JP2001078875A - Postal item remote monitor apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a delivery item remote monitor apparatus which automatically announces whether or not there are delivery items in mailboxes to users. SOLUTION: The mailboxes 10, 20,..., n0 are provided with light emitting element 11, 21,..., n1 and light receiving element 12, 22,..., n2. The selection identification codes of the users of the mailboxes and information are delivered from a signal transmitter 14 by the signals outputted from a monitor section 13 in accordance with the signals outputted from the light receiving elements 12, 22,..., n2 of the mailboxes into which postal items are put. Signal receivers 17, 27,..., n7 corresponding to the selection identification codes display the contents of the received signal on displays of display sections 18, 28,..., n8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail remote monitoring device for automatically notifying a user of the presence or absence of a delivery in a post office or other post office box or in a personal mailbox in an apartment house.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a user who has provided a post office box at a post office or the like and has received mails directly goes to the post office and opens the post office box in order to know whether there is mail. I was checking for mail. In general, apartments and other condominiums are generally provided with mailboxes for each resident collectively near the entrance on the first floor of the condominium. He went down to the first floor and opened the mailbox to see if there was a delivery.

[0003]

However, usually,
Mails are mailed from unspecified senders as needed. Therefore, when a user of a post office box goes to a post office located in a remote place to receive mail, it is wasteful if there is no mail if going to the post office regularly, and if going to the post office at any time, it is useless. Even if there is something, it may not be received, which delays the acquisition of information from the sender. Also, in the case of a mailbox in a multi-family house, you must receive the delivery when returning home from home, or otherwise go down to the first floor to check the delivery and receive it, regardless of the presence or absence of the delivery. . As mentioned above, checking for the presence of mail or other deliveries that are not delivered directly to your home can be tedious or wasteful,
There was a problem that it was very troublesome. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a mail remote monitoring device that automatically notifies a user whether or not there is a delivery in a mail box. .

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mail remote monitoring device, wherein a light emitting element and a light receiving element are provided inside a mail box, and a delivery is delivered to the mail box by a signal from the light receiving element. Monitoring means for monitoring the arrival of, wireless communication means for notifying the arrival of the delivery based on the signal from the monitoring means, receiving means for receiving a signal from the wireless communication means, And notifying means for notifying the user of the arrival of the delivery based on the received signal. Further, in the mail remote monitoring device according to claim 2, a light emitting element and a light receiving element are provided inside the mail box, and a monitoring means for monitoring arrival of a delivery to the mail box by a signal from the light receiving element, and the monitoring means Transmitting means for notifying the arrival of a delivery based on a signal from the receiver, receiving means for receiving a signal from the transmitting means via a telephone line, and utilizing arrival of the delivery based on a reception signal from the receiving means. And notification means for notifying the user.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a mail remote monitoring device according to the present invention. The monitoring device example is applied to monitoring of a plurality of mail boxes in an apartment house. As shown in the figure, mail boxes for residents 10, 20,..., N0 (n = 1, 2,
,..., Etc.), light-emitting elements 11, 21,..., N1 for emitting optical signals and light-receiving elements for receiving optical signals corresponding to the light-emitting elements 11, 21,. , N2, and a monitoring unit 13 which is line-connected to the light receiving elements 12, 22,... N2 and monitors signals output from the light receiving elements 12, 22,. In addition, a transmitter 14 using a weak radio wave or a specific low-power radio that does not require a facility license for selectively transmitting the monitoring result of the monitoring unit 13 to a specific receiver and a transmission antenna 15 are installed. In addition, when the resident transmits the transmitter 14
, N6, and receivers 17, 27, which receive signals only when called from the transmitter 14, to receive the monitoring results reported by
.., N7 and display units 18, 28,..., N8 for displaying the reception contents of the receivers 17, 27,.
Is installed. Then, the mailbox, the receiving antenna, the receiver, and the display unit having the same code of the value of n are respectively allocated to a specific resident exclusively. In the above configuration, as an example, a case where a delivery is put in the mail box 10 will be described below.

Normally, in a standby state where there is no delivery in the mail box 10, an optical signal radiated from the light emitting element 11 is received by the light receiving element 12 as it is, and an OFF signal is sent from the light receiving element 12 through a dedicated line. It is output to the monitoring unit 13. When the signal to the monitoring unit 13 is OFF, the output from the monitoring unit 13 to the transmitter 14 is OFF,
The transmitter 14 is in a non-operating state. Now, when a delivery is put in the mail box 10, the light signal radiated from the light emitting element 11 is interrupted in the transmission space by the delivery, so that it does not reach the light receiving element 12. At this time, the monitoring unit 1
The signal output to 3 changes from OFF to ON. The monitoring unit 13 receiving the ON signal from the light receiving element 12
A signal notifying that the delivery has entered the mailbox and the code of the mailbox 10 is output to the transmitter 14 for a predetermined time. Upon receiving this signal, the transmitter 14 transmits the signal to the receiver 17 corresponding to the mailbox 10 via the transmission antenna 15.
And a signal notifying that the delivery has arrived are transmitted for a predetermined time.

[0007] The signal transmitted from the transmitter 14 can be received only by the receiver 17 by the selection identification code, and the receiver 17 outputs to the display section 18 a signal indicating that the delivery has arrived. The display unit 18 displays the arrival of the mail on a display to notify the user.
This display continues to be displayed until the user resets it.
When the user opens the mailbox 10 and takes out the delivery, the light receiving element 12 receives the optical signal from the light emitting element 11 again, and the monitoring state of the mailbox 10 returns to the standby state.

