Patent ID: 8249744

Claim:
A method for routing mail items in a mail sorting system that includes means for capturing address information from a mail item in the form of an address block and an analysis engine comprising a plurality of analysis modules, the method comprising: receiving the address block at the analysis engine and making available to each of a set of the analysis modules at least a portion of the address block; at each analysis module, decomposing the available portions of the address block into one or more data objects, each including a representation component representing at least part of the portion and a data type identifier; storing the data objects with an indication of the mail item to which the objects relate; and subsequent to identifying a delivery endpoint for the mail item, adding at least one of the stored data objects to a data set associated with that delivery endpoint whereby future mail items may be routed to that delivery endpoint in dependence on those data objects, wherein the portions of the address block to be made available to a particular analysis module are selected in dependence on the data types of the one or more data objects which that analysis module is configured to provide.