Patent ID: 8046308
Filing Date: 2011-10-25
Classification: B07C,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for optimizing a process for automatically recognizing a destination address of a postal item, comprising the steps of: forming a digital image of said postal item including a destination address for said item; performing address resolution processing from said image and a postal directory, via OCR processing in a data processing unit, for providing an unambiguous delivery point corresponding to said destination address if said resolution is unambiguous and several possible ambiguous delivery points if said resolution is ambiguous; and upon determining, by said address resolution processing, several possible ambiguous delivery points, detecting from a database coupled to said processing unit that said several possible ambiguous delivery points are included in a single delivery round, said single delivery round being defined into said database by several ordered delivery point records each containing mail volume data; and in response to said detection, computing, via said processing unit and from said mail volume data, a mail volume value for a delivery range in said delivery round, said delivery range being defined by two extreme delivery points among said possible ambiguous delivery points within said delivery round, and providing a resulting delivery point which corresponds to said destination address if said mail volume value is less than a predetermined volume threshold, said resulting delivery point being a first one of said two extreme possible ambiguous delivery points.