Footwear is provided having a tongue pivotally coupled to the footwear upper. The optical fiber receives a light pattern that specifies information from the array assembly. The intermediate layer are made from materials that absorb a sufficient amount of light to meet the optical requirements of inspection tools while at the same time transmit a sufficient amount of light to meet the optical requirements of exposure tools. The plurality of articles is assigned to the plurality of information extractors based on order in the queue, wherein an article with a higher rank is presented for information extraction before an article with a lower rank.