Patent ID: 7574015

Claim:
A method of handling mail items in a sorting machine having sorting outlets with sorting outlet bins into which the mail items are directed during successive sorting passes, said method comprising the steps of: a) during a first sorting pass for sorting the mail items, taking a digital picture of a mail item bearing address information, performing an automatic address recognition process including an OCR process on said picture to provide address data to direct said mail item towards a sorting outlet bin, deriving from said picture a digital fingerprint which is a logic identifier for the mail item and recording in a database said address data of the mail item in correspondence with said digital fingerprint of the mail item and with a logical identifier allocated to the sorting outlet bin towards which said mail item is directed, the logical identifiers allocated to said sorting outlet bins subdividing the database into sections associated each to a sorting outlet bin logical identifier; and b) during a second sorting pass for sorting a current mail item, taking, once again, a current digital picture of said current mail item bearing address information, deriving from said picture a current digital fingerprint for the current mail item, performing said OCR process on said current digital picture to automatically provide current address data for said current mail item; comparing said current address data with said address data recorded in said database to detect matching occurrences between said current address data and said recorded address data, counting said matching occurrences for each section, detecting a section associated to a certain sorting outlet bin logical identifier for which the counting result is greater than a certain threshold, loading a memory exploration space with digital fingerprints corresponding to said certain sorting outlet bin logical identifier, and detecting a match between said current fingerprint and the fingerprints loaded in said memory exploration space to retrieve a corresponding sorting address data for directing said current mail item towards a sorting outlet bin.