GB2213302A - Remote postage meter inspection system - Google Patents

Abstract

A remote inspection of postage meters is disclosed that reduces the requirement for an on site inspection. The postage meters (30) are programmed to sense and communicate any tampering attempt. The inspection is achieved either through electronic communication (22, 26, 28, Fig 1) or by the mailing of imprinted post cards (47, Fig 2). <IMAGE>

Description

REMOTE POSTAGE METER INSPECTION SYSTEM This invention relates to a system for and a method of remote postage meter actuation and apparatus for use in said system and method.

Postage meters are in common usage throughout the business world because of their ability to save time and allow an accounting of the amount of postage used. Postage meters are charged with monetary value upon payment to the Post Office cf a selected amount. This monetary value is reduced as postage is applied to mail pieces. Because the postage meter does contain monetary vaue, care must be taken tat no unauthorized postage impressions be made fcr to do so would be defrauding the Postal Service.Various secure measures have been devised to prevent postage meter tampering through which unauthorized postage could be printed. Included in such security measures are creak away screws, sealed housings, and the fact that postage meters are leased by the user rather than being owned. To assure that postage meter tampering has not taken place, the U.S.

Postal Service has a regulation that every leased postage meter must be physically inspected at least two tmes a year by the manuracturer or that postage meter. This requires an inspector visiting the premises of the user to carry out the inspection. Similar procedures exist in other countries.

The cost of such inspection in U@S.A. is approximately $50.00 par inspection or$100.00 a year for every installed postage meter. With almost one million postage meters installed in the United States, this amounts to a cost of approximately one hundred million dollars every year for postage meter inspection.

Recently there have been two developments in the postage meter field that are bringing about substantial changes. One of the developments is a result of the advancement of electronics which has led to the electronic postage meter. The electronic postage mete is one in which solid state devices instead of mechanical systems are used for such purposes as memory and control. The second development is the use of encryption for the purpose of authenticating a postage indicia. It obviously would be beneficial if these recent developments may be utilized to reduce te need for the physical inspection of every postage meter.

According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a system for inspecting postage meters remotely comprising a central station, at least one postage meter having a memory therein, means for placing said postage meter in communication with said central station, means for sensing postage meter tampering, means for storing in said memory acts of tampering whereby upon said central station communicating with said meter said memory will send to.said central station an indication of any attempt of tampering with said postage meter.

Preferably said means for placing said postage meter in communication is a mail piece.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a system for inspecting postage meters remotely comprising a central station, at least one postage meter, said postage meter having a memory and a plurality of sensors in communication with said memory, each of said sensors being associated with a respective component of said meter, sald sensors being enabled upon tampering with its respective component, means for placing said postage meter in communication with said central station means for storing in said memory signals generated by said sensors, whereby upon said central station communicating with said meter said memory will send to said central station a signal indicative of any attempt of tampering with said postage meter.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a system for inspecting postage meters remotely comprising a postage meter having a memory therein, means for sensing postage meter tampering, means for storing in said memory acts of tampering and means for accessing said memory, whereby upon said memory being accessed said memory will provide an indication of any attempt of tampering with said postage meter.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a postage meter adapted for remote inspection comprising a postage meter having a memory, variable printing means and a plurality of sensors in communication with said memory, each of said sensors being associated with a component of said meter, said sensors being enabled upon tampering with its respective component, means for storing in said memory signals generated by said sensors, and means for causing the printing means to print an indicia with tells upon said signals being stored in said memory.

According to anotner aspect of this invention there is provided a postage meter having a memory, means for sensing tampering with the meter, means for setting a flag in the postage meter memory in response to said sensing means sensing meter tampering, and means for accessing said memory. Preferably, said postage meter includes means for causing the postage meter to print tells in an inaicia upon a flag being set in the memory.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a method of remcteie inspecti' a postage meter having a memory, including the steps of: sensing an attempt to tamper with the postage meter; setting a flag in the memory in response to the sensing of meter tampering; and accessing the memory to determine if a tampering flag has Deen set.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a method of remotely inspecting a postage meter having a memory including the steps of: sensing attempts to tamper with the postage meter; setting a flag in the postage meter memory in response to the sensing of meter tampering; and printing with the postage meter an indicia having tells after a flag has been set in the memory. Preferably said method further includes the steps of sending a mail piece from a central station to the user location of the postage meter, printing an indicia on the mail piece with the postage meter and returning the mail piece to the central station.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a system for inspecting postage meters remotely, comprising: a central station, at least one postage meter, means for placing said postage meter in communication with said central station, means for sensing postage meter tampering, whereby upon said central station communicating with said meter said central station is provided with an indication of the sensing of any attempt of tampering with said postage meter. Preferably said means for placing said postage meter in communication is a mail piece.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a system for inspecting postage meters remotely, comprising: a central station, at least one postage meter, said postage meter having a memory and at least one sensor in communication with said memory, said sensor being associated with a component of said meter, said sensor being operative to provide a signal upon sensing tampering with said component, means for placing said postage meter in communication with said central station, means for storing in said memory said signal provided by said sensor, whereby upon said central station communicating with said meter access to said memory will provide to said central station an indication of any attempt of tampering with said component of said postage meter.

Further aspects will be apparent from the following description, which is by way of example only and in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a remote postage meter inspection system, and Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment for a remote postage meter inspection system.

