EP1615177A1 - Electronic franking stamp - Google Patents

Abstract

The pad has an ink-jet printing unit (110) to project ink drops on a mail item through an opening of a body of a case. A carriage (140) moves the unit (110) along the opening. A position encoding unit (200) finds a position of the unit (110). A decoding unit decodes a data to be printed. A liquid crystal display screen (220) displays the data before printing. A keyboard (350) validates the controls of a data processing unit (210). The data to be printed is a post-marking, a slogan, a destination address, an authentication data, a service data or an image data.

Description

Field of the art

The present invention relates exclusively to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to an electronic mail franking system which is in the form of an ink pad.

Prior art

No. 5,271,322 discloses an ink pad for stamping a stamp on a mail item such as a letter or a package. This postage system is particularly suitable for small businesses or individuals with too low a mail volume to use a postage meter. However, this system has the disadvantage of being usable only for a given postage number beyond which the buffer is self-destruct and must be discarded.

Object and definition of the invention

The present invention therefore relates to an electronic postage stamp for printing securely an unlimited number of postal impressions. An object of the invention is also to allow the printing of other data such as the address of the recipient, service messages, authentication codes, etc. or any other image data or graphics.

• . un corps de boîtier sensiblement parallélépipédique comportant une ouverture sur une de ses faces latérales,
• . un moyen d'impression jetable à jet d'encre disposé dans ledit corps de boîtier pour projeter au travers de ladite ouverture des gouttes d'encre sur l'article de courrier,
• . un moyen de déplacement disposé dans ledit corps de boîtier pour déplacer ledit moyen d'impression le long de ladite ouverture,
• . un moyen de codage de position disposé dans ledit corps de boîtier pour déterminer la position dudit moyen d'impression le long de ladite ouverture,
• . un moyen de traitement disposé dans ledit corps de boîtier pour commander le moyen d'impression en fonction de la position du moyen de déplacement et desdites données à imprimer sur ledit article de courrier, ledit moyen de traitement comportant :
  • un moyen de communication pour recevoir de façon sécurisée lesdites données à imprimer,
  • un moyen de décodage pour décoder les données à imprimer reçues au niveau dudit moyen de communication,
  • un moyen mémoire de programme pour stocker des instructions de commande des moyens d'impression,
  • un moyen mémoire de données pour stocker temporairement lesdites données à imprimer avant leur impression,
• . un moyen de visualisation pour afficher les données à imprimer avant leur impression sur ledit article de courrier,
• . un moyen de saisie de données pour en association avec ledit moyen de visualisation valider les commandes dudit moyen de traitement, et
• . un moyen rechargeable d'alimentation en énergie disposé dans ledit boîtier.

Thus, there is provided an electronic postage stamp for printing data on a mail item comprising:

• . a substantially parallelepipedal housing body having an opening on one of its lateral faces,
• . disposable ink jet printing means disposed in said housing body for projecting through said opening ink drops onto the mail article,
• . displacement means disposed in said housing body for moving said printing means along said opening,
• . position coding means disposed in said housing body for determining the position of said printing means along said opening,
• . processing means disposed in said housing body for controlling the printing means according to the position of the moving means and said data to be printed on said mail piece, said processing means comprising:
  • communication means for securely receiving said data to be printed,
  • decoding means for decoding the print data received at said communication means,
  • program memory means for storing control instructions of the printing means,
  • data memory means for temporarily storing said data to be printed before printing,
• . display means for displaying the data to be printed before printing on said mail item,
• . data input means for associating with said display means validating the commands of said processing means, and
• . rechargeable power supply means disposed in said housing.

• empreinte postale, slogan, adresse du destinataire, données d'authentification, données de services ou toutes autres données d'image.

The said data to be printed are chosen from the following data:

• postal fingerprint, slogan, recipient address, authentication data, service data or any other image data.

With this stamp, it becomes possible to stamp all correspondence very simply without resorting to an expensive franking machine. The secure communication link makes it possible to guarantee the exchange of postal data while ensuring easy connection to the dealer's or the postal administration's site, in particular with a view to reloading it, changing rates, etc. or any other external network, any specialized mail machine or device.

Advantageously, said data memory means is of the rescued type and comprises secure accounting means, in particular downward and upward counters.

Preferably, said position encoding means comprises an optical encoder intended to cooperate with a screen-printed coding wheel or wheel and according to the embodiment envisaged, said communication means may comprise a long-distance wireless communication means by radio frequencies and / or a short-distance wireless communication means by infrared or radiofrequency.

Advantageously, said display means comprises a liquid crystal graphic display and said data input means comprises a keyboard of at least three launch keys for the following functions: forward, backward and validation.

Preferably, said processing means further comprises decoding means for decoding the print data received at said communication means. This decoding means comprises means for decrypting said data received from a secret key stored in the processing means or a validation means of a signature accompanying said received data, from a secret key stored in the means of treatment.

Brief description of the drawings

• Les figures 1 et 2 illustrent deux exemples d'architectures de systèmes d'affranchissement de courrier intégrant un tampon à affranchir électronique selon l'invention,
• Les figures 3 et 4 sont deux vues respectivement en coupe longitudinale et transversale d'un tampon à affranchir électronique selon un premier mode de réalisation de l'invention,
• Les figures 5 et 6 sont deux vues respectivement en coupe longitudinale et transversale d'un tampon à affranchir électronique selon un second mode de réalisation de l'invention,
• La figure 7 est une vue schématique illustrant la structure électronique du tampon à affranchir selon l'invention, et
• La figure 8 est un organigramme illustrant le cycle d'impression d'une empreinte postale selon l'invention.

The invention will be better understood in view of the following detailed description accompanied by illustrative and nonlimiting examples with reference to the following figures in which:

• FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate two examples of mail franking system architectures incorporating an electronic franking buffer according to the invention,
• FIGS. 3 and 4 are two views respectively in longitudinal and transverse section of an electronic franking buffer according to a first embodiment of the invention,
• FIGS. 5 and 6 are two views respectively in longitudinal and transverse section of an electronic franking buffer according to a second embodiment of the invention,
• FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating the electronic structure of the stamp to be franked according to the invention, and
• Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the printing cycle of a postal pattern according to the invention.

Detailed description of embodiments

Reference is first made to FIG. 1, which illustrates a preferred example of a global mail franking system architecture incorporating an electronic franking buffer according to the invention. Such a system which has the advantage of requiring no other equipment than the electronic postage meter, and is therefore well suited for use by individuals (individuals), implements both a telecommunications network, such as the Internet, and a mobile radio network, such as the GPRS or UMTS network. Indeed, the electronic franking buffer 10 which incorporates a secure printing module of a postal imprint also comprises means of long distance radio communication to enable its connection to a remote computer server 12 of the postal administration or the electronic postage stamp dealer. This connection between the postage meter and the remote computer server which allows the reloading of the postage stamp once its used credit is typically done from its long-distance radiofrequency transmission means 10A through the Internet networks 14 and GPRS / UMTS 16 via an interconnection server 18 allowing the passage of data between the wireless network 16 and the wired network 14.

Another embodiment of a global mail franking system architecture implementing an electronic franking buffer according to the invention is illustrated in dashed lines in FIG. 1. This system is more particularly adapted to individual companies or to very small companies that are already equipped with a computer system such as personal computer for example. In such a system, the electronic franking buffer 10 which also comprises means for short-distance wireless transmission 10B, infrared (firewire for example) or radio frequency (bluethooth or IEEE802.11x for example), can be connected directly to a a personal computer 20 of the company having a similar interface 20A and which is itself directly connected to the Internet network 14. It will be noted that in this configuration, the personal computer can be part of a system of Open postage including postal scale and folder / inserter for example (not shown).

FIG. 2 illustrates the integration of the stamp to be used according to the invention in another example of a franking system architecture comprising a franking machine 22 and a postal scale 24. The franking machine which comprises, as is known , secure accounting means is preferably devoid of a distributor of labels since the stamp to frank allows precisely the franking of thick envelopes or packages that can not be processed directly by the franking machine (typically a franking machine is limited to printing envelopes less than 16mm thick). The connection between the franking machine and the electronic franking buffer is preferably carried out as previously by means of the wireless communication interface 10B of the franking buffer which cooperates with a similar interface 22A of the franking machine. However, a conventional wired link (not shown) could also be considered in such a configuration.

A first embodiment of an electronic franking buffer according to the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

This buffer comprises, in a substantially parallelepipedal housing 100, an ink jet type disposable printing means 110 movable in a longitudinal direction of the housing through a bottom opening of this housing 100A and intended to print a postal imprint on a any support disposed opposite this opening. The disposable printing means is advantageously constituted by a standard cartridge with two rows of nozzles from the company Hewlett Packard.

The displacement of this printing means is obtained by tilting about an axis of rotation 120, from a rest position, an operating lever 130, a first end comprises a handle 130A and a second end, opposite to the first, a fork 130B which engages a hinge axis 140A of a carriage 140 supporting the ink jet printing means.

