Patent ID: 7247801

Claim:
A system for determining a weight for an item, comprising: a) a scale system for generating a digital output signal, said scale system comprising: a1) a support for supporting said item; and a2) a transducer for generating said digital output signal, said signal being representative of an instantaneous response of said support and having a general waveform of a damped sinusoid; and b) a data processing system for, in response to said digital output signal: b1) determining if a first peak of said damped sinusoid is greater than a threshold value, said threshold value corresponding to a weight break between a lowest range of weight values and a second range of weight values; b2) if said first peak of said damped sinusoid is not greater than said threshold value, determining said weight to be in said lowest range of weight values; b3) if said first peak of said damped sinusoid is greater than said threshold value, determining a next peak and subsequent valley of said damped sinusoid; and b4) determining if a difference between said next peak and subsequent valley of said damped sinusoid is less than a predetermined value; wherein if said difference between said next peak and said subsequent valley is less than said predetermined value, said weight is determined to be equal to a median of said next peak and said subsequent valley.