The operation of the other mail boxes 20,..., N0 is the same as that of the above-described mail box 10. When a delivery is continuously placed in a plurality of mailboxes, a light receiving element provided in each of the mailboxes causes an O.D.
N signals are sent to the monitoring unit 1 via dedicated lines.
3 is output. At this time, the monitoring unit 13 outputs a signal of a combination of the delivery in the mailbox and the code of the mailbox in which the delivery has entered, to the transmitter 14 for a predetermined time. Upon receiving this signal, the transmitter 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a signal which is a combination of a code for selectively identifying a receiver corresponding to each mail box and a signal indicating that a delivery has arrived, which is continuously transmitted through the transmission antenna 15 for a predetermined time. .

The signal transmitted from the transmitter 14 can be received only by the corresponding receiver by the selection identification code, and each receiver outputs a signal notifying that the delivery has arrived to the display unit. The display unit notifies the user of the arrival of the mail by displaying it on a display. Then, when the user opens the mailbox and takes out the delivery, the light receiving element receives the optical signal from the light emitting element again, and the monitoring state of the mailbox returns to the standby state.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a modified embodiment of the mail remote monitoring apparatus according to the present invention. This monitoring apparatus is applied to monitoring a plurality of post office boxes installed in a post office. Is the case. As shown in FIG.
Post office boxes at post office 100, 200, m00
(M = 1, 2, 3,..., Etc.), light emitting elements 101, 201,... M01 and optical signals corresponding to the light emitting elements 101, 201,. , M02 for receiving light are provided. Further, each of the light receiving elements 102, 202,.
A monitoring unit 103 for monitoring signals output from m2 and outputting the monitoring results is provided. The monitoring unit 1
The monitoring result of 03 is transmitted to the PO boxes 100, 200,.
Wireless pager receivers (hereinafter referred to as pagers) 105, 205,..., m05 carried by the user of m00
Sent to The post office box and the pager having the same code as the value of m in the above-described configuration are each exclusively assigned to a specific user.

In the above configuration, the post office boxes 100, 20
.., M01 (m = 1, 2, 3,..., Etc.), light-emitting elements 101, 201,.
The operations of 2, 202,..., M02 correspond to the light-emitting elements 11, 21,..., N1 of the mailboxes 10, 20,. Since the operation is the same as that of the elements 12, 22,..., N2, the description is omitted. In FIG. 2, the monitoring unit 103, which has received the ON signal from the light receiving element 102 when a mail is put in the post office box 101, for example, is in the standby state, is in a standby state.
4 automatically makes an outgoing call to the PO Box 10
PO Box 1 for pager 106 carried by user 0
01, a message indicating that the mail has arrived. The pager 106 that has received the calling signal from the wireless calling system displays the message to notify the user that the mail has arrived.

When mails are successively placed in a plurality of post-office boxes, the monitoring unit 103 automatically performs a calling operation to the wireless calling system 104 via a telephone line, and the mails are received. The pager carried by the user of the inserted PO Box is called in sequence, and a message indicating that the mail has arrived at the PO Box is transmitted. As described above, when the user who has received the information that the mail has arrived at the post office box by the pager goes to the post office and takes out the mail from the post office box, the monitoring state of the post office box becomes a standby state.

In the configuration of FIG. 2, the information that the mail has arrived is transmitted by a pager in the radio paging system 104 via a telephone line as a receiving means.
It goes without saying that a mobile phone carried by the user can be used as the receiving means instead of the pager, and electronic mail by a personal computer owned by the user can be used as the transmitting means.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a remote monitoring device for automatically notifying that a delivery such as mail has been delivered to a mailbox or a post office box. Therefore, the inconvenience of not going to open the mail box or post office box even though the mail has not been delivered, and the inconvenience of not receiving the mail despite the presence of the mail, have been solved. If the mobile phone is a pager or a mobile phone, it is possible to know that the mail has arrived even at an outside place, so that there is a remarkable effect that the trouble of once returning home and returning to the post office to receive the mail is eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a mail remote monitoring device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing another modified embodiment of the mail remote monitoring device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

20 ・ ・ 、 n0 ・ ・ Mailbox 、 11、21 ・ ・ 、 n1 ・
.Light-emitting element, 12, 22,..., N2.
..Monitoring unit, 14 transmitter, 15 transmitting antenna,
16, 26..., N6... Receiving antennas, 17, 2
7, ..., n7 ... receiver, 18, 28, ..., n8 ... display unit, 200 ..., m00 ... post office box, 201 ..., m
01 ··· Light-emitting element, 202 ···, m02 light-receiving element, 10
3. monitoring unit, 104, paging system via telephone line, 205, m05, paging system receiver

Claims (2)

[Claims] A light emitting element and a light receiving element are provided inside a mail box, a monitoring means for monitoring the arrival of a delivery to the mail box by a signal from the light receiving element, and a delivery method based on a signal from the monitoring means. Wireless communication means for notifying arrival, receiving means for receiving a signal from the wireless communication means, and notifying means for notifying a user of arrival of a delivery based on a signal received from the receiving means. Mail remote monitoring device. 2. A light-emitting element and a light-receiving element are provided inside a mailbox, monitoring means for monitoring arrival of a delivery to the mailbox by a signal from the light-receiving element, and a delivery unit based on a signal from the monitoring means. Transmission means for notifying arrival, reception means for receiving a signal from the transmission means via a telephone line, and notification means for notifying a user of arrival of a delivery based on a reception signal from the reception means. A mail remote monitoring device characterized by the following: