Patent ID: 7415131

Claim:
A method of sorting a series of mail pieces, comprising the steps of: (a) conveying a series of the mail pieces on a conveyor having a pair of upright belts holding each mail piece from either side for transport on edge and scanning a surface of each mail piece with at least one imaging camera to obtain at least one image of the surface represented by image data; (b) analyzing the image data to locate a destination bar code in the image; (c) analyzing the bar code to recognize a first destination code; (d) if the first destination code meets predetermined criteria, then sorting the mail piece to one of the sorting destinations in a manner dependent on the first destination code; (e) if the first destination code cannot be recognized or fails to meet the predetermined criteria, then analyzing the image data to locate destination address lines in the image, analyzing the address lines to determine a second destination code, and sorting the mail piece to one of a series of sorting destinations in a manner dependent on the second destination code, or a result determined by arbitrating the first and second destination codes; and (f) carrying out steps (a) to (e) concurrently for more than one mail piece at a time as the mail pieces are moving on the conveyor, wherein the conveyor transports the mail pieces past a series of diverters used for sorting the mail pieces to the sorting destinations, and completing steps (a) to (e) for each mail piece before each mail piece reaches a first one of the diverters.