Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Sorting special items – and certain methods and apparatus for... – Condition responsive means controls separating means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-28
2004-05-25
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...
Condition responsive means controls separating means
C209S583000, C209S900000, C700S223000, C700S224000, C700S225000, C700S226000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06740835
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention disclosed herein relates generally to automated mail sorting and more particularly, a method of processing return to sender mailpieces using an automated mail sorting apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The processing and handling of mailpieces consumes an enormous amount of human and financial resources, particularly if the processing of the mailpieces is done manually. The processing and handling of mailpieces not only takes place at the Postal Service, but also occurs at each and every business or other site where communication via the mail delivery system is utilized. That is, various pieces of mail generated by a plurality of departments and individuals within a company need to be addressed, collected, sorted and franked as part of the outgoing mail process. Additionally, incoming mail needs to be collected and sorted efficiently to ensure that it gets to the addressee (i.e. employee or department) in a minimal amount of time. Since much of the documentation and information being conveyed through the mail system is critical in nature relative to the success of a business, it is imperative that the processing and handling of both the incoming and outgoing mailpieces be done efficiently and reliably so as not to negatively impact the functioning of the business.
Various automated mail handling machines have been developed for processing incoming mail (removing individual pieces of mail from a stack and performing subsequent actions on each individual piece of mail). Generally, the mail handling machines separate individual mailpieces from a stack, read the mailpieces using an optical character recognition (OCR) system and compare the read information to an addressee database in order to determine the appropriate destination points for delivery of the mailpieces. Some of the incoming mail received at a mailroom of the company can be unreadable by the OCR system, the quantity of which can be great since recipients cannot control the addressee format in which the incoming mail is received. Some of the unreadable mail could be, for example, mail which is not OCR readable “OCR rejects” (i.e. smeared or needs to be opened to determine addressee), “mystery mail” which mail with no particular addressee (i.e. mail addressed to a company or department only or mail with poor quality handwriting), or “research mail” (i.e. mail that can not be read by OCR but does not require opening for the operator to determine the addressee, including the situation where there are several potential addressees with the same name). The unreadable mail, which will be referred to generally as “reject mail” is expensive to process since it drains the resources of the mail room requiring additional time and labor for sorting and delivery.
Another type of mail which can be categorized as unreadable generally by incoming mail sorting apparatus is “return to sender” (RTS) since the addressee, in most cases, is not in the addressee database of the mail sorting apparatus. These mailpieces, absent additional processing, are typically delivered to the “OCR reject” bin and are handled manually which is labor intensive and expensive.
Typical “return to sender” mail is marked with “return to sender” text and/or a graphics symbol. The graphics symbols applied to “return to sender” mail are not uniform or standard and are not applied to a standard location on “return to sender” mailpieces. For these reasons, there are challenges to recognizing the “return to sender” symbol on a mailpiece by using an OCR system. Thus, a typical OCR system configured to recognized text would need additional capabilities and additional “read regions” to recognize “return to sender” icon or markings. This additional capability can be expensive and difficult to implement because of the lack of standardization.
Previously, if a determination could not be made by the incoming mail handling machine as to the addressee, a video image of the mailpiece was viewed by an operator and in the case where the addressee image was readable by the operator, addressee information was keyed into the system and associated with an identification number for the mailpiece. This is typically done after the unreadable mailpieces are sorted into a reject bin because it requires time to make the determination and provide the information to the system for proper sorting. The previously rejected mailpieces are then resorted by reading the identification information which can be printed on the mail during the first sort. The identification information is linked with the addressee information manually keyed in by the operator during the reject processing/video coding sequence and is used to sort the mailpiece to the proper destination bin.
Video processing of mailpieces has been performed at on-site video coding terminals or off-site video coding facilities where the video image is transmitted for determination of addressee by an operator. The information is then transferred back to the sorting apparatus. The software and hardware costs associated with video processing can be high because video coding requires additional computer systems, image servers and workstations. Additionally, licensing fees for video coding software can be expensive. Video coding can also be labor intensive because the operator has to input information using a keyboard. While predictive keying can be used, the operator is still bogged down with using his or her hands to input addressee information. With video coding, a separate video coding operator is needed in apart from the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus operator in order to keep throughput on the sorting apparatus while processing rejects.
It would be helpful if the mailpieces for which an intended recipient has not been identified could be processed additionally, quickly and in an automated fashion so as to encumber fewer additional resources. One of the problems of the prior art is that a system is not available for providing additional automated identification of addressees or destinations. Another problem of the prior art is that a system is not available which provides higher throughput and decreased labor costs. Another problem of the prior art is that is can be expensive. Yet another problem of the prior art is that incoming mail handling machines do not include additional functionality for automatically determining the intended recipient when the mailpiece is a “returned to sender” mailpiece. Therefore, a method of processing “return to sender” mailpieces is needed which integrates “return to sender” processing with the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus with increased read rates and with greater throughput.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a method of processing reject mailpieces and “return to sender” mailpieces with better throughput and lower labor costs. This in turn affords quicker mailpiece processing. The present invention is directed, in general to automated incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus and more particularly, a method of processing “return to sender” mailpieces using an automated incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus with an addressee database and state/ZIP Code list to identify “return to sender” mailpieces.
The mailpiece sorting apparatus may generally comprise a feeder, a scanner, a mailpiece deliverer, compartments or bins for receiving sorted mailpieces, optical character recognition system (OCR) for reading addressee information, a personal computer (PC) or microprocessor based system, recipient matching software and an addressee database. The mailpiece sorting apparatus of the present invention also comprises software that identifies addressee information and assigns a confidence level to such identification. The “level of confidence” assists to provide a greater percentage of mailpieces correctly identified as “return to sender” mailpieces and deliver such mailpieces to a “return to sender” bin.
The basic principle for outsorting “return to sender” mail is that if an incoming mailpiece arrives fr
Daniels, Jr. Edward P.
Gottlieb Robert K.
Mallozzi Joseph D
Steinmetz John H
Capelli Christopher J.
Chaclas Angelo N.
Miller Jonathan R
Pitney Bowes Inc.
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