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US 2022/0215331 A1Published application
Induction unit and label generator
AssigneeUnited States Postal Service
InventorsPeter Klausner, Robert E. Dixon, JR.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems described herein for controlling, requesting, and coordinating the creation and generation of labels can be a label broker, providing a centralized location for storing label information created by various entities, and managing the requests for generation of physical labels coming from various sources and entities.
Claims20
A system for inducting an item into a distribution network, the system comprising:
- a label provider configured to:
- receive, from a sender communication device, a request for a label to distribute an item via a distribution network, the request for the label including a recipient identifier;
- and
- transmit, to a distribution server, the label for the item;
- a distribution server configured to:
- generate a unique identifier for the label;
- store, in a data storage device, the created label and an association between the created label and the unique identifier;
- receive, from a mobile computing device, the unique identifier for the label;
- query, based at least in part on the unique identifier, the data storage device for the created label;
- in response to the query, retrieve the created label from the data storage device;
- determine that a parameter of the mobile computing device meets a threshold value;
- and
- cause, via the mobile computing device, generation of a physical label based at least in part on the created label retrieved from the data storage device, wherein the generation of the physical label is deferred for a period of time subsequent to the generation of the unique identifier and wherein the physical label is generated in response to determining that the parameter meets the threshold value.
10 more elements
A method for labeled induction of an item into a distribution network, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a label provider, information for creating a label for distributing an item via a distribution network;
- creating a label using the information for creating the label;
- generating a unique identifier for the label;
- storing, in a data storage device, the created label and an association between the created label and the unique identifier;
- transmitting, to a first communication device, the unique identifier for the label;
- receiving, from a second communication device, the unique identifier for the label;
- querying, based at least in part on the unique identifier, the data storage device for the created label;
- retrieving the created label from the data storage device;
- determining that a parameter meets a threshold value;
- and
- in response to determining that the parameter matches the threshold value, causing, via the second communication device, generation of a physical label based at least in part on the created label.
8 more elements
A method for labeled induction of an item into a distribution network, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a sender communication device, a request for a label to distribute an item via a distribution network, the request for the label including a sender address identifying a location from which the item is being distributed;
- creating a label based on the request for the label;
- transmitting, to a distribution server, the created label for the item;
- receiving, from a label provider, the created label;
- generating a machine-readable identifier for the label;
- storing, in a data storage device, the created label and an association between the created label and the machine-readable identifier;
- receiving, from an induction communication device, the machine-readable identifier for the label and location information for the induction communication device;
- retrieving the created label from the data storage device based at least in part on the machine-readable identifier;
- determining that the location information for the induction communication device is within a threshold distance of the sender address;
- and
- generating, via the induction communication device, a physical label based at least in part on the created label retrieved from the data storage device, wherein generating the physical label is deferred for a period of time subsequent to generating the machine-readable identifier and wherein the physical label is generated in response to determining that the location information is within the threshold distance of the sender address.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.