Patent ID: 7136504

Claim:
A system for sorting items, said items comprising a surface having a destination address thereon, said system comprising: a. a scanner for producing an image of said destination address; b. an OCR processor associated with said scanner and art address directory, said processor comprising: means for receiving said image, means for decoding said entire destination address, means for determining if said decoding successfully arrived in a set of characters having a match in said address directory, means for receiving rule based characters and for limiting a plurality of database entries based upon said rule based characters, means for redecoding said entire destination address, and means for determining if said redecoding successfully arrived in a set of characters having a match in said address directory; and c. at least one video encoding station associated with said processor, said video encoding station comprising: means for generating data input and means for receiving operator input of said rule based characters, and d. an image controller associated with said video encoding station and said processor, said image controller comprising: means for directing said image from said processor to said station when said decoding is unsuccessful, and other means for directing said image and said data input from said station to said processor after operator entry of said rule based characters.