EP0424728B1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
System and method for deferred processing of OCR scanned mail
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1990-10-10
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Granted: 1995-02-01
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Expires: 2010-10-10
Abstract
No abstract record available.
Inventors
- 👤 Walter S. Rosenbaum
- 👤 John J. Hilliard
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 17:48
CPC Classifications
B; B07; B07C; B07C3/00; B07C3/20; G; G06; G06V; G06V30/00; G06V30/10; G06V30/12; G06V30/127; G06V30/26; G06V30/262; G06V30/268; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S209/00; Y10S209/90
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
234 words
A method for deferred processing of a mail piece (22) having a destination address block (45) including a first routing portion (30) designating at least a destination location (28) and a second routing portion (32) designating at least an addressee, comprising the steps of: capturing (62) an image (45') of said destination address block (45) at a sending location (10); marking (64) the mail piece (22) with an indicium (24) representing its identity; analyzing (66, 72) said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to generate a first signal (42) representing said destination location (28); sorting (78, 90) said mail piece at said sending location in response to said first signal (42) for transport (26) to said destination location (28); transporting (26, 80) said mail piece to said destination location (28); analyzing (14, 96) said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to generate a second signal (44) representing said addressee; transmitting (29, 110) said second signal (44) with the indicium (24) representing the mail piece (22) from which the second signal (44) was derived to said destination location (28); receiving (114) said mail piece (22) at said destination location (28); reading (37', 118) the indicium (24) from the mail piece (22); associating (122) the read indicium (24) with the transmitted second signal (44); and sorting (124) said mail piece in response to said second signal (44) for delivery to said addressee.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
234 words
A method for deferred processing of a mail piece (22) having a destination address block (45) including a first routing portion (30) designating at least a destination location (28) and a second routing portion (32) designating at least an addressee, comprising the steps of: capturing (62) an image (45') of said destination address block (45) at a sending location (10); marking (64) the mail piece (22) with an indicium (24) representing its identity; analyzing (66, 72) said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to generate a first signal (42) representing said destination location (28); sorting (78, 90) said mail piece at said sending location in response to said first signal (42) for transport (26) to said destination location (28); transporting (26, 80) said mail piece to said destination location (28); analyzing (14, 96) said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to generate a second signal (44) representing said addressee; transmitting (29, 110) said second signal (44) with the indicium (24) representing the mail piece (22) from which the second signal (44) was derived to said destination location (28); receiving (114) said mail piece (22) at said destination location (28); reading (37', 118) the indicium (24) from the mail piece (22); associating (122) the read indicium (24) with the transmitted second signal (44); and sorting (124) said mail piece in response to said second signal (44) for delivery to said addressee.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
27 words
Method of claim 1, which further comprises the step of: computing postal resource allocation information (142) for said destination location in response to said first signal (42).
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
81 words
Method of claim 1 or 2, which further comprises the step of: determining (98, 100, 102) during said step of analyzing (14, 96) to generate said second signal (44), whether said addressee, as represented by said second signal (44), is located at said destination location; presenting said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to an operator for interpretation of addressee information therein, if said addressee, as represented by said second signal (44), is not located at said destination location.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
27 words
Method of claim 1, 2 or 3, which said destination location includes a first stage routing portion, and/or a state, and/or a country and/or a zip code.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
38 words
Method as in anyone of the preceding claims, in which said second signal (44) may contain in addition to the addressee the name of the addressee and/or the destination street address, and/or building floor, and/or addressee internal routing.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
56 words
Method as in anyone of the preceding claims, in which the capturing of an image (45') of said destination address block (45) at the sending location is performed by scanning a multipart destination address field of said mail piece by an optical character recognition device (20), and storing the entire address field in a memory (19).
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
74 words
Method as in anyone of the preceding claims, in which the step of analyzing, be it analyzing of the image (45') of the destination address block (45) or the image (45') to generate a second signal (44) representing the addressee, is performed by a knowledge base processor (134) to resolve information, such as destination location, destination city, state, country, zip code and/or street addresses, building floor, corporate addressee internal routing information and addressee name.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
297 words
A system for deferred processing of a mail piece (22) having a destination address block (45) including a first routing portion (30) designating at least a destination location and a second routing portion (32) designating at least an addressee, comprising: means (20) for capturing an image (45) of said destination address block at a sending location (10); means for marking said mail piece with an indicium (24); means (23) coupled to said capturing means (20), for analyzing said image of said destination address block to generate a first signal (42) representing said destination location; means (33) coupled to said analyzing means (23), for sorting said mail piece (22) at said sending location (10) in response to said first signal (42) for transport to said destination location (28); means (27, 29) coupled to said capturing means (20), for transmitting said image (45') of said destination address block (45) and said indicium (24) to a remote location (14); means (23') coupled to said transmitting means (27, 29) for analyzing said image (45') at said remote location (14) to generate a second signal (44) representing said addressee; means (37', 33') coupled to said analyzing means (23') at said remote location (14), for transmitting said second signal (44) and said indicium (24) to said destination location (28); means (26) for transporting said mail piece from said sending location (10) to said destination location (28); means (12', 33', 37') coupled to said transmitting means (27, 29) at said remote location (14), for receiving said mail piece (22) at said destination location (28) for reading said indicium (24) marked on said mail piece (22), for associating the read indicium (24) with the second signal (42) and sorting said mail piece (22) in response to said second signal (44) for delivery to said addressee.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
297 words
A system for deferred processing of a mail piece (22) having a destination address block (45) including a first routing portion (30) designating at least a destination location and a second routing portion (32) designating at least an addressee, comprising: means (20) for capturing an image (45) of said destination address block at a sending location (10); means for marking said mail piece with an indicium (24); means (23) coupled to said capturing means (20), for analyzing said image of said destination address block to generate a first signal (42) representing said destination location; means (33) coupled to said analyzing means (23), for sorting said mail piece (22) at said sending location (10) in response to said first signal (42) for transport to said destination location (28); means (27, 29) coupled to said capturing means (20), for transmitting said image (45') of said destination address block (45) and said indicium (24) to a remote location (14); means (23') coupled to said transmitting means (27, 29) for analyzing said image (45') at said remote location (14) to generate a second signal (44) representing said addressee; means (37', 33') coupled to said analyzing means (23') at said remote location (14), for transmitting said second signal (44) and said indicium (24) to said destination location (28); means (26) for transporting said mail piece from said sending location (10) to said destination location (28); means (12', 33', 37') coupled to said transmitting means (27, 29) at said remote location (14), for receiving said mail piece (22) at said destination location (28) for reading said indicium (24) marked on said mail piece (22), for associating the read indicium (24) with the second signal (42) and sorting said mail piece (22) in response to said second signal (44) for delivery to said addressee.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
37 words
The system of claim 8, which further comprises: means (19', 140, 142) coupled to said analyzing means (22, 23'), for computing postal resource allocation information for said destination location (28) in response to said first signal (42).
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
86 words
The system of claim 8 or 9, which further comprises: means (19") in said analyzing means (23') at said remote location (14), for determining whether said addressee, as represented by said second signal (44), is located at said destination location (28); means (19", 31") at said second location, for presenting said image (45') of said destination address block (45) to an operator for interpretation of addressee information therein, if said addressee, as represented by said second signal (44), is not located at said destination location (28).
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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