The invention relates to the technical field of item registration, particularly to routing of registered items.

Background of the invention

In an exemplary airport scenario, where suitcases shall be routed to a flight, a worker, before loading a suitcase on a conveyor belt directed towards the baggage compart- mentof an airplane, manually scans with an optical hand scanner the label attached to the suitcase. The hand scanner may wirelessly communicate with a server to retrieve the destination of the suitcase, in case the latter is not directed to that flight and thereby it has been wrongly routed, the hand scanner warns the worker to remove that suitcase from the conveyor belt. This operation is very time consuming, since the worker shall first find the label, which may not always be so conveniently placed (e.g., underneath the suitcase), and then manually scan each and every suitcase before loading it on the conveyor belt. Naturally, every now and then, the worker will forget to scan a suitcase. Note also that, since there is the need of a dedicated worker to operate the hand scanner, the labour cost is considerably high.

Hence, there is a long-felt need in the technical field of registration and routing of items of overcoming the abovementioned drawbacks of the state-of-the-art solutions.

Aspects of the invention

The first aspect of the invention is to provide an improvement to the state-of-the-art. The second aspect of the invention is to solve the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, i.e., by providing an automatic solution that enables speeding up the opera- tion of routing validation while avoiding overloading workers.

Description of the invention

The aforementioned aspects of the invention are achieved by a device for automatic detection of whether an item (e.g., a suitcase, a bag, a package, etc.) is correctly routed (e.g., towards the correct flight), said item including at least one radio frequency (RF) tag (e.g., a self-adhesive label, embedding an RFED tag, fastened at the handle of a suitcase), wherein the device comprises an RF communication means (e.g., an RF an- tenna such as an RFID antenna and an RF reader such as an RFID reader) for receiving at least one reading from (and/or requesting at least one reading from) the RF tag, said device being adapted to be arranged at a read point in proximity of the conveying means (e.g., the device can be mounted on a handrail on the side of a conveyor belt), which conveying means (e.g., a conveyor belt, a roller conveyor, a chain conveyor, etc.) is operable to transport the item towards a destination (e.g., the baggage compartment of an airplane), wherein the device is configured to extract identification and/or destination information from the reading received from the item on the conveying means crossing past the device and to verify whether the item is correctly routed (e.g., by checking on an internal or external database whether the destination information coded in the RF tag matches the destination of the conveying means to which the device is associated to - in general, any check necessary to approve that the item is indeed correctly routed may be carried out). Herein, "RFID" is referred to any technology that uses RF signals for communication and/or identification purposes such as UHFGen2.

Thanks to RF communications between the device of the invention and the item, the tag can be automatically scanned without neither human intervention nor line-of-sight conditions between the tag and the device (which is instead essential in case of an optical hand scanner). Consequently, a much more speedy routing validation and a less cumbersome operation, which requires less manual labour and thereby saves costs, are achieved. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the device further comprises a positioning means (e.g., a GPS receiver) for determining a position of the device. Being able to determine its position (e.g., which parking stand it is parked at, thus identifying the flight currently being loaded), the device is enabled to compare the destination of the item with respect to its position and thereby to detect a routing error.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the device further comprises a connecting means for connecting the device to a controller associated to the conveying means, so as to stop the conveying means whenever a routing error is detected. There- by, it is ensured that no error is ignored, thus making the invention an automated solution that enables avoiding human errors.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the device further comprises a warn- ing means for warning a user of the device whenever a routing error s detected.

Also, the aforementioned aspects of the invention are achieved by a method for automatic detection of whether an item is correctly routed, said item including at least one radio frequency (RF) tag, wherein the method comprises:

- providing a device as described above;

- arranging the device at a read point in proximity of the conveying means;

- extracting at the device identification and/or destination information from at least one reading received from the item on the conveying means crossing past the device; and

- verifying at the device whether the item is correctly routed.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises determining a position of the device. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises connecting the device to a controller associated to the conveying means and stopping the conveying means whenever a routing error i s detected.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises acti- vating a warning means for warning a user of the device whenever a routing error is detected.

Note that the steps of the method do not necessarily need to be carried out in the order described above but may also be performed in a different order and/or simultaneously.

