Methods and arrangements for reconciling data from disparate data carriers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11875206-B2
Application number	US-202217867386-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2022
Priority date	Jun 18, 2018
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

In an illustrative system, a point-of-sale scanner is equipped to respond to multiple different symbologies printed on a single product. The scanner captures many frames per second, as products are swiped through a viewing volume. Each frame is decoded, yielding one or more payloads. A reconciliation module compares each newly-decoded payload against a list of payloads previously output by the module, to determine if the current payload is semantically-equivalent to a previously-output payload. If so, the previously-output payload is output again, in lieu of the just-decoded payload. If no equivalent is found, the current payload is output and added to the list for comparison against future payloads. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A checkout system including:
one or more cameras, each having an output to provide frames of image data;
at least first and second different 2D code detectors coupled to receive frames of image data from the one or more cameras, each of said 2D code detectors having an output to provide an output payload including a global trade item number, the first of said 2D code detectors comprising a digital watermark detector;
the system further including at least one of:
(A) a promotion means, for zero padding global trade item number strings as needed so that each of said strings has a predetermined length; and
(B) an AI prepending means, for prepending “01” to global trade item number strings that do not already begin with “01.”

2. The system of claim 1 that includes a memory comprising a data cache, the data cache storing output payloads provided by said 2D code detectors, each of said stored output payloads including a global trade item number string, the data cache further storing—in association with each of said output payloads in the data cache, associated timestamp data, and associated context data, the associated context data indicating the 2D code detector that provided said output payload in the data cache.

3. The system of claim 2 that further includes a clock having a clock output signal, wherein the memory is responsive to the clock output signal to flush data stored in the data cache.

4. The system of claim 1 that further includes a label filter module that detects different global trade item identifier strings included in output payloads provided by different of said 2D code detectors from image data depicting a single item.

5. The system of claim 1 that includes said promotion means.

6. The system of claim 5 in which said predetermined length is 14 digits.

7. The system of claim 5 that further includes means for comparing a zero-padded string with global trade item number data stored in a cache to determine a match.

8. The system of claim 7 in which said means responds to a determination that said zero-padded string matches global trade item number data in said cache by updating a timestamp of said matching global trade item number data stored in said cache.

9. The system of claim 7 that further includes a double-read protection module having an output coupled to a point of sale terminal, wherein said means responds to a determination that said zero-padded string matches global trade item number data in said cache by outputting said matching global trade item number in said cache to an input of said double-read protection module.

10. The system of claim 5 that also includes said AI prepending means.

11. The system of claim 1 that includes said AI prepending means.

12. The system of claim 11 that further includes means for comparing a string to which “01” has been prepended with global trade item number data stored in a cache to determine a match.

13. The system of claim 12 in which said means responds to a determination that said string to which “01” has been prepended matches global trade item number data in said cache by updating a timestamp of said matching global trade item number data stored in said cache.

14. The system of claim 12 that further includes a double-read protection module having an output coupled to a point of sale terminal, wherein said means responds to a determination that said string to which “01” has been prepended matches global trade item number data in said cache by outputting said matching global trade item number in said cache to an input of said double-read protection module.

15. The system of claim 1 that further includes means for determining whether an output payload provided from said digital watermark detector is semantically equivalent to an output payload provided from another of said 2D code detectors.

16. The system of claim 1 comprising plural cameras.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for use with a system, the system including one or more processors, one or more memories, one or more cameras that each has an output to provide frames of image data, and first and second different 2D code detectors coupled to receive frames of image data from the one or more cameras, each of said 2D code detectors having an output to provide an output payload including a global trade item number string, the first of said 2D code detectors comprising a digital watermark detector, said medium storing software instructions configuring the system to perform acts including:
processing a global trade item number string included in an output payload provided from the second 2D code detector by one or both of (1) prepending “01” to said global trade item number string, and (2) zero-padding said global trade item number string to extend a length of said string to a predetermined length; and
comparing the processed global trade item number string with data stored in said one or more memories.

18. A checkout method including the acts:
receiving frames of image data from one or more cameras;
applying the frames of image data to at least first and second different 2D code detectors, each of said 2D code detectors having an output to provide an output payload including a global trade item number, the first of said 2D code detectors comprising a digital watermark detector;
processing a global trade item number string included in an output payload provided from the second 2D code detector by one or both of (1) prepending “01” to said global trade item number string, and (2) zero-padding said global trade item number string to extend a length of said string to a predetermined length; and
comparing the processed global trade item number string with data stored in a memory to determine a match, and taking an action based on a result of said comparing.

Assignees

• Digimarc Corp

Inventors

• Evans Eric D
• Haverkate Christopher M
• Tait Mark-Andrew Ray

Classifications

• G06K19/06065 Primary

  the marking being at least partially represented by holographic means (holographic marking in general, see G06K19/16) · CPC title

• G06K7/1417

  2D bar codes · CPC title

• G06K7/1486

  Setting the threshold-width for bar codes to be decoded · CPC title

• G06K19/06037

  multi-dimensional coding · CPC title

• G06K19/06075

  the marking containing means for error correction · CPC title