Method of sorting postal articles into a sorting frame with the sorted articles being counted automatically

A method of sorting postal articles into a postal sorting frame comprising sorting slots, in which method said articles to be sorted are placed in a stack, and the articles are taken one-by-one from the top of the stack so as to place each of them in a sorting slot, and digital images of the top of the stack are formed automatically at a certain rate, said method including the following steps:

• a) recording said digital images in the memory of a data-processing unit;
• b) mutually comparing said digital images on the basis of a certain graphical resemblance criterion, so as to form image models, each of which is representative of one or more successive digital images that are similar-looking;
• c) associating each image model with data indicating a persistence time;
• and
• d) applying a time filter to said image models so as to eliminate those models whose persistence time is less than a certain threshold value, the remaining image models serving as a basis for automatically counting the sorted postal articles that are sorted in the slots of the frame.