GB2380823A

GB2380823A - Geographically remote mailing of computer generated greetings cards

Info

Publication number: GB2380823A
Application number: GB0124435A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ray George
Original assignee: PFE International Ltd
Current assignee: PFE International Ltd
Priority date: 2001-10-11
Filing date: 2001-10-11
Publication date: 2003-04-16
Also published as: GB0124435D0

Abstract

Apparatus for composition and dispatch of personal greetings cards, comprising: a plurality of input stations at disparate input locations distributed over a geographical area; each input station comprising a computer input terminal having access to computer software capable of compiling a customised greetings card in electronic form, under control of a user of the input terminal, a plurality of output stations at output disparate locations over a geographical area; each output station comprising a computer output terminal, a local printer connected to the output terminal, and means for inserting printed material into envelopes and means for addressing the envelopes with an appropriate intended recipient's mailing address, the input stations being linked to the output stations.

Description

GREETINGS CARDS DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to greetings cards, particularly to an apparatus and a method for designing and delivering greetings cards.

Greetings cards are traditionally sent to friends and relatives to mark anniversaries such as birthdays and public events such as Christmas. They are usually purchased from dedicated retail outlets in the form of single fold sheets of stiff paper or thin cardboard, typically with a graphic representation on the front external side, ie side one, and a longer felicitation on an internal side, particularly side three.

Optionally a brief message such as"Happy Birthday"may be incorporated on the front side. The internal felicitation is often a verse. The purchaser of the greetings card usually adds a personal message to side three including his name, inserts the card in an envelope, addresses the envelope to the intended recipient, adds a stamp and entrusts the whole to a mail delivery system.

This process is time consuming. The sender must remember the anniversary several days in advance in order to visit the retail outlet, choose a card, sign it, address it, mail it and the mailing must be done in good time for the mail delivery system to transport the card to the intended recipient. If the recipient is a considerable distance away, particularly in a different country, then considerable uncertainty arises in estimating the exact day of delivery and it can be equally unsatisfactory to have the card delivered early as it is to have it delivered late.

In addition such greetings cards are inevitably mass produced and thus are seldom adequately personalised for

particular occasions.

In recent years, with increasing use of the Internet, on- line electronic greeting messages have been tried. However, these messages which appear as text messages to mobile telephones or over e-mail systems on the screen of a recipient's computer, are not universally popular since they cannot be displayed in the traditional way, for example along a mantelpiece, unless they are printed out by the recipient. This depends upon the recipient having a quality printer and a supply of quality paper or card.

Also electronic messages do not have the same personal aura as printed cards received in sealed envelopes through the mail.

The present invention aims to provide an improved system and apparatus for sending greetings cards.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for composition and dispatch of personal greetings cards, comprising: a plurality of input stations at disparate input locations distributed over a geographical area; each input station comprising a computer input terminal having access to computer software capable of compiling a customised greetings card in electronic form, under control of a user of the input terminal, a plurality of output stations at disparate output locations over a geographical area; each output station comprising a computer output terminal, a local printer connected to the output terminal, and means for inserting printed material into envelopes and means for addressing the envelopes with an appropriate intended recipient's mailing address, the input stations being linked to the output stations.

The input station may be linked to the output stations by dedicated telephone lines or by the Internet or other large area or global communication system.

Preferably each output station comprises integrated printer-

mailer apparatus capable of printing the card, folding the card, printing the address on an envelope and inserting the card in the appropriate envelope. In one embodiment each output station is also capable of adhering a postage stamp or a mail franking identity mark onto the envelopes.

According to a particular preferred embodiment the apparatus comprises means for inserting additional material in an envelope.

For example personal photographs could be selected by the sender or scanned into the input terminal or generated at the input terminal for example by ise of a web-cam type camera. Personal photographs in the form of digital images could be uploaded directly from a digital camera or a memory module therefrom. Other personal memorabilia could also or alternatively be scanned in or digitally uploaded at the input station. Such personal photographs or other personal memorabilia could be incorporated into the customised greetings card itself, for example as part of the cover or the inside greetings sheet. In additional gift vouchers could be added. These would be for selected retail outlets or other commercial enterprises such as flower delivery organisations, or health clubs and spas, or transport providers, such as airline companies or travel agents. Such vouchers could be printed at the printing station, optionally with a unique two dimensional barcode to authenticate it, or a stock of appropriate vouchers could be held in the output station and selected appropriately. Alternatively several different output stations could be used and selected according to the particular voucher selected so that any one station need only stock one particular type of voucher. For example each retail outlet or commercial enterprise offering vouchers in this manner could establish their own output station and store only their own dedicated vouchers.