A remote postage meter inspection system has been devised whereby a postage meter may be programmed to indicate the occurrence of any tampering or attempt to obtain unauthorised postage. A postage meter is supplied with sensors that would be electronically polled periodically through a communication link. When an act of tampering has bcen indicated, then the meter would be either inspected physically or removed. An alternative embodiment to this would be to have a postcard imprinted with the postage indicia by each meter with "tells" to indicate the occurrence of tampering. The system may thus reduce the need for on site inspection.

Referring to Fig. 1, a preferred embodiment wi.! be described that allows the ins@ection of a postage meter remotely. Such a ramote postage meter inspection system is s@own generally at @@ and @o@uses a central st@tion @@. @ @s c@ontral station 12 may @@ @@th@ @ @@@ @@ @ the office of a postage meter manu@acturer Inc@uded wi@@@ @@e central station 12 is a processor 14 that is in communication @@@@ a memory 16.

This memory 10 would include all the postage meters that are to be serviced by the central processing station 12 and would contain information such as a meter number or customer number, the date of last inspection, the name of the user and any other pertinent information such as any history of prior tampering. By tampering is meant any activity that appears to involve the obtaining of fraudulent postage, i.e.

the applying of postage to a mail piece without paying or accounting for the same. Also connected to the processor 14 would be a second memory 18 wherein a record of meters that are to be inspected for any given period would be stored.

Obviously, these two memories 16,18 could be combined into one if so desired. The central processor 14 is in communication with a communication link or port such as a modem 20 which in turn is in communication with å communication device such as a telephone 22. A postage meter user location 24 would include a communicaticn port, such as a modem 26, that would provide connection between the telephone 22 and a CPU 28. When a postage meter at the user location 24 is to be inspected, communication would be made with the user location by telephone 22 through the modem 26. Alternatvely, an inspection may be mace simultaneously when remotely recharging a postage meter by having tampering information sent automatically to the central station 12.

The CPU 28 is electrically connected to an electronic postage meter 30 which has a CPU 32 and a memory 3e communicating directly with the CPU of the postage meter.

Although this embodiment shows only one postage meteor 30 in communication with the CPU 28, it will be appreciated that a plurality of postage meters may be connected to the CPU 28 in network fashion. The postage meter 30 has a number of sensors 36 that are in contact with the memory 34. Any attempt of tampering would be sensed by the sensors 36, which, in turn, would communicate such sensing to the memory 34 where a flag would be set. Upon command, the memory 34 would be accessed and a determination made whether a flag had been set which would be an indication of tampering.

Such accessing could take place in accordance during powerup of the postage meter 30.

With such a system 10, a number of meters wc:d be assigned for inspection during any given period and each group of meters to be inspected would be supplied tnrough the memory 16. The central station 12 would then be in touch with the user station 24 indicating that inspection is to take place. The processor 14 of the central station 12 would then directly contact the CPU 32 of the postage meter 30 without any intervention or interference on the part of the user. The memory 34 of the postage meter 30 would be scanned to determine if any of the sensors 36 sensed any unusual activity. For example, if an attempt had been made to remove the postage meter cover or a break off screw is broken, an appropriate signal would be received by the central station 12.Another check to be made is whether the sum of the ascending and descending registers equals the control sum. If any indication of tampering is received, a message would be sent to the memory 18 and the meter 30 would be disabled upon com-m.and of the processor 14. A print cut would show all the postage meters 30 that di n ass the electronic inspection an each of these wo" physically inspected. Additionally, the fact that a physcal inspection was rewired for a meter would be stored in the memory 18 so that if a large number of inspections were required over a predetermined period, the meter could either be replaced or the user questioned as to the reason for the frequency of such physical inspection requirernent.

Referring now to Fig. 2, an alternate embodiment of the invention will be described. A central station 40, which again may be either a Post Office or a postage meter manufacturer, includes a computer data base 42 which stores the postage meter information, a printer station 44 and a scanner 46. Periodically, the computer data base 42 will cause the printer station 44 to send a mail piece such as a post card 47 to one of a number of customer or user locations 48. The post card 47 would be received by the postage meter user and a postage indicia would be printed by the users postage meter 50. The user's postage meter 50 would be programmed so that any tampering would be sensed by sensors 36 and these sensors would send an appropriate signal to the memory 52. In response to these signals, the memory would cause alterations in the postage indicia, each alteration being indicative of a particular sensor. Postage meters having printers capable of variable print; and capable of producing an altered indicia are shown ana described in our Published European Patent Application Nos.

0 131 964 and 0 154 972. The alterations in the pattern o printing by the postage meter are referred to as @ tells'.

A " tell" may be a modified indicia, number, letter, bar code and the like. The postage meter 50 would print a postage indicia with tell@ if any sensor indicated that tampering had taken place cr if the sum of the ascending and descending registers did not equal the control sum. The post card 47 printed with the appropriate postage indicia would ten be returned to the central station 40 and scanned by the scanner 46. If the scanner finds that there has been any tampering, this would be communicated to the computer data base 42 and the central station operator would cause a physical inspection to take place. If no inspection is required, this would also be communicated to te memory of the data base 42.

Claims (3)

1. A system for inspecting postage meters remotely, comprising: a central station, at least one postage meter, means for placing said postage meter in communication with said central station, means for sensing postage meter tampering, whereby upon said central station communicating with said meter said central station is provided with an indication of the sensing of any attempt of tampering with said postage meter.

2. A system according to claim 1 in which said means for placing said postage meter in communication is a mail pierce, e.g. a postcard.

3. system according to claim 1 in which a computer at the central station and a computer in the postage meter are placed in communication via respective modems and a telephone line.