PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15300573
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2018-05
Patent Classification: ["271", "153000"]

Abstract:
An unstacker device comprises a floor and a retaining paddle that are designed to move a stack of mailpieces from a feed magazine towards an unstacker head under the action of a monitoring and control unit as the mailpieces are being unstacked from the front of the stack. The device further comprises a vision system suitable for forming a profile digital image of said stack of mailpieces in the magazine, and said unit is arranged to evaluate a certain inclination of the mailpieces in the stack on the basis of said profile image and to cause the floor and the paddle to move so as to present the mailpiece at the front of the stack in a satisfactory position on edge so that it can be unstacked by the unstacker head.

Claim (Index 1):
An unstacker device comprising a feed magazine suitable for storing mailpieces in a stack and on edge, the mailpieces bearing laterally against a jogging edge that extends on one side of the magazine, and an unstacker head suitable for unstacking the mailpieces one-by-one from the front of the stack in the magazine, the magazine having a floor on which the mailpieces stand on edge and a retaining paddle that retains the back of the stack, the floor and the paddle being designed to move the stack towards the unstacker head under the action of a monitoring and control unit as the mailpieces are being unstacked from the front of the stack, said unstacker device further comprising a vision system suitable for detecting tipping of the stack forwards or backwards, and, for responding to such detection by causing the floor and the paddle to move in such a manner as to straighten up the stack in the magazine so as to place said mailpiece at the head of the stack in a satisfactory position of angular inclination so that it can be unstacked by the unstacker head, said unstacker head being characterized in that said system is a camera disposed on the side of the magazine that is opposite from the side on which the jogging edge is situated in order to form digital images of the mailpieces as seen in profile, and in that said monitoring and control unit is arranged to act on the basis of the profile images of the stack to detect at least one scenario corresponding to a situation in which the mailpieces are tipping forwards or backwards, or indeed a situation in which the mailpieces are slumping, and, as a function of the detected situation, to cause the floor and/or the paddle selectively or simultaneously to move forwards or backwards relative to the unstacker head so as to straighten up the stack in the magazine.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 7.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.0303
- Patent Class: 271.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['12446057', '11858468', '13583848', '15502155', '12677455']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7331517503273687
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5220126202281485
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7120378373174466
- Mean Citation Score: 287.399202
- Max Citation Score: 352.9831
- Similarity Product: 257.83664368298054

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test