The voucher selected by the customer would then determine the output station to which the electronic messages are sent to be printed and dispatched as the finished card. This would enable the commercial enterprises to closely control and monitor their

own vouchers.

Payment for the card, and the voucher if applicable, can be made electronically at the input terminal, and a receipt for the transaction can automatically be issued to the customer with full details of the articles purchased and the intended recipient's address.

This system has the advantage that the customer can personalise the greetings card to be dispatched to an almost infinite extent, and the finished product need not rely on long distance physical postal services because it can be transmitted to a relatively local output station to be mailed. Yet the finished product will arrive on time in a personal and private envelope.

Of course postal services other than the national systems could also be used, for example courier services.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method for composing and dispatching greetings cards comprising: providing an input computer terminal to enable a user to select graphic and textual elements to compose a greetings card, in electronic form, and enter personal details including the intended recipient's address, selecting an output terminal in dependence upon the geographical area in which the intended recipient's address is located, transmitting the composed greetings card and the personal details in electronic form to the selected output terminal, printing the transmitted electronic details at the output terminal, as a greetings card and an addressed envelope.

Optionally additional inserts such as commercial vouchers and photographs may be inserted in the envelope.

The envelope is then delivered to the recipient's address using land based delivery systems, eg a local mail service or courier service.

For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a system according to the present invention showing an input station and an output station; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of an output station for use in the system of figure 1; In figure 1 an input station 1 is shown communicating via a remote connection 2 to an output station 3.

The input station 1 comprises a computer terminal 4 with a screen 5 and input devices comprising a keyboard 6, a mouse 7, and a CD Rom or DVD drive 30.

Optionally other input devices may be connected, such as a scanner or a digital camera.

An output line 8 may be a LAN cable supplied from a network card in the computer, or a telephone line cable supplied from an internal or peripheral modem. Other alternatives will be easily identified by persons skilled in the art and appropriate new forms of communication systems would naturally be utilised as and when they become available.

The remote connection 2 may be a dedicated line, such as a leased telecommunications line, or it may be a form of shared line such as an open telephone line (standard or ISDN or ADSL) on a dial-up connection. Alternatively it may be an Internet or

e-mail connection.

The output station 3 comprises a printer 9 with a first storage hopper 10 for cards, and a second storage hopper 11 for envelopes. The printer will print appropriate graphics on the card and an appropriate address on the envelope as indicated by the message received from the input station 1 over the link 2.

The printed cards exit from the printer 9 along conveyor path 12 to a folding machine 13 where they are folded in an appropriate manner for the particular card design. This will usually be to feld the card in half along a centre line. The printed envelopes are diverted along a conveyor path 14. Both cards and envelopes arrive at an inserter machine 15 at coordinated time intervals. The card is inserted into the appropriate envelope, sealed, and temporarily stored in outgoing hopper 16. The coordination of the sections of the output station may be controlled by a microprocessor.

The sealed addressed envelopes containing cards are then placed into the care of a relatively local terrestrial postal system indicated at 17, to be sorted and delivered to relevant buildings as represented by house 18. The postal system may be a courier service.

Figure 2 shows an alternative arrangement for the output station 3. In this embodiment there is a card printer 19 having a card hopper 20. However the envelopes are printed separately in envelope printer 21 with its own envelope hopper 22. The printed cards from card printer 19 are fed to folding machine 23 and thence, along conveyor 24 to inserter 25. The printed envelopes from the envelope printer 21 are fed to the inserter 25 via conveyor 26. The inserter 25 puts the folded cards into appropriate envelopes and temporarily stores the completed articles in an outgoing hopper 27 to be dispatched via a terrestrial postal system as in the system of figure 1.

In this second embodiment the incoming signal from the input station 1 is split, as indicated by lines 28 and 29, so that appropriate instructions are received by the card printer 19 and the envelope printer 21.

Coordination between the printers can be achieved by software routines built into the system or for example by careful timing routines. Alternatively positive identifying marks such as bar codes or other indicia could be used to ensure that the correct envelope receives the correct card, and any other inserts instructed at the input station.

