Patent ID: 8688265

Claim:
A non transitory machine-readable medium including instructions which when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising: sorting mail that comprises a multiple pass mail sort operation, wherein the multiple pass mail sort operation for a mail piece comprises, performing a first pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation, wherein performing the first pass comprises capturing data to identify a feature of the mail piece; generating a first fingerprint for the mail piece between performing the first pass and performing a second pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation, the first fingerprint being derived from the feature of the mail piece that is identified during the first pass; and performing the second pass of the multiple pass mail sort operation, wherein performing the second pass comprises, capturing data to identify the feature of the mail piece; generating a second fingerprint for the mail piece, the second fingerprint being derived from the feature of the mail piece that is identified during the second pass; comparing the second fingerprint generated during the second pass with the first fingerprint generated during the first pass to uniquely identify the mail piece; determining a final sorting of the mail piece based on the comparing of the second fingerprint to the first fingerprint, wherein the first fingerprint is used to uniquely identify the mail piece during the determining of the final sorting, wherein determining the final sorting of the mail piece is independent of use of a bar code by the multiple pass mail sort operation for identification for final sorting of the mail piece.