WO1999025488A1 - Alphanumeric postcode matrix for automated mail sorting systems - Google Patents

Abstract

An alphanumerical postcode matrix for automated optical reading systems comprising 'n' columns and 'm' lines, to be affixed to or preprinted on the envelope, wherein users, by filling in, crossing, scratching or otherwise emphasizing the boxes, according to a logical predetermined sequence, may univocally indicate the addressee's postcode in such a manner as to make it legible for the optical reading or other character recognition system.

Description

Alphanumeric postcode matrix for automated mail sorting systems

Technical Field

This invention relates to a matrix for accurately and easily indicating an alphanumerical postcode by the users, enabling the fast, accurate and

univocal reading of the postcode by the present automated optical mail-

sorting machines. Background of art

The mail delivery service is of vital importance for any nation.

The faster, more reliable, state of the art and optimized the resources

used, the more frequently and trustfully the service will be used by

domestic and foreign users, increasing the amount of mail entrusted to

the postal service, and therefore its profitability, as well as contributing to

the improvement of the country's image abroad.

One of the main problems related to mail delivery is "sorting" the mail as

fastly and accurately as possible, so that it may be forwarded to its

destinations. Sorting consists in selecting and dividing the mail according

to the postcode.

Another serious problem is related to the capacity to automatically

measure and store (therefore, accurately and in real time) the actual mail flows, so that the postal service may effectively acquire the necessary

information to control the flows and optimize the available resources.

The current progress of electronics and computer technology has made it

possible to automate most mail sorting operations, thus reducing delivery

times, improving efficiency and considerably cutting costs, so that the post office workers may do more gratifying work, with a greater added

value for the post office.

Obviously, the automation of the mail sorting operations requires the

involvement and active collaboration of the post office staff, as well as the financial, management and information effort by the Post Office.

The fast and accurate sorting of mail, in fact, which may be achieved by

means of the improved use of the automated systems and the operators,

depends on whether or not the sender writers the correct postcode on the

envelope.

Post office users wrongly think that the correct writing of the postcode is

no guarantee for a faster and/or safer mail delivery service.

It is a widespread conviction that relatively important mail should not be

entrusted to the postal service but to alternative delivery services, many

of which have no connection with the Post Office and have flourished as a

consequence of the true or alleged shortcomings of the postal service.

Evidence of this is the fact that in many cases the postcode is either

missing, incomplete or illegible, or written in the wrong place on the

envelope. For a long time now optical sorting machines have been installed at the mail sorting offices, capable of automatically reading the postcode. These machines are currently obliged to discard a large number of letters, which must then be sorted by hand, with longer delivery times, the Post

Office workers growing distrust in the effectiveness of mechanical means,

and increased expenditure for the Post Office.

Hence, it is extremely important that the postcode be correctly written and legible, to improve the mail sorting speed, guarantee a safe delivery,

cut costs and, in brief, improve the overall efficiency and the image of the

Post Office.

For this purpose, the Post Office could use and "propagate" the use of the innovatory technologies and devices referred to in this invention, to

promote and also to "psychologically" convince users that if they write

the postcode accurately and legibly their mail will "inderogably" be

sorted by state of the art automatic systems and delivered speedily and

safely.

At the same time, users may also be suitably "informed" that if the

postcode is incomplete or inexact, this will "inevitably" impair the

security and/or speed of delivery of thier mail.

Besides the use of the innovatory technologies and devices referred to

here, combined with the correct writing of the postcode and the

consequent "certainty" of its being optically read and automatically

sorted, could easily activate further "arrangements", aimed both to optimize the postal service and to aquire and aggregate, in real time,

quantitative and qualitative information on the actual mail flows.

Following are several examples of such "arrangements":

■ the use of conventional signs for the sender's country (printed on the

stamp);

■ the use of conventional signs for the country of destination

(emphasized by the sender);

■ the use of conventional signs for the type of postal service, e. g. express

mail, airmail, etc. (preprinted or emphasized by the sender);

■ the use of customized signs for special, institutional, etc. users (preprinted or produced by a computer).

These innovatory technologies and arrangements could be used in parallel and/or be integrated with the currently used systems.

Besides, the present prepaid postage systems can be easily adapted to the aforementioned innovatory technologies and arrangements.

Lastly, it would be expedient to propose these innovatory technologies

and arrangements internationally, so that they may become an accepted

standard in the largest possible number of countries.