Of course a plurality of input and output stations is envisaged but only one of each is shown in figure 1 for ease of reference.

The input station may be a PC in the user's own premises, or a dedicated terminal unit, usually based on PC technology, in a public location such as a post office, a retail outlet, a railway station, an airport, a motorway service station, or any other suitable location, particularly where there is access to the Internet or other telecommunications lines.

The images and text chosen by the user at the input station can be chosen from a library of pre-defined images and texts which may be stored on the hard disc of the PC, or on other storage media such as CD-ROM, floppy discs, zip drive cartridges, or from websites downloaded over the Internet. Personalised images could be incorporated using an optical scanner or a webcam or a digital download port for receiving images from a digital camera. Personalised text can be input using a keyboard as shown at 6 in figure 1.

The output station printer will preferably be a full colour,

high quality printer capable of printing card on both sides. It may be capable of handling card or paper at the same time as envelopes, as shown in figure 1 (such a system is known from GB 2 335 421). Envelopes may be printed in colour with images in addition to receiving the address text. The output printer may also be capable of printing vouchers of selected brands and values.

The inserter may be of known type as described in GB ; To send a card using this process the following steps may be taken : 1. The user logs on to a website offering this service from his own PC at home or in the office or in an Internet cafe, or from a dedicated terminal in a commercial outlet, 2. He requests an image from a library of images, and/or uploads a personalised image from his own CD, 3. He selects a textual greeting from a selection of greetings, 4. He enters the recipient name and address to be printed on the envelope, 6. enters his own name and address to be printed onto the envelope, 7. enters a personal greeting, 8. optionally selects a voucher, choosing brand and value, 9. authorises payment, either on-line by credit or debit card or another form of credit, 9. after a checking procedure, the details are transmitted electronically to the printing station nearest to the recipient's home address, 10. a receipt is printed on the input terminal printer, 11. the card and envelope are printed in full colour, 12. the card is folded if necessary and inserted into the envelope together with any additional material such as retail vouchers,

13. the enveloped card is put into the local mail delivery service or other postal delivery system.

14. the user logs off the input station.

Claims

1. Apparatus for composition and dispatch of personal greetings cards comprising: a plurality of input stations at disparate input locations distributed over a geographical area; each input station comprising a computer input terminal having access to computer software capable of compiling a customised greetings card in electronic form under control of a user of the input terminal, a plurality of output stations at disparate output location. over a geographical area; each output station comprising a computer output terminal, a local printer connected to the output terminal, and means for inserting printed material into envelopes and means for addressing the envelopes with an appropriate intended recipient's mailing address, the input stations being linked to the output stations.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the input stations are linked to the output stations via the Internet.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the input stations are linked to the output stations via a dedicated telephone line.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1,2 or 3 wherein each output station comprises an integrated printer-mailer apparatus capable of printing the card, folding the card, printing the address on an envelope and inserting the card in the appropriate envelope.

5. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein each input station comprises means for inserting additional material in the envelope.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein each input station further comprises means for enabily the user to input said additional material.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6 comprising a scanner at each input station for convesting personal memorabilia into additional material in digital format.

8. Apparatus according to claim 5 or 7 comprising a forming a personal image of the user to provide at least part of additional material.

9. Apparatus according to claims 6,7 or 8 wherein each input station comprises an input part for receiving data from a digital camera or a memory module of a digital camera.

10. Apparatus according to any are of claims 6 to 9 comprising a CD Rom drive for transferring data from a CD Rom, supplied or chosen by a user, into digital format to form at least part of said additional material.

11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein each input station comprises means for taking payment from the user for the card.

12. An apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to figure 1 or figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.

13. A method for composing and dispatching greetings cards comprising: providing an input computer terminal to enable a user to select graphic and textual elements to compose a greetings card, in electronic form, and enter personal details including the intended recipient's address, selecting an output terminal in dependence upon the geographical area in which the intended recipient's address is located, transmitting the composed greetings card and the personal details in electronic form to the selected output terminal, printing the transmitted electronic details at the output terminal, as a greetings card and an

addressed envelope.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the output station is chosen to be the output station within a predetermined distance from the recipient's address.

15. A method according to claim 13 or claim 14 comprising the step of inserting additional material in the envelope at the output station.

16. A mettod substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to figure 1 or figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.