Optical Container Code Recognition and its Impact on the Maritime Supply Chain

Container terminal operators worldwide have expressed the need for accurate real-time accounting of the incoming, outgoing and existing inventory. Container Optical Code Recognition (OCR) provides systems which can be integrated with RFID tags in order to give more accurate information to Maritime Supply Chain Management. The implementation of OCR systems for feasible identification and tracking of containers offers value added benefits. Container terminals utilizing OCR technology enjoy more efficient use of labor, yard space, and handling equipment while realizing improved productivity and profitability. This paper explains the development of the next generation of OCR systems using global image processing, hierarchical representations, probabilistic object tracking, color model transformation, statistical classifiers, neural networks, support vector machines, and Hidden Markov Models (HMM). Their fusion with RFID technology and the utilization of the recent wireless technologies integrated with iPADs allow for the deployment of very sophisticated but still cost effective systems.