Data storage and transfer apparatus for plural-vehicle identification systems

Claim 2

In an identification system including a vehicle and an object associated therewith, said vehicle and object each being equipped with an information coded label, the code information on the vehicle label and object label including features distinguishing said vehicle and object labels from each other, apparatus comprising: vehicle detection means adapted to indicate the presence of said vehicle in a label-reading area and the subsequent departure therefrom; Label-reading means at said label-reading area operative during the presence of said vehicle in said label-reading area to provide a pair of successive signals representative of the code information on the vehicle label and on the object label, said signals including representations of said distinguishing features; a pair of storage means; determining means coupled to said label-reading means and to the pair of storage means and adapted to determine whether each of the signals provided by said label-reading means is a representation of code information on the vehicle label or on the object label and to selectively transfer said signals to said pair of storage means in accordance with the determinations; and means coupled to the vehicle detection means and to the pair of storage means and responsive to the departure of said vehicle from said label-reading area to read out in a predetermined association the signals stored in said pair of storage means.

Claim 3

In an identification system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said determining means includes: first storage means coupled to the label-reading means and adapted to store said signals provided by said label-reading means; and means coupled to the first storage means and to said pair of storage means and adapted to recognize the representations of said distinguishing features and to transfer the signal representative of the code information on the vehicle label and the signal representative of the code information on the object label from said first storage means to different ones of said pair of storage means.

Claim 4

In an identification system including a vehicle and a plurality of objects associated therewith, said vehicle and objects each being equipped with an information coded label, the code information on the vehicle label and on each of the object labels including features distinguishing said vehicle label from said object labels, apparatus comprising: vehicle detection means adapted to indicate the presence of said vehicle in a label-reading area and the subsequent departure therefrom; label-reading means at said label-reading area operative during the presence of said vehicle in said label-reading area to provide in succession a plurality of signals representative of the code information on the vehicle label and on each of the object labels, said signals including representations of said distinguishing features; a plurality of storage means; determining means coupled to said label-reading means and to the plurality of storage means and adapted to determine whether the signals provided by said label-reading means are representations of code information on the vehicle label or on the object labels and to selectively transfer said signals to said plurality of storage means in accordance with the determinations; and means coupled to the vehicle detection means and to the plurality of storage means and responsive to the departure of said vehicle from said lAbel-reading area to read out in a predetermined association the signals stored in said plurality of storage means.

Claim 5

In an identification system including a vehicle and a plurality of objects associated therewith, said vehicle and objects each being equipped with an information coded label, the code information on the vehicle label and on each of the object labels including features distinguishing said vehicle label from said object labels, apparatus comprising: vehicle detection means adapted to indicate the presence of said vehicle in a label-reading area and the subsequent departure therefrom; label-reading means at said label-reading area operative during the presence of said vehicle in said label-reading area to provide in succession a plurality of signals representative of the code information on the vehicle label and on each of the object labels, said signals including representations of said distinguishing features; a plurality of storage means; determining means coupled to said label-reading means and to the plurality of storage means and adapted to determine whether the signals provided by said label-reading means are representations of code information on the vehicle label or on the object labels and to selectively transfer said signals to said plurality of storage means in accordance with the determinations; and means coupled to the vehicle detection means and to the plurality of storage means and responsive to the departure of said vehicle from said lAbel-reading area to read out in a predetermined association the signals stored in said plurality of storage means.

Claim 6

In an identification system in accordance with claim 3 wherein said determining means comprises: first storage means coupled to the label-reading means and adapted to store said signals provided by said label-reading means; means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of storage means and adapted to recognize the representation of the feature distinguishing the vehicle signal from the object signals and the representation of the distinguishing feature of the first-appearing signal provided by said label-reading means representative of code information on a first object label to transfer the signal representative of the code information on the vehicle label from said first storage means to a first one of said plurality of storage means and said first-appearing signal representative of the code information on said first object label from said first storage means to a second one of said plurality of storage means; and analyzing means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of storage means and adapted to compare the next succeeding signal provided by said label-reading means representative of code information on a second object label with said first signal representative of code information on said first object label, and in response to a lack of comparison therebetween, to transfer said next succeeding signal to a third one of said plurality of storage means.

Claim 7

In a system in accordance with claim 4 wherein: said first storage means is adapted to store only one signal at a time and each signal is transferred therefrom in sequence.

Claim 8

In a system in accordance with claim 4 wherein said apparatus further includes: a plurality of additional analyzing means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of storage means, each additional analyzing means being adapted to compare a subsequent signal provided by said label-reading means representative of code information on an object label with the immediately preceding signal representative of code information on an object label, and in response to a lack of comparison therebetween, to transfer said subsequent signal to a subsequent one of said plurality of storage means.

Claim 9

In a system for processing a plurality of successively appearing signals, one of said signals being distinguishable from the remaining signals by the inclusion of a feature not present in any of the remaining signals, data storage and transfer apparatus comprising: first storage means adapted to store said signals; a plurality of at least three second storage means; means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of second storage means and adapted to recognize said distinguishable one of said plurality of signals and the first-appearing one of said remaining signals and to transfer said distinguishable one of said plurality of signals from said first storage means to a first one of said plurality of second storage means and the first-appearing one of said remaining signals to a second one of said plurality of second storage means; and analyzing means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of second storage means and adapted to compare the next-appearing one of said remaining signals with the first-appearing one of said remaining signals and, in response to a lack of comparison therebetween, to transfer said next-appearing one of said remaining signals from said first storage means to a third one of said plurality of second storage means.

Claim 10

In a system for processing a plurality of successively appearing signals, one of said signals being distinguishable from the remaining signals by the inclusion of a feature not present in any of the remaining signals, data storage and transfer apparatus comprising: first storage means adapted to store said signals; a plurality of at least three second storage means; means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of second storage means and adapted to recognize said distinguishable one of said plurality of signals and the first-appearing one of said remaining signals and to transfer said distinguishable one of said plurality of signals from said first storage means to a first one of said plurality of second storage means and the first-appearing one of said remaining signals to a second one of said plurality of second storage means; and analyzing means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of second storage means and adapted to compare the next-appearing one of said remaining signals with the first-appearing one of said remaining signals and, in response to a lack of comparison therebetween, to transfer said next-appearing one of said remaining signals from said first storage means to a third one of said plurality of second storage means.

Claim 11

In a system in accordance with claim 7 wherein said data storage and transfer apparatus further includes: a plurality of additional analyzing means coupled to the first storage means and to said plurality of second storage means, each additional analyzing means being adapted to compare a subsequently appearing one of said remaining signals with the preceding one of said remainiNg signals, and in response to a noncomparison of the signals, to transfer said subsequently appearing signal from said first storage means to a subsequent one of said plurality of second storage means.

Claim 12

In a system in accordance with claim 7 wherein the analyzing means of said data storage and transfer apparatus includes: comparison means for comparing signals, said comparison means being coupled to the first storage means; first distributor means coupled to said comparison means and to all but the first and last ones of said plurality of second storage means, said first distributor means being operative to sequentially transfer signals stored in those of the plurality of second storage means coupled thereto to said comparison means; and second distributor means coupled to said comparison means and to all but the first and second ones of said plurality of second storage means, said second distributor means being operative to sequentially transfer signals appearing subsequent to the first-appearing one of said remaining signals from said first storage means to one of said second storage means coupled thereto in response to each lack of comparison in said comparison means between each one of said subsequently appearing signals and the immediately preceding signal.

Claim 13

In a system in accordance with claim 7 wherein: said first storage means is adapted to store only one signal at a time and each signal is transferred therefrom in sequence.