CAM-267

A big box dropping into the wrong chute

Half past six in the evening in the sorting hall. Boxes and bags come down the roller conveyor, one after another. At the end of the run, a large cardboard box has gone into the small-bag chute and jammed across the edge. The red beacons are lit. Five people are watching from the aisle; one is holding a handheld scanner. IRIS reads the label on the parcel and sees which chute it dropped into.

CAM-267 · SORTER OUTFEED · DESTINATION MISMATCH

What IRIS understands

What it recognises in this scene

box jammed across the wrong chute
parcels coming down the roller conveyor
small-bag chute
red beacon lit
operator with a handheld scanner

What this camera measures

An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.

1 240Parcels through in the last hour
7Misrouted parcels counted this shift
1 min 10 sTime the box has been in the chute
5People in shot
18:26Time of the misroute

The figures on this screen are an example from the illustration, not any client's measurement.

The rule

You decide once. IRIS applies it always.

a parcel enters a chute other than the one its label says

Then

alert the sorter supervisor with the camera, the chute and the time
save the picture of the label and the video of the parcel from belt to chute
count the misrouted parcels for each chute across the shift

The instruction that set it up«Tell me when a parcel drops into a chute that is not the one on its label, and show me the picture of the label.»

What changes

What changes for whoever answers for the plant

A parcel in the wrong chute is not found in the hall: it is found on the next day’s round, in another city, when nobody remembers anything. Getting it back costs two days and a call from the customer. With the camera the alert arrives while the box is still in the chute, with the picture of the label and the chute it dropped into. Pulling it out takes ten seconds.

What people usually ask

Does IRIS read the parcel’s code?

Yes, it reads the label stuck on the outside, the same way an operator does. With that it compares the chute the parcel fell into with the one it should have taken. It opens nothing, it does not know what is inside and it identifies nobody: it links a visible label to a physical chute, and saves both images.

Does it work if the label is crumpled or facing down?

Not always. If the label cannot be seen, the camera says so instead of making the data up: that parcel is flagged as unreadable and a person checks it. Even then there is still the video of the parcel and the chute it fell into, which is often exactly what was needed.

Can IRIS stop the conveyor?

No. IRIS does not act on the installation: it alerts and keeps the evidence. Stopping the belt, diverting it or letting it run is decided by a person or by the sorter’s control system. Who gets the alert and what is done with it is written by the warehouse, not by the camera.

Other cameras

A different case every time

A camera looks. IRIS understands what it sees.

An extract of the real screen, no voice-over and hands-free. Each round poses another situation. What sits behind it is a good deal bigger than what you see.