This invention is based on the following key consideration: given the

importance and legibility of postcodes for the purpose of correctly

delivering the mail, it is necessary to use the technologies and propose

new arrangements, always present and easy to use, obliging users to write

the postcode correctly in the appropriate space, so that it may be automatically read with absolute certainty by the automated mail-sorting machines.

Disclosure of invention

This invention relates to a matrix for accurately and easily indicating an alphanumerical postcode by the users, enabling the fast, accurate and univocal reading of the postcode by the present automated optical mail- sorting machines.

The use and propagation of this invention, coupled with a suitable information campaign by the Post Office illustrating its qualities and advantages, will encourage and help users to write the postcodes correctly and in the appropriate place, so that they may be effectively recognized and read by the automated optical mail-sorting machines. Another object of this invention, whatever the embodiment, is to gather in a single element some or all of the information required to speed up the mail-sorting operations. The element may include the aforementioned matrix, the postage stamp, the "optical pointers", and such information as the handwritten postcode, the country of the sender, the country of

destination, the postal service required by the sender (e.g., express mail, airmail etc.), and customized signs for special, institutional, etc. users.

All this information will consist of conventional signs printed, handwritten and/or emphasized by the user, and which may be easily identified and interpreted without mistakes by the known optical reading

systems. This invention relates to an alphanumerical matrix, which in the

preferred embodiment is composed of "n" lines and "m" columns, to be

affixed to the envelope in a known form, for example: stamped, glued,

applied as a transfer, preprinted or computer printed.

Users will be required to write the addressee's postcode in the

appropriate boxes and /or emphasize, according to a logical sequence, the

boxes containing the appropriate letters and/ornumbers forming the

postcode, for example, by simply crossing, filling in or scratching them, to

disclose the underlying number, letter or sign. The matrix is also

provided, in certain places, with specific marks called "optical pointers",

for the fast and certain identification by the known optical reading

systems.

The matrix may be completed with appropriate spaces for indicating the

sender's country, the counttry of destination and the required postal

service (e.g., express mail, airmail, etc.), and/or customized signs for

special, institutional, etc. users. This additional information may be

provided either with preprinted conventional signs or computer printed,

or by means of boxes which the user must emphasize, by either crossing,

filling in or scratching them to disclose the underlying number, letter or sign.

In another embodiment, the matrix may be either part of or otherwise

attached to the postage stamp, so that regardless of how the postage

stamp is affixed onto the envelope, the user has a matrix for writing or emphasizing the addressee's postcode, as well as the boxes for the country of destination and/or the type of service required.

Brief description of drawings

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of

example, with reference to the accompanying drwing in which:

Figure 1 shows two examples of a blank vertical-line matrix.

Figure 2 shows two examples of a completed vertical matrix.

Figure 3 shows three examples of a blank horizontal-line matrix, with the

accessory information and signs, either part of or attached to the stamp.

Figure 4 shows three examples similar to figure 3, but of the vertical-line

type.

Figure S shows two examples of the possible application of this invention, with spaces only for writing the postcode and the sign of the required

service, as either part of or attached to the postage stamp.

Figure 6 shows two examples of a possible application, with spaces for

writing the postcode, the boxes for the country of destination and the sign

of the required postal service, as either part of or attached to the postage

stamp.

Best mode for earring out the invention

Referring to the drawing, the alphanumerical postcode matrix for

automated optical reading systems comprises (see figs. 1 and 2) "n" lines

(1) and "m" columns (2), regardless of how they are affixed to the

envelope. Figure 1 shows two examples of a blank vertical-line matrix, comprising

10 lines and 5 columns, for emphasizing the 5-number postcode used in

Italy.

In both the examples shown in fig. 1 there is an extra line at the top with 5 blank spaces for write out the addressees postcode by hand, as a further

guarantee.

Int he example shown in fig. 1, in an extra column on the left hand side

there is a sequence of numbers from 0 to 9 and each of the corresponding

lines comprises 5 blank boxes, whixh must be appropriately emphasized to compose the postcode.

In the right-hand example of fig. 1, the numbers from 0 to 9 are

preprinted in all the columns, whereby each of the 10 corresponding lines comprises 5 boxes containing the number of that line, which number

must be appropriately emphasized to compose the postcode.

Figure 2 shows the same example as fig. 1, where the user has either

written out the postcode 00178 in the blank boxes at the top, and beneath

by crossing with an X the appropriate boxes corresponding to the

postcode: the first two boxes of the line 0, the third box of the line 1, the

fourth box of the line 7 and the fifth box of the line 8.

