Abstract: A two camera over-the-belt optical character recognition (OCR) system for reading the destination addresses on parcels carried on a conveyor belt. The parcels bear an orientation defining fluorescent ink fiduciary mark that is typically stamped on the parcel in the same area as the destination address. The fiduciary mark is located approximately in the center of the destination address block and oriented in the same direction as the underlying destination address. The first camera, a low resolution CCD camera, captures an image of the fiduciary mark. A host computer stores an image of the fiduciary mark, determines the position and orientation of the fiduciary mark, and defines a region of interest about the fiduciary mark. The second camera, a high resolution CCD camera, captures a grey-scale image of the conveyor and the parcels carried on the conveyor.

Abstract: Fiduciary mark detection system usable with an over-the-belt optical character recognition (OCR) reader for ascertaining the position and orientation of text within the destination address on parcels moving along a conveyor, comprising charged coupled device (CCD) array, analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, general purpose computer, and software program. Image processing software program comprising projection histograms, convolution filtering, correlation, radial variance, first moments of inertia, edge image analysis, Hough method, detection confidence testing. Orientation defining mark comprising fluorescent ink placed approximately in the center of the destination address block on a parcel is non obstructive of the underlying text and may be affixed to parcel any time prior to scanning. Fiduciary mark comprising two circles of different diameter oriented such that a vector from the center of large circle to center of small circle is oriented in the same direction as underlying text.