Disclosed is a method in which trigger information is obtained. The trigger information is associated with at least part of attribute information associated with at least one first consignment unit. It is determined whether or not attribute information associated with at least one second consignment unit is stored in a database that is similar to the attribute information associated with the at least one first consignment unit. If the attribute information associated with at least one second consignment unit is determined to be stored in the database that is determined to be similar to the attribute information associated with the at least one first consignment unit, then alert information is generated.

A method for franking mail items fed to a franking machine. The mail items are drawn from the underside of a stack for separation or are fed individually on a conveying section upstream of the franking machine to a printing unit for franking, after franking, are discharged in the opposite direction from the printing unit. The mail items are fed via a diverter section to the conveying section, after franking, are conveyed via the diverter section which is switched over to change the conveying direction into a depositing apparatus below the diverter section. The mail items are guided in the opening region of the franking machine into the printing position and are returned out of the printing position. The printing position of a mail item fed to the printing unit is determined by a print head movement-controlled from a readiness position pursuant to the format length of the mail item.

A system and method for estimating dimensions of an approximately cuboidal object from a 3D image of the object acquired by an image sensor of the vision system processor is provided. An identification module, associated with the vision system processor, automatically identifies a 3D region in the 3D image that contains the cuboidal object. A selection module, associated with the vision system processor, automatically selects 3D image data from the 3D image that corresponds to approximate faces or boundaries of the cuboidal object. An analysis module statistically analyzes, and generates statistics for, the selected 3D image data that correspond to approximate cuboidal object faces or boundaries. A refinement module chooses statistics that correspond to improved cuboidal dimensions from among cuboidal object length, width and height. The improved cuboidal dimensions are provided as dimensions for the object. A user interface displays a plurality of interface screens for setup and runtime operation.

A package dimensioner is disclosed. A change in the pose of the package dimensioner is detected by background modeling the area of a measurement platform and then determining if a number of points in a scene are different in distance from the background model. Change in the pose can also be detected by comparing a count of support points in a 3D container generated from images taken in a training process with a count of support points in a subsequent images and determining how many support points are different.

A terminal for measuring at least one dimension of an object includes a range camera, a visible camera, and a display that are fixed in position and orientation relative to each other. The range camera is configured to produce a range image of an area in which the object is located. The visible camera is configured to produce a visible image of an area in which the object is located. The display is configured to present information associated with the range camera's field of view and the visible camera's field of view.

This disclosure describes systems and methods for automatically verifying stored item dimension values and package utilization at packing. In some implementations, an image(s) of a package that includes items of a shipment set is captured at a pack station and analyzed to determine an actual package utilization. The actual package utilization is compared to an expected package utilization. If a difference between the expected package utilization and the actual package utilization is identified, it may be determined that the stored item dimension values may be inaccurate.

Systems and techniques are provided that allow for pre-paid return shipping labels to be generated using an automated kiosk or comparable device. A return shipper provides an item to be sent to the initial shipper to the kiosk, which verifies that the item matches the initially-shipped item and generates a suitable return shipping label.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for analyzing one or more package. In an embodiment, disclosed is a method comprising determining, by a sensor component of a package analysis device comprising a processor that executes computer executable components stored in a memory and the memory that stores computer executable components, a presence of a package and a set of dimensions of the package and extracting, by an image capturing component of the package analysis device, a set of image data from a package label based on a determined presence of the package.

A mail item sortation system and method that includes an external controller for culling candidate letters in a mailing job to produce groupings of letters based on industry average weights and/or thicknesses in order to place all the candidate letters going to a single address adjacent to each other, an internal controller, interfaced with the external controller, that utilizes the groupings of letters to manage multiple letter sorters, wherein a specific letter sorter is selected to pair a calculated number of pockets to accommodate the groupings with an actual number of pockets in the selected letter sorter, and a transfer process for moving letters within the letter sorter pockets to a StatementPack machine.

A system to measure object dimension using stereo vision is disclosed. The system includes a stereo camera, configured to capture a plurality of image frames corresponding to the object. The system includes an image recognition module, configured to detect one or more geometrical shapes of the object from the plurality of captured image frames and also configured to recognize one or more corner points of one or more detected geometrical shape of the object based on the plurality of captured image frames via a computer vision technique. The system includes a coordinate estimation module configured to estimate real-world X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis coordinate of each of one or more recognized corner points in real time by a stereo triangulation technique. The system includes measuring real-world length, breadth and height of the object in real time by calculating Euclidean distance between estimated real-world X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis coordinate.