Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – For cost/price – Postage meter system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-01
2004-11-16
Meinecke-Diaz, Susanna (Department: 3623)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
For cost/price
Postage meter system
C705S030000, C705S401000, C705S404000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06820066
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement and a method for storing data relating to the usage of a terminal device, particularly an arrangement and the method suitable for users of postage meter machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Newer postage meter machines manufactured by Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co. make use of digitally functioning printing units. For example, the postage meter machines T1000 and JetMail, which are produced by Francotyp Postalia AG & Co. worldwide, include a thermotransfer printer and an ink jet printer, respectively. These basically make it possible to print addresses and other information which is associated with a shipping service on a filled envelope in the region of the postage franking stamp. Selected imprints identifying the type or form of shipment are thus printed in the franking process.
European Patent 493 948 discloses a postage meter machine which can print the type of shipment as a selected imprint stamp separate from the franking stamp imprint or integrated therewith. This device is equipped with a number of registers in a secured module for storing accounting data related to the use of the postage meter machine for franking items. A first set of registers relates to a specific first service, and a second set of registers relates to a specific second service, and one of these specific services can be selected via the input means and the accounting data of the selected service are updated. Only certain services are registered, however, these being for the purpose of generating an invoice or other type of documentation for billing for the use of the device. These services do not give the carrier sufficient information about customer behavior.
Several postal authorities/mail carriers require, or promote by cost rebates, the making of printouts by the user relating to operating sequences stored in the postage meter machine, for the documentation or bill of lading accompanying a mail batch or freight delivery, as well as to provide such information over a time period. That is, there is no need to prepare accounts, statistics or receipts related to a successful reloading for purposes of recrediting. Future mail carriers who will offer new mail delivery services would also have in interest in predicting customer behavior, as these services will have to be billed separately.
According to European Patent 285 956, a postage meter machine is equipped with a specific operating sequence storage and with a terminal for an external printer. It is required of the user to search out and print specific data from the stored, periodic collection of all data. To this end, the user must not only ready a separate printer, but may also have to set aside an extensive time outlay for searching and printing. It is additionally required on the part of the postage meter machine manufacturer to make available sufficient storage space in the postage meter machine for this purpose, so that it is possible to perform a recording with respect to the current count of a counter at suitable time intervals.
The form of storage can also be adapted to the needs of a variety of users of the same postage meter machine. Thus, some postage meter machines operate based on a classification in the form of cost centers which are allocated to individual user groups. In the T1000 postage meter machine, this acquisition is limited to ten cost centers. A method and arrangement for an internal cost center printout is described in German OS 42 24 955 for printing out corresponding reports without a separate external printer., i.e., using the printhead of the postage meter machine. The printouts that can be generated for each cost center contain listings of the postal use of the postage meter machine, and these lists can be subdivided by selected imprint. Avoidance of the need for an additional printer is advantageous to the user, but it is unreasonable to expect the user to repeatedly print out new lists with data relating to the use of the postage meter machine at the request of the courier or the data center. During the printout of lists of the cost center data, franking obviously cannot be performed using the internal printing heads of the postage meter machine.
French Patent 2 665 003 teaches a means for tracking the postal use of an electronic postage meter system that is in connection with a carrier-operated center and exchanges electronic messages therewith. Besides the message bytes, the communication format comprises information related to meter/user identification, register status, and credit status, as well as a number of additional bytes related to a statistical sequence breakdown of use. The bytes for the statistical breakdown are arranged according to postage values, to weights, or to destinations of franked items. A part of the instructions for the statistical breakdown can by modified during the communication with the center. The modification of an instruction must occur, however, before a statistical compilation is started. The communication occurs by telephone line or by an electronic module which needs to be physically transported to the communication partner. It is difficult for the data center to ascertain customer behavior, since, according to the specifications given in the instructions, only certain data are stored. Due to the variety of services, it is not always clear for which of the services the provider's capacity must be upgraded. Moreover, outmoded telecommunication systems do not permit a high data throughput. German OS 197 31 304 (corresponding to co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/115,048 filed Jul. 14, 1998) discloses generating selectable linking instructions for the purpose of class formation in the data center, and transferring them to the postage meter machine in the form of new statistics instruction data. The formation of a new statistical mode occurs in the potage meter machine on the basis of the new statistics instruction data and chronologically before the use of functions and services and their statistical acquisition in the memory of the postage meter machine. An advantage is the low demand for storage space due to a pre-compressing of the data which can be achieved by the linkage. It is also advantageous that a transmission of pre-compressed data to the data center does not significantly interfere with franking usage (service mode) since this transmission only requires a small amount of time. From this data pre-compression, much can be learned about specific user behavior, but little about basic user behavior. Otherwise, the statistical compilation would have to be conducted rather extensively, which causes a higher demand for storage space. It is thus still necessary to set certain limitations. European Application 717 376 discloses a postage meter machine with a statistical program, with the transmission of statistical data to the data center by modem taking place and wherein parameters in the postage meter machine for the statistical data acquisition are modifiable by downloading new parameters from the data center for defining the statistical class boundaries. The possibilities for carrying out a statistical analysis are limited to postage value classes, however.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and arrangement for optimal storage of data in a terminal device and rapid communication to a remote data center, wherein the statistical acquisition is able to achieve a maximum extent, so that instructions from the data center for storage can be omitted.
It is a further object to make usage of the terminal device in a service mode possible without the interference by the storage and transmission of usage data.
The above object is achieved in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a method and an arrangement for storing data relating to usage of a terminal device, wherein the terminal device includes a microprocessor and a memory, and wherein the terminal device also includes a statistical memory for storing
Reisinger Frank
Turner Olaf
Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co. KG
Meinecke-Diaz Susanna
Schiff & Hardin LLP
Stimpak J.
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