Method for sorting pieces of luggage and luggage sorting system

Abstract

Pieces of luggage are sorted which each carries an identification element with a set of information in the form of plaintext. In order to sort pieces of luggage efficiently, at least a portion of the set of information on the identification element is detected automatically and recognized automatically. During an examination, it is automatically verified whether the recognized portion of the set of information matches at least one set of data stored in a database.

Claims

1. A method of sorting pieces of luggage, the method comprising: generating for each piece of luggage an information set including a machine-readable code and human-readable code, and storing the information set as a dataset in a database; providing each piece of luggage with an identification element carrying the information set with the machine-readable code and human-readable code; during a sorting process, automatically acquiring and automatically recognizing at least part of the information set in the identification element by acquiring the machine-readable code and, if the machine readable code is not recognizable, automatically acquiring the human-readable code from the identification element; performing a check to thereby automatically verify whether the part of the information set that has been recognized matches at least one dataset that is stored in the database; and sorting the respective piece of luggage according to information gleaned from the dataset that is stored in the database.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification element includes a barcode and the part of the information set in the identification element that has been acquired differs from a plain text representation of the barcode.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the check comprises verifying which dataset in the database has a closest match with the part of the information set that has been acquired.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the check comprises automatically determining a destination to which the piece of luggage is to be transported.

5. The method according to claim 1, which comprises performing the step of acquiring the part of the information set with an information acquisition apparatus and using optical text recognition for recognizing the part of the information set.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information set includes a plurality of information items and the at least one of the information items is at least partly recognized.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the information set in the identification element includes at least one information item selected from the group consisting of a luggage number, a boarding number, a passenger's name, a flight number, a code for a departure airport, a code for a transit airport, and a code for a destination airport; and the part of the information set that is automatically acquired and recognized is at least a part of the information items of the group.

8. The method according to claim 7, which comprises recognizing a plurality of the information items in the information set and verifying, during the check, whether the plurality of information items match at least one dataset in the database.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein a part of the information set is at least partly recognized and is compared with a plurality of datasets in the database and, if the part of the information set does not match any of the datasets, replacing the information set by a dataset that has a closest match with the information set.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the database is a dynamic database containing automatically generated datasets.

11. The method according to claim 1, which comprises transmitting the information set to the database in a context of a generation of the identification element and storing the information set in the database as a dataset.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the piece of luggage is an item of flight luggage that is being sorted at an airport, and the method further comprises transmitting a dataset that is generated from the information set to all airports involved in the transportation of the respective piece of luggage.

13. The method according to claim 12, which comprises transmitting the dataset to a departure airport and, where applicable, to a destination airport and a transit airport.

14. The method according to claim 1, which comprises determining in the database when a given piece of luggage arrives at a luggage destination thereof, and deleting the dataset relating to the given piece of luggage after a predetermined period of time following an arrival at the luggage destination.

15. The method according to claim 14, which comprises deleting the dataset relating to the given piece of luggage after 24 hours following the arrival at the luggage destination.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the database at least partly includes information items pertaining to a flight schedule, the flight schedule including information items selected from the group consisting of flight numbers of incoming aircraft, flight numbers of departing aircraft, departure airport, landing airport, arrival airport, departure time, and landing time; and the check comprises verifying whether the part of the information set that has been recognized matches at least one of the items of the flight schedule that are stored in the database.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the check comprises performing a plausibility check whether the part of the information set that has been recognized is plausible.

18. A luggage sorting system, wherein each piece of luggage includes an identification element with an information set in the form of machine-readable code and human-readable code, comprising: a database having stored therein a dataset for each piece of luggage, the dataset containing the machine-readable code and human-readable code of the information set; an information acquisition apparatus for automatically acquiring the information set in the form of human-readable code from the identification element and subjecting the human-readable code to optical character recognition if the machine-readable code is not recognizable; and a checking unit configured to access the database in which the dataset with the machine-readable code and human-readable code is stored and to automatically verify, during a check, whether a part of the information set that has been recognized matches at least one dataset that is stored in the database.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 shows a luggage sorting system with an information acquisition system and a checking unit;

(2) FIG. 2 shows an intact identification element; and

(3) FIG. 3 shows a damaged identification element.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(4) FIG. 1 shows schematically a luggage sorting system 2 with an information acquisition apparatus 4. The information acquisition apparatus 4 is designed as a reader, in particular as a camera. The luggage sorting system 2 further includes a checking unit 6. In addition, the checking unit 6 and the information acquisition apparatus 4 are connected to each other by means of a cable 7, in particular by a data transfer cable. The checking unit 6 includes text recognition software 8 for optical text recognition. The checking unit 6 further includes a database 10. The database 10 further includes a plurality of datasets. The database 10 is a dynamic database in which the datasets are generated or stored automatically. In particular, an information set 22 is transmitted to the database 10 when an identification element 18 is created, and is stored in the database 10 as a dataset. The identification element 22 is created during the check-in of a piece of luggage 16, for example in a departure airport.

(5) In addition, FIG. 1 shows a luggage conveyor 12, which runs over rollers 14. The directions of movement of the rollers 14 and of the luggage conveyor 12 are shown by arrows. In principle, the piece of luggage could also be transported, for example, by means of luggage trays and/or different luggage transportation means.

(6) The piece of luggage 16, in particular a piece of flight luggage, is located on the luggage conveyor 12. The identification element 18, in particular a luggage label, is attached to the piece of luggage 16. The identification element 18 includes the information set 22 in the form of plain text (cf. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3).