A torsion spring 150 which is compressed during arming of the operating lever by the user of the pad is wound on the axis of rotation 120 secured to the housing by its two ends 120A, 120B. Once armed, the operating lever 130 is automatically maintained in by a locking / unlocking mechanism 160. A user action on this mechanism will release the operating lever and return it to its rest position under the triggering action of the torsion spring 150. A compensation spring 170 mounted between the operating lever and the housing makes it possible to compensate for the sudden expansion of the torsion spring and to ensure a linear displacement of the lever in its return stroke to its rest position.

The locking / unlocking mechanism 160 is advantageously constituted by two push buttons 180A, 180B mounted on springs 182A, 182B on either side of the lever and whose respective ends act on an articulated arm 184A, 184B engaged with this lever, the action on the push buttons having the effect of releasing the arms of the operating lever and thus to release the latter.

The support carriage of the printing module 140 which, under the action of the operating lever, can slide on two parallel longitudinal guides 190A, 190B secured to the housing at their ends, is provided with a coding means of its position 200 comprising an optical encoder 200A fixed on the support carriage and intended to cooperate with a screen-printed coding strip 200B mounted parallel to the longitudinal guides. This coding means 200 which makes it possible to know at any time the position of the printing means during its movement along the low opening of the housing is connected to a processing means 210 (the detailed description of which will be carried out with respect to the 7) themselves connected to the printing means 110, this processing means controlling the means for moving the ink ejection nozzles according to the data to be printed, postal imprints or other service or address data by example which will have been previously displayed as printed on a display screen 220 of the stamp to be franked electronic (for the readability of the drawings the electrical connections with the processing means are not shown).

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate a second embodiment of an electronic franking buffer according to the invention. Identical elements that bear the same references will not be the subject of a new description.

This second embodiment differs from the previous one by the displacement of the operating lever 130 which is now carried out against a torsion spring 230 mounted on an axis 240 integral with the support carriage 140 and at the end of which is fixed a first gear wheel 250 which meshes with a second gear wheel 260 itself engaged with a rack 270 extending in the housing parallel to the longitudinal guides 190A, 190B. The second gear wheel 260 is mounted on one end of an axis 280 at the opposite end of which is fixed a screen-printed coding wheel 290B intended to cooperate with an optical encoder 290A to define the position of the printing means during its movement in The box.

The structure of the processing means 210 is now described with reference to FIG. 7. These processing means integrate hardware and software means necessary to receive and process the print orders directly or from the personal computer or the computer. franking machine 22 according to the architecture adopted for the connection of the electronic franking buffer and illustrated previously in FIGS. 1 and 2.

These processing means are organized around a microprocessor or microcontroller 300 sequenced internally by a quartz ceramic resonator and conventionally comprising program memory means 310 of the ROM, EEPROM or similar type, RAM or RAM type data memory means 320. analog and interface means with different input / output elements. The program memory means containing the instructions necessary for the control of the printing means. The data memory means are at least partly of the rescued type to ensure the storage of the secure accounting means specific to any franking machine, including downward and upward counters and to ensure temporary storage of the data to be printed. A keyboard interface 330 and a screen interface 340 are provided to allow an interaction of the microcontroller with respectively a buffer control pad 350 and the display screen 220 of this buffer. The keyboard is advantageously composed of only a few function keys allowing for example access to scrolling menus displayed on the screen. The screen can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) allowing a display "What you see what you print" data to print.

Similarly, to ensure the control / control of the printing means, there is provided an interface 360 with the position coding means 200, 290 and an interface 370 with this printing means 110. The processing means also comprise a communication interface 380 for communicating with a wireless communication module 390 integrating different communication protocols and radio transmission / reception means 10A and / or infrared 10B.

Finally, a battery of batteries 400 advantageously rechargeable ensures the power supply of all the components forming the processing means and that necessary for the activation of the ink ejection nozzles.

The operating principle of the electronic postage meter according to the invention is based on the printing of data available in its memory means 320 and previously entered at its keyboard 350 (in association with its screen 220) or received via its module communication 390, the remote server 12 including through the Internet, the computer 20 or the franking machine 22.

In a first embodiment, the memory means 320 comprise fixed image data that simply need to be completed with the keyboard. For example, in a minimal configuration suitable for individual use, after making a choice among the stamp funds available in these memory means, simply enter a postage amount to print a postal imprint, the date of postage and the other postal or image data associated with the postal fingerprint being set automatically from data internal to the processing means and in synchronization with the clock data of the microcontroller. Once the printing is done, the means of accounting are updated within the limit of the credit granted to the user. And, once this credit is exhausted, a reload can, as is known, be performed from the remote computer server at which the user has a particular account. Similarly, the user can change the printing means when the ink level no longer allows new prints or reload the batteries when their level becomes insufficient to supply the buffer to frank. All these operations are of course signaled and followed at the display screen.

