the information-carrying indicia in each data field located within said machine-readable borders to identify each item.

2. A method of identifying as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of labels comprises at least five labels.