Patent ID: 6839694

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 having a general waveform of a damped sinusoid; and b) a data processing system for, in response to said digital output signal: b1) detecting presence of said item on said support; b2) 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; b3) 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; b4) if said first peak of said damped sinusoid is greater than said threshold value, determining if said damped sinusoid is approaching a steady value; b5) if said damped sinusoid is approaching a steady value, determining said weight to be equal to a function of said digital output signal, b6) if said damped sinusoid is not approaching a steady value, determining a predetermined number of medians of successive peak, valley pairs; and b7) determining said weight to be an average of said predetermined number of medians.