An object of the present invention is to provide an automated machine for the collection and stamping of mail. Electronic postage metering and stamping machines will be discussed first. Conventional postage metering and stamping machines have the ability to electronically weigh envelopes, package mailings, and to stamp the postage on an envelope. They are operated by an employee and the postage is determined according to the envelope's weight and its destination. The postage can either be debited from the machine's previously charged non-volatile memory or paid in cash to the employee when the machine is used in postal offices. These machines do not significantly affect the further sorting and tracking process.
Only machines which are able to print a horizontally oriented clocked code on an envelope significantly improve the sorting process but due to the nature of the horizontally oriented clocked code, they cannot improve the tracking process or be used for international mail traffic. Furthermore, their process requires a relatively slow procedure because the horizontally oriented clocked code has to be printed fairly precisely in relation to an envelope's lower edge to be sure that both the clock and the information track line-up with their appropriate reading head during the scanning process. This scanning process can be performed only by photosensitive transducers which provide relatively slow, single-pass scanning with a relatively low first read rate ratio.
Hence, another object of the present invention is to improve the entire mailing process from the point of acceptance to the point of delivery for almost all kinds of postcards, envelopes, and packages, referred to as "a" or "the" "mailing" in this text. The advantages of the invention will be listed further. The present invention enables mail collecting procedures to be performed directly by a customer who inserts the mailing and manually enters the instructions and data on a keyboard by following the displayed instructions. Therefore, there is no need for any employees to operate the present invention. According to the process of the present invention, a customer himself chooses and performs the payment procedure by using one of the possible payment modes. The machine can also be installed anywhere for the most convenient and continuous customer usage.
The present invention enables the electronic weighing of a mailing to be performed automatically and securely, without the possibility for a customer to influence the weighing, and the postage is automatically calculated according to the mailing weight data and the destination data entered on the keyboard. Therefore, according to the process of the present invention, there is no possibility for a higher or lower postage being calculated and since each mailing can be returned to the customer in the case of insufficient postage paid or data entered, no further check as to whether the postage was paid is necessary.
Having the ability to convert the entered data about the destination of a mailing and any special requests and print it in a form of laser readable bar code directly on a mailing, the present invention enables the entire further sorting and tracking process to be performed by automated means. By using multidirectional scanners, built-in on both sides of the mailing path at the sorting hubs, each mailing can be sorted and tracked, when required, without any manual labor involved and with extremely high speed and an almost 100% first read rate.
In accordance with the present invention, when the destination zip code is printed on a mailing in a form of said bar code, the mailing can be automatically sorted all the way to the point of delivery by passing through the different sorting hubs. A Zip+four code can also be applied and when an alphanumeric type of bar code is used, the mailing can be sorted and tracked in international mail traffic. This assumes that the part of the printed bar code showing the mailing's zip code is printed in numerals and that the part of the bar code showing the country code is printed in letters so that a combination of two letters represents the country code of each respective country.
When the mail is sent to countries with an alphanumeric zip code, the bar code is printed on the mailing with the letters and numerals arranged according to how they were entered in on the machine's keyboard. When any of the possible special requests are entered, an identification code in numerals is automatically printed together with the type of special request which information is printed using a letter or letters on the same line with the country and zip code. Considering the advantages in the speed and accuracy of sorting and tracking mailings when laser readable bar code is used therefor, the advantages of the present invention are obvious to those skilled in the art.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a pay-phone device for public use. First, conventional pay-phones will be discussed. Presently, pay-phones for public use are designed to accept payment means, such as coins, and debit or credit cards, and most of them are able to accept only one out of the three said means. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device wherein coins, bills, debit cards, different kinds of credit cards, and IC cards can be used to pay the charge by using the same payment accepting means as is used for the mail collection purpose. According to the present invention, the same displaying and processing means are used and this enables the device to be economical while giving the customer all possible options of mode of payment.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device for listing the data of, and entering into some external database. Various kinds of databases are available for the listing and entering of data using various means, mostly by connecting existing home or corporate PCs and using them as terminals to list the data available in a certain database for a certain predetermined charge.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a device which will make the data from some external database available to the general public. In accordance with the present invention and by using the same payment accepting, displaying, printing, and processing means as those used for the machine's other purposes, a continuous, convenient, and economical data listing and data entry operation can be obtained. A variety of data can be listed, such as data from a phone-book, a Yellow Pages, a Thomas Register, weather report data, and train, bus, and plane schedules, etc., and in addition to getting a listing, a customer can be allowed to enter data into the database for certain purposes, such as for making reservations, etc.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a device where, when the device is connected to a telex line, a telex message can be sent by using the same procedure as that used in an existing telex machine, with the difference that the message is not printed and dispensed to the customer if this is not specifically requested. In accordance with the present invention, a message entered on a keyboard is memorized and, upon confirmation of payment for a calculated and displayed charge, sent on. This enables the general public to send messages whenever desired to any connected telex and since the same data entry, payment acceptance, display, printing, and processing means as for the machine's other purposes are used, this procedure also becomes very economical.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a device including the functions of an automated electronic postage meter, a pay-phone, a capability for listing the data from an external database and for providing entry into said database, and a telex sending machine which device can be simply operated by a customer and installed anywhere for continuous public use.