(7) The information acquisition apparatus 4 is equipped to automatically acquire the information set 22 in the form of plain text. At the same time, at least part of the information set 22 in the identification element 18 is acquired automatically. Furthermore, at least part of the information set 22 is recognized automatically, in particular by means of the text recognition software 8. In addition, in a check, in particular using the checking unit 6, it is verified automatically whether the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized matches at least one dataset that is stored in the database 10.

(8) The information set 22 in the identification element 18 is provided in the form of plain text (see FIG. 2). The information set further includes a plurality of information items 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 (see FIG. 2).

(9) FIG. 2 shows schematically an intact identification element 18. The identification element 18 includes a barcode 20, which is printed horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, the identification element 18 includes an information set 22 in the form of plain text. The information set 22 in turn includes as information items a boarding number 26, a passenger's name 28, a code for a transit airport 32, as well as the relevant flight number 30 and a code for a destination airport 34 as well as the relevant flight number 30. Furthermore, the information set 22 includes a date of issue 36 and a flight date 38. In addition, the information set 22 includes a luggage number 24, which matches the plain text representation of the barcode 20.

(10) FIG. 3 shows, by way of example, the identification element 18 from FIG. 2, which is now damaged, in particular twisted and stuck together. For example, a piece of luggage 16 with such a damaged identification element 18 arrives at a transit airport and has to be sorted.

(11) In the case of the damaged identification element 18, the barcode 20 and the luggage number 24 are damaged in such a way that these items of information 20, 24 are now illegible. Part of the information set 22 can be acquired and recognized with the aid of the luggage sorting system 2 shown in FIG. 1. The text recognition (software) 8 recognizes the part of the information set 22 character by character yet a different, damaged part of the information set 22 cannot be acquired and/or recognized. In this case, the optical text recognition 8 at least partly recognizes a plurality of information items 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 pertaining to the information set 22. For example, part of the passenger's name 28, such as MUSTERMA, can be recognized, and a different part of the passenger's name 28 cannot be recognized because the characters in the other part, for example NN, are damaged and therefore illegible. Furthermore, for example, the code for the destination airport 34 is fully recognized.

(12) The text recognition (software) 8 from FIG. 1 provides hypotheses as to what text could appear on the identification element 18. For example, a plurality of versions of the text can be generated by means of the optical text recognition 8. Furthermore, the optical text recognition 8 indicates a probability for each version of the text. For instance, for the flight number 30 to the destination airport, the optical text recognition 8 creates the versions of the text LH 550, LH 650 and LH 850 with the probabilities 40%, 50%, and 10%. Furthermore, the version of the text with the greatest probability (in this case LH 650) can be considered, for example, to be recognized information in the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized.

(13) The database 10 at the transit airport at which the piece of luggage 16 is to be sorted has received the dataset from a departure airport of the piece of luggage 16. This means that, at the departure airport, the dataset relating to the piece of luggage 16 was generated, and said dataset was then transmitted to all the airports involved, that is, to the transit airport and to the destination airport. The checking unit 6 (at the transit airport) can thus access a full dataset. In this example, the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized does not match any of the datasets, such that the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized can be replaced with a further one of the versions of the text (for example, the flight number LH 650 that has been recognized 30 can be replaced by the different version of the text LH 550 in the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized), which different version of the text is then preferably compared with the database 10.

(14) Furthermore, the database 10 contains a flight schedule for the transit airport. The information set can be further compared with the flight schedule. In this way, flight numbers 30 and airport codes 32, 34 can be compared with the flight schedule and it is possible to determine whether the information items that have been recognized are plausible. The flight number LH 650, 30, to the destination airport of the piece of luggage 16 is not plausible, for example, if a flight with such a flight number 30 is not leaving within the next 24 hours. In addition, the code for the destination airport 34 in the information set 22 can be compared, for instance, with the airports at which departing aircraft land that are recorded in the flight schedule, and in the event of a match, for example, possible flight numbers 30 to the destination airport can be deduced.

(15) Furthermore, with the aid of the luggage sorting system 2 shown in FIG. 1, it is verified during a check which dataset in the database 10 is the closest match with the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized. At the same time, in the check, it is verified whether the plurality of information items that have been recognized or parts of the information in the information set 22 match at least one dataset in the database 10. In this way, the piece of luggage 16 can be assigned to a destination and/or to a different item of information, that is, the piece of luggage 16 can be sorted.

(16) On the basis of the check, in particular using the part of the information set 22 that has been recognized, the destination to which the piece of luggage 16 is to be transported is automatically determined. The sorting of the piece of luggage 16 is preferably carried out automatically according to what has been determined.

(17) In principle, it is also possible for items of information pertaining to the identification element other than those mentioned here (for example the date of issue 36 and the flight date 38) to be acquired and recognized and also used for the comparison with the datasets in the database.

(18) Although the invention has been illustrated and described in greater detail by means of the preferred exemplary embodiments, the invention is not therefore restricted by the examples disclosed and other variants can be derived therefrom by a person skilled in the art, without going beyond the scope of the invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

(19) 2 Luggage sorting system 4 Information acquisition apparatus 6 Checking unit 7 Cable 8 Text recognition (software) 10 Database 12 Luggage conveyor 14 Roller 16 Piece of luggage 18 Identification element 20 Barcode 22 Information set 24 Luggage number 26 Boarding number 28 Passenger's name 30 Flight number 32 Code for the transit airport 34 Code for the destination airport 36 Date of issue 38 Flight date