Note that all the aforementioned advantages of the device are also met by the method described above. Hereafter, the invention will be described in connection with drawings illustrating non-limiting examples of devices and methods for automatic detection of whether an item is correctly routed.

Brief description of the drawings

FIG. l: A self-adhesive label including an RFID tag,

FIG.2: A device for automatic detection of whether an item is correctly routed.

FIG.3: A device according to the invention used in a belt loader.

FIG.4: A method for automatic detection of whether an item is correctly routed.

Notations

1 : Device.

2: Suitcase.

3: RFID tag.

4: RFID reader.

5: Read point.

6: Conveyor belt.

7: Belt loader.

9: Barcode.

10: Label.

11: Lid.

12: Motherboard.

13: PC.

14: 3G modem/antenna unit.

15: Horn

16: Lamp.

17: Battery.

Preferred embodiments of the invention

FIG. l shows a self-adhesive label 10 including an RFID tag 3, wherein the label 10 is fastened to a suitcase 2 (i.e., an item 2) (ref. FIG.3) of a passenger. The printer at the check-in codes the relevant information in the RFID tag 3, which is printed together and embedded in the label 10 to apply to the suitcase 2. The 10 digits code, which is encoded in the barcode 9 on the label 10, is also encoded in the RFID tag 3 via the RFID antenna at the printer. Thanks to that 10 digits code, it is possible to retrieve the travel information (e.g., the flight number, etc.) of the passenger from a database. Alternatively, it is also possible to store the travel information directly in the RFID tag 3, so that the need for storing the travel information in a database is avoided.

FIG.2 shows a device I for automatic detection of whether a suitcase 2 is correctly routed. The device 1 comprises: an RFID antenna (i.e., a first element of a communication means 4) (not visible) embedded in the lid 11 of the device 1, a motherboard 12, an RFID reader 4 (i.e., a second element of the communication means 4), a PC 13, a 3G modem/antenna unit 14 (it may also be a WiFi modem/antenna unit, and the antenna may also be used for receiving GPS signals), a Bluetooth port, I/O (i.e., a connecting means), a horn 15 (i.e., a first element of a warning means), a lamp 16 (i.e., a second element of the warning means) and a battery 17.

FIG.3 shows the device 1 mounted on a read point 5 on the side of a conveyor belt 6 of a belt loader 7 (i.e., a transportable conveyor belt 6, which is driven under an airplane and which is used to load the suitcases 2 in the baggage compartment of the airplane). The device 1 will then scan any suitcase 2 that runs past in front of its lid 11 and check if the suitcase 2 is in fact directed to that flight by communicating via the 3G unit 14 to an external server for verifying the data. Consequently, if the suitcase 2 should not be directed to that flight and/or the passenger has not boarded and/or the suitcase has been properly screened, etc., the lamp 16 will light up (e.g., in red), the horn 15 will sound and, thanks to the I/O, the conveyor belt 6 of the belt loader 7 will be stopped. The worker unloading the baggage cart onto the conveyor belt will watch out for the light and/or the sound identifying misrouted suitcases and will then remove the suitcase 2 positioned in front of the device 1.

Advantageously, thanks to Bluetooth, the device 1 may also communicate with a hand scanner carried by a worker at the belt loader 7 (instead of directly communicating with the server via the 3G unit 14), which checks on the server if the suitcase 2 read by the device 1 is in fact directed to that flight or not. If not, the device 1 will then react as already described above. FIG.4 shows a method 100 for automatic detection of whether an item 2 is correctly routed, said item 2 including at least one radio frequency (RF) tag 3, wherein the method 100 comprises:

- providing 101 a device 1 as described above;

- arranging 102 the device 1 at a read point 5 in proximity of the conveying means 6;

- connecting 106 the device 1 to a controller associated to the conveying means 6;

- determining 105 a position of the device 1 ;

- extracting 103 identification and/or destination information from at least one reading received from the item 2 on the conveying means 6 crossing past the device 1;

- verifying 104 whether the item 2 is correctly routed;

- stopping 107 the conveying means 6 whenever a routing error is detected; and

- activating 108 a warning means 15, 16 for warning a user of the device 1 whenever a routing error is detected.