In a second embodiment, the set of data to be printed is received through the communication module 390 according to a secure communication protocol whose details are now illustrated with reference to FIG. 8.

It is first of all carried out after power-up, in a first step 500, the verification at the buffer to be franked of various state data such as the presence of ink in quantity sufficient, the non-shutting of the ejection nozzles, the control of the supply voltage of the rechargeable batteries, etc. Then, in a step 502, an authentication code of the stamp to be franked previously recorded during its manufacture is transmitted (via the transmission means of the communication module) to the device to which it can connect, the computer or the franking machine for example, for authentication of the stamp to be franked. The device then generates, in a next step 504, from this code and a master key in its possession, a secret key which will then be used to sign (or encrypt) all the communications between the device and the device. stamp to be franked. The generation algorithm is advantageously of the known triple DES type. This secret key is then addressed to the stamp to be franked, in a step 506, for comparison with an internal secret key of the latter developed during its manufacture. In the absence of identity between the two keys the process is finished, and only impressions of non-postal data, such as an address or a slogan or other insecure information (mini-die for example in Germany or Canada), may be made with the stamp to be franked but in no case postprints. On the other hand, in case of identity, in a new step 508, the secure transmission (by the same signature or encryption process) of the device to the stamp to be franked of a set of postal and image data is carried out in a new step 508. predetermined. The image data include images relating to standard stamp funds, different according to the country concerned. The transmitted postal data, advantageously in a compressed form (using a standard compression algorithm) also differ according to the countries concerned, but they include at least a postage value, a postage date and a contract number. In addition to these minimal data can also to be communicated: a franking machine number, a postal code, a matrix authentication code, a verification code, an object category, an ascending or descending counter value, a clock time, etc. These data, once decompressed (if necessary) are converted after signature validation or decryption, in a step 510, into complementary image data, before in a next step 512, to print the integrated postal fingerprint. these complementary image data from the postal data and the initial image data. At the end of this printing, in a step 514, the postage stamp addresses to the device to which it is attached a signed report and is positioned in a step 516 waiting for a new print, the prints succeeding one another. one after the other until the credit of the user is exhausted. Once this one has exhausted a reloading procedure can be engaged as before. Note however that unlike the previous embodiment, it is not mandatory that the accounting means are arranged in the stamp to be franked. Indeed, this buffer being constantly in connection with a computer or a franking machine, these means can be arranged in these devices to which the buffer is connected.

Claims (10)

Electronic postage stamp for printing data on a mail item including: . a substantially parallelepipedal housing body having an opening on one of its lateral faces, . disposable ink jet printing means disposed in said housing body for projecting through said opening ink drops onto the mail article, . displacement means disposed in said housing body for moving said printing means along said opening, . position coding means disposed in said housing body for determining the position of said printing means along said opening, . processing means disposed in said housing body for controlling the printing means according to the position of the moving means and said data to be printed on said mail piece,
said processing means comprising: communication means for securely receiving said data to be printed, decoding means for decoding the print data received at said communication means, program memory means for storing control instructions of the printing means, data memory means for temporarily storing said received print data prior to printing; . display means for displaying the data to be printed before printing on said mail item, . data input means for associating with said display means validating the commands of said processing means, and . rechargeable power supply means disposed in said housing. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said data memory means is of the rescued type and comprises secure accounting means, in particular downward and upward counters. Electronic postage meter according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, characterized in that the said data to be printed are chosen from the following data: postal fingerprint, slogan, address of the recipient, authentication data, service data or any other data of 'picture. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said decoding means comprises means for decrypting said data received from a secret key stored in the processing means. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said decoding means comprises means for validating a signature accompanying said received data, from a secret key stored in the processing means. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said communication means comprises a long-distance wireless communication means by radio frequencies. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said communication means comprises a means of short-distance wireless communication by infrared or radiofrequency. Electronic postage meter according to claim 1, characterized in that said position coding means comprises an optical encoder for cooperating with a screen-printed coding tape or wheel. An electronic stamp according to claim 1, characterized in that said display means comprises a liquid crystal graphic screen. An electronic postage meter as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said data input means comprises a keyboard of at least three launch keys for the following functions: forward, backward and enable.

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