Systems and/or methods for determining item serial number structure and intelligence

A system for determining a serial number structure when such information is missing or incomplete, comprising:

• a first non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising at least one known, predefined serial number mask, each said serial number mask having an associated length;
• a second non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising at least one known, predefined check digit algorithm;
• and
• at least one processor configured to:
• (a) receive a serial number for a scanned product, the serial number having an associated length,
• (b) create a new serial number mask and store the new serial number mask to the first non-transitory computer readable storage medium when the length of the serial number does not equal the lengths of any existing masks stored in the first non-transitory computer readable storage medium,
• (c) when the length of the new serial number equals a length of an existing mask stored in the first non-transitory computer readable storage medium, alter the existing mask as minimally as possible to allow the serial number to match the existing mask when the new serial number otherwise would not match the existing mask, and
• (d) cause (a)-(c) to be repeated until a stable serial number mask is identified.