Patent ID: 7287694

Claim:
A system for tracking a physical condition of an item, comprising: a first station and a second station remotely disposed relative to one another, each including: an object scanner configured to collect physical characteristics of an item and record the physical characteristics; an identification reader configured to determine a unique identity of the item; and a module configured to associate the physical characteristics with the unique identity of the item; at least one comparison module configured to compare physical characteristics measured at the first station with physical characteristics measured at the second station to determine changes in a condition of the physical characteristics after the item has been shipped between the first and second stations; the at least one comparison module including a mismatch determination module configured to compute an amount of a mismatch based on the changes in condition between physical characteristics measured between the first station and the second station and provide a corrective action based on the amount of mismatch; and a database, which stores the physical characteristics and the identity of the item wherein the database includes an item description database which stores information about the item including a current location and a next location.