Method of shipping, tracking, and delivering a shipment of packages over an internet-based network employing the capture of shipping document images and recognition-processing thereof initiated from the point of pickup and completed while shipment is being transported to its first scanning point in the network, so as to sort and route packages using the original shipment number assigned to the package shipment
US7766230B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 31, 2007 |
| Grant date | Aug 3, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 12, 2028 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q10/08
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network is deployed, wherein at the point of shipment pickup, digital images of shipping documents are captured and processed, shipping information graphically represented the digital images is extracted and encoded into digital image files, and these digital image files are transmitted to an application server and for storage in an information DBMS and subsequent recognition and processing, while the shipment is in transit, from the point of shipment pickup to the first scanning point. At the first scanning point, and subsequent sorting and routing hubs in the network, the original shipment number assigned to the package shipment and graphically represented in said shipping document images, is used to access the DBMS and retrieve recognized shipping information for use in sorting and routing each package in the shipment to its point of destination. By virtue of the present invention, network-assigned shipment tracking numbers need not be assigned, nor special labels generated, for package and delivery operations.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.