The optical reading of the postcode, composed of a matrix such as the one

shown in the drawing, is fast, simple and univocal, thus minimizing any

errors by the mail sorting-machine.

As previously mentioned, the matrix may be completed by means of

appropriate marks called "optical pointers" (3), which are given by way of example in figs. 3,4,5 and 6, and which may be accurately located and

automatically identified by the optical reading system with which the

automated mail-sorting machines are equipped.

Figure 3 shows three examples of a blank horizontal matrix, the first two

being part of and the third attached to the postage stamp, complete with

the additional information and signs.

Figure 4 shows three examples of a blank vertical matrix, the first two

being part of and the third attached to the postage stamp, complete with

the additional information and signs.

In figs. 3 and 4 the various matrix components are arranged differently,

to illustrate how easily the invention may be adapted to different

application environments.

Figs., 3 an 4 show: an example of "optical pointer" (3), a sector (4)

containing the abbreviations of various foreign countries, crossing one of

the boxes the user may indicate the country of destination of the letter, a

sector (5) containing the actual postcode matrix, a sector (6) containing

blank boxes for writing out the addressee's postcode and a sector (7) for

selecting the required postal service.

Figure 5 shows two examples of a simplified matrix, comprising only the

postcode written out in the appropriate blank boxes (6) and which is then

located and read by the "optical pointer" (3), as well as the type of postal

service requested by the user (7), and which is shown either as part of or

attached to the postage stamp (8). Figure 6 shows two examples of a simplified matrix, comprising the

postcode written out in the appropriate blank boxes (6) and which is then

located and read by the "optical pointer" (3), as well as the type of postal service requested by the user (7) and a sector (4) containing the

abbreviations of the country of destination, and which is shown either as

part of or attached to the postage stamp (8).

Obviously, figs. 5 and 6 require the use of a type of optical reading system capable of interpreting the handwritten postcode, similar to the one

currently installed on mail-sorting machines, which entails a greater margin of error in the reading and, probably, slows down the whole

process.

Moreover, figs. 3,4,5, and 6 show the postage (8) which, by way of

example, corresponds to the current postal rates in Italy, namely, 800 lire

for ordinary mail and 4,400 lire for express mail.

To the examples of the preferred embodiment may be added conventional

signs and/or marks of any known kind which, subject to national and/or

international agreement and/or standardization, may allow the

identification, by means of the automated optical reading systems, of

both: (i) special, institutional, etc. users (such as government offices,

public authorities, banks, service companies, etc.); and (ii) the country

issuing the postage stamp, so that further information may be gathered

on the mail flows, for optimizing the postal service.

Obviously, the arrangement, number and type of signs featured on the

examples may change according to the needs of the issuing country, to national and/or international agreements and/or standards, to the type of

optical reading system, and/or to the hardware and software characteristics of the mail-sorting machine used, albeit in compliance

with the basic principles referred to hereunder.

Another significant advantage of the present invention is that, by

integrating the matrix with the postage stamp users will cancel the stamp,

thus making it extremely difficult to "clean" the used stamp.

In the case of integration of the matrix with the postage stamp, the

objections raised by stamp-collectors may be largely remedied by graphically embellishing the matrix.

Claims

- An alphanumerical postcode matrix for automated optical reading

systems comprising "n" columns and "m" lines, to be affixed to or

preprinted on the envelope, wherein users, by filling in, crossing,

scratching or oterwise emphasizing the boxes, according to a logical

predetermined sequence, may univocally indicate the addressee's

postcode in such a manner as to make it legible for the optical reading or other character recognition system.

- A postcode matrix as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the matrix is part of

or attached to the postage stamp.

- A postcode matrix as claimed in the preceding claims, wherein the

matrix contains signs, abbreviations, references which are necessary

for and /or required by the automated optical reading. - A postcode matrix as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein

the matrix contains marks and/or conventional signs identifying the

counttry of the sender and/or of destination of the letter, marks and/or

conventional signs and/or messages referring to the type of service

required by the user, marks and/or conventional signs for special,

institutional, etc. users, conventional signs and/or messages for

advertising purposes, spaces for writing out the postcode and for

writing out the name and address of the sender and/or the addressee.

5- A simplified matrix containing only one or several of the following

elements: ■ a sequence of blank boxesd for writing out the postcode;

■ marks and/or conventional signs used as "optical pointers" for the

accurate identification and interpretation by the automated optical

reading system;

■ marks and/or conventional signs and/or messages referring to the type

of postal service required;

■ marks and/or conventional signs identifying the country orf destination of the letter.