Smartphone App for Bill of Lading Barcode Capture and OCR
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for capturing and processing bills of lading in the trucking industry are prone to errors and inefficiencies, including loss of documents, accidental interleaving of pages, and delays in delivering BOLs to shipping company administrators.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing a smartphone app with a camera to capture images of barcodes and text on bills of lading, which are then analyzed to populate data fields and transmitted to a cloud-based server for processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If paper BOLs are manually carried and transferred between locations, then the physical document can be kept secure, but the process becomes time-consuming and prone to loss or interleaving errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces physical paper BOLs with digital images captured by a smartphone camera. The image capture device creates a digital copy of the BOL that can be instantly transmitted, eliminating the need to physically carry and manually transfer paper documents between locations, thereby reducing both time and error risks
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the manual mechanical process of physically carrying and filing paper BOLs with an automated electronic system. The smartphone application automatically captures images, performs OCR text recognition, and transmits data electronically, replacing the manual mechanical actions with automated technological processes
2Ease of operation
If multiple paper BOLs are carried between locations, then the driver can access them at each stop, but the BOLs may be lost or pages may become interleaved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates digital copies of BOLs stored in electronic form on the smartphone device. These digital copies maintain document integrity through structured storage and automatic association with shipment data, eliminating the physical handling issues of paper documents while maintaining easy accessibility through the application interface
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the BOL document with digital identification data by capturing the barcode or QR code along with the document image. This combination creates a linked digital record that automatically associates the BOL with its corresponding shipment, preventing misplacement and interleaving while maintaining easy retrieval
3Reliability
If paper BOLs are manually processed at the depot, then the administrator can review them, but delays occur in delivering BOLs to administrators
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of physically delivering paper BOLs to administrators with automated electronic transmission. The smartphone application automatically uploads captured BOL images and extracted text data to a server, enabling instant electronic delivery that maintains processing accuracy through automated OCR and data validation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary text extraction and data organization through OCR processing at the time of image capture, before transmission to the administrator. This preliminary action prepares the data in advance, allowing administrators to receive pre-processed, organized information that requires minimal additional processing, thereby speeding up the overall workflow
Data Source
AI summary
In a method for a user to process a BOL (122) using an app on a cell phone (120) that includes a camera, a barcode on the BOL (122) is imaged with the camera and a data box is populated with information from the BOL (122). An indication is displayed to the user indicating what the app has determined to be the boundaries of the BOL (122). The user indicates when the BOL is within the boundaries and that the BOL (122) is within a predetermined range. An image of the BOL (122) is captured and the captured image of the BOL is displayed to the user. Upon receiving input from the user indicating that the captured image is acceptable, the captured image is analyzed so as to recognize text therein and captured text is assigned to data fields. The data fields are transmitted to a cloud-based server (10).