Abstract: The present invention is an automated baggage tracking and sorting system having a conveyor system controlled by a system controller, and a distributed baggage identification system. The distributed baggage identification system comprises a plurality of zone content identifiers coupled to one or more of a plurality of conveyors at predetermined locations to create a plurality of zones. Each of the zones is associated with one of the plurality of zone content identifiers, and each of the zone content identifiers is configured to store information pertaining to the object located in the associated zone. The distributed baggage identification system further comprises a plurality of information retrievers positioned adjacent to the conveyors at predetermined transition regions. The information retrievers are configured to retrieve information from the zone content identifiers as the associated zone is at the transition region.