Patent ID: 6144985
Filing Date: 2000-11-07
Classification: B07C

Abstract:
A method of determining distribution information which is located on the surface of mailed items, the mailed items being processed in a plurality of processing machines (ILV) so that images of the mailed-item surfaces containing the distribution information are recorded in each processing machine and the distribution information is read automatically, the mailed items being provided with an appropriate code following unambiguous recognition of the distribution information during FIFO temporary storage of the mailed items in a mechanical operating-time path, and the mailed items whose distribution information is not automatically recognized unambiguously being manually encoded, said determining distribution information method comprising the steps of:transmitting the images with the distribution information to at least one video-encoding location (VCD) and encoding the images at the at least one video-encoding location,storing and administering the images of the mailed items whose distribution information was not automatically recognized unambiguously during the FIFO temporary storage of the items in each processing machine (ILV),generating, at regular time intervals, status information Hi about the degree of fullness of the mechanical operating-time path at equidistant points in time over the entire storage time in each processing machine,exchanging regularly the status information Hi for the operating-time paths between each one of the plurality of processing machines (ILV),determining, in each processing machine (ILV), ranking-order values Ri from current status information Hi at regular intervals, the respective ranking-order value being dependent on the level of fullness of the mechanical operating-time paths, andrequesting, as needed, the current ranking-order values Ri of all of the processing machines from a processing machine, wherein, from these ranking-order values Ri, the video-encoding location performs a chance-superposed selection of the processing machine from which the next image having the distribution information to be encoded will be requested, with the current ranking-order values Ri being superposed with an individual chance process such that the probability of an image request is proportional to the relative size of the machine's ranking-order values Ri.