| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20080203147 | Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network supporting a plurality of mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) systems - An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network including a data collection and processing center operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and including a RDBMS for storing and managing shipping information, and a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles. Each pickup/delivery vehicle is equipped with a mobile digital image capture and processing (MICAP) system for (i) capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents, bearing embedded bar codes, at the point of pickup, (ii) automatically decoding embedded bar codes in said shipping documents, and performing optical character recognition (OCR) on text presented therein, (iii) formatting captured digital images of the shipping labels with such decoded/recognized information, and (iv) transmitting the formatted digital images to said data collection and processing center, for automatic recognition processing and population of the RDBMS maintained by said network. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080203166 | Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone - A Web-enabled mobile image capturing and processing (MICAP) cell-phone for use on a Web-based shipping, tracking and delivery network. The cell-phone include a hand-supportable housing, and a digital image capture and processing engine for capturing and processing digital images of shipping documents at a point of shipment pickup. An imaging-based bar code reading engine is integrated with the housing for recognizing 1D and/or 2D bar-coded labels in captured digital images. A display panel displays digital images. An RF transceiver circuit, with an RF antenna, supports wireless data communication protocols. A microprocessor and memory aboard the cellphone provides a computing platform supporting an operating system (OS) and one or more application programs, including a Web browser program, and a client application program. At least the application program supports the automatically reading of bar-coded shipment tracking numbers graphically represented in the captured digital images, and automatically generates digital image files (i) having headers that are encoded with machine-recognized shipment tracking numbers, and (ii) which are named or titled using the machine-recognized shipment tracking numbers. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080210749 | Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivering network supporting a plurality of mobile digital image capture and processing instruments deployed on a plurality of pickup and delivery couriers - An Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network supporting a plurality of mobile digital image capture and processing instruments deployed on a plurality of pickup and delivery couriers. Each mobile digital image capture and processing instrument can upload digital images of shipping documents to one or more application servers and/or human-operated data-keying workstations supported on the network for machine and/or human-assisted recognition-processing, and acquisition of shipping information contained in the digital images and the entry of shipping information into an RDBMS maintained on the network for the purpose of supporting its shipping, tracking, and delivery operations. | 09-04-2008 |
| 20080210750 | Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network supporting a plurality of digital image capture and processing instruments deployed aboard a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles - The Internet-based shipping, tracking, and delivery network supporting a plurality of digital image capture and processing instruments deployed aboard a plurality of pickup/delivery vehicles, wherein each digital image capture and processing instrument can upload digital images of shipping documents wirelessly to a cellular telephone which, in turn, transmits the digital images to one or more application servers and/or human-operated data-keying workstations supported on the network for machine and/or or human-assisted recognition-processing, and acquisition of shipping information contained in the digital images and the entry of said shipping information into an RDBMS maintained on the network for the purpose of supporting its shipping, tracking, and delivery operations. | 09-04-2008 |
| 20080285091 | Mobile image capture and processing system - A mobile image capture and processing system including a digital image capture and processing instrument for capturing digital images of shipping documents associated with shipments to be delivered to an intended destination over a Web-based shipping, tracking, and delivery information network, and automatically processing such images to read a 1D or 2D bar-coded shipment tracking number graphically represented therein, and automatically encode the shipment tracking number within the header of the digital image file and the name or title of the digital image file. A Web-based portable data transaction terminal (PDT) or a Web-based portable digital assistant (PDA) is used to receive digital image files from the digital image capture and processing instrument via a first wireless data communication link, and transmitting such digital image files to (i) an application server supported on said network, and (ii) from said application server to a human-operated data-keying station supported on said network, where the shipping information contained in said digital image files can be read by human operators, and manually entered into a database (RDBMS). | 11-20-2008 |