EP2017793A1 - Franking method with error correction - Google Patents
Franking method with error correction Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP2017793A1 EP2017793A1 EP08159724A EP08159724A EP2017793A1 EP 2017793 A1 EP2017793 A1 EP 2017793A1 EP 08159724 A EP08159724 A EP 08159724A EP 08159724 A EP08159724 A EP 08159724A EP 2017793 A1 EP2017793 A1 EP 2017793A1
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- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- postal
- user interface
- user
- address block
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- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
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Classifications
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
- G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
- G07B17/00661—Sensing or measuring mailpieces
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
- G07B17/00185—Details internally of apparatus in a franking system, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office
- G07B17/00193—Constructional details of apparatus in a franking system
- G07B2017/00266—Man-machine interface on the apparatus
- G07B2017/00298—Visual, e.g. screens and their layouts
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
- G07B17/00185—Details internally of apparatus in a franking system, e.g. franking machine at customer or apparatus at post office
- G07B17/00435—Details specific to central, non-customer apparatus, e.g. servers at post office or vendor
- G07B2017/00443—Verification of mailpieces, e.g. by checking databases
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B17/00—Franking apparatus
- G07B17/00459—Details relating to mailpieces in a franking system
- G07B17/00661—Sensing or measuring mailpieces
- G07B2017/00709—Scanning mailpieces
Definitions
- the present invention relates to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a method of franking mail items including postal value added services avoiding a break in the actual rate of mail batch processing.
- One known way to accelerate this input process is to integrate in the franking machine a digitizer which associated with a barcode recognition software, an OCR character recognition software and a national address database will allow an automation of the entry of the identifier, the name and the postal code of the addressee respectively.
- the present invention therefore relates to a franking method of mail items including value-added postal services that does not significantly reduce the processing speed of these mail items.
- An object of the invention is also to provide this treatment without any error and without extracting some of the mail items of the franking machine nor to make changes in the operating modes of the machine.
- the image displayed on the screen of said user interface is not that of the destination address block, it is carried out by the user, by means of a determined function key of said user interface, at a step of automatically and successively displaying other areas of the digital image of the mail article that may contain said recipient address block of said user interface, before proceeding to the step of correcting said at least one data item PO.
- the image displayed on the screen of said user interface is not that of the destination address block, it is carried out by the user, by means of the display movement keys of said user interface. at a manual step of searching the destination address block, before proceeding to the correction step of said at least one postal data item.
- said at least one postal data item may be at least one of the following postal data: the recipient's name, the recipient's postal code, the country of destination.
- said postal code can also be printed on the mail item in the form of a bar code such as POSTNET code.
- each of the mail items includes an identifier relating to the postal value-added service desired for this article of mail.
- the identifier includes a bar code printed on a label affixed to the mail piece and read by bar code reading software means of the franking machine or is printed on the mail piece when printed. the postal imprint.
- the identifier and said at least one postal data are stored in a database of the franking machine and possibly the image of the mail article.
- the invention proposes to significantly reduce the processing time of mail items including those comprising a value-added service (but not limited to this particular application) and to eliminate human errors related to a purely manual procedure by implementing a method that can be described as "semi-automatic" applicable to conventional franking machines and in which any envelope placed in its power supply module will be stamped. In other words, it will not be extracted from the machine to be processed manually. With the invention, the errors no longer exist because the transition between the automatic process and the manual process is managed by a specially designed user interface.
- the figure 1 illustrates a franking machine comprising, as is known and arranged upstream downstream in the direction of advancement of mail items 10, a module 12 for supplying mail items intended to receive a stack of mail items typically in bulk (that is to say of different sizes and weights) comprising in the illustrated example each an identifier relating to the value-added postal service desired for this article of mail (typically this identifier is carried on a label previously pasted on the article), a module 14 for selection and one-to-one transport of these mail items, a dynamic weighing module 16 for determining the weight and possibly the dimensions of each selected mail piece and a print module 18 for to print a postal imprint on each of the mail items so selected one by one and weighed.
- the franking machine is preferably, as is also known, connected to a server (not shown) of a dealer of this machine itself connected to a server of a postal administration or a private carrier providing distribution mail (not shown).
- this mail processing system further comprises an optical reading module 20 (including the advantageously linear sensor 20A of the so-called "contact" type, which allows a perfect integration and a low cost, is represented in FIG. outside the module for the sole understanding of the invention), arranged upstream of the dynamic weighing module (but the use of an integrated module at the output of the selection module or input of the weighing module is quite possible), to acquire a digital image 22 of the mail article and extract the identifier of the desired value-added service for this mail item and the address of the recipient on the mail piece.
- this image acquisition module is associated with barcode recognition and OCR recognition software.
- the franking machine further comprises an improved user interface 24 with a keyboard 24A allowing the display on a screen 24B of all or part of the image of the mail item thus digitized and, if necessary, correction of the postal data extracted from this image.
- the keyboard 24A can be a physical keyboard or a virtual keyboard on the screen 24B which is then advantageously tactile type.
- the franking machine may also include storage means (not shown) of the database type to store the image of the envelope thus digitized. In this image, will be associated in the database the corresponding identifier on the mail item and the data extracted from the address of the recipient.
- These storage means may advantageously integrate one or more databases (not shown) containing the list of addresses of the mail items to be sent during a given franking session and updated during their preparation (for example by means of a document processing software) or even a complete list of all the addresses of the user's contacts (client database).
- the franking method according to the invention implemented in the aforementioned franking machine is now more particularly described with regard to the figure 5 in association with Figures 1 to 4 .
- the figure 1 illustrates a first step 100 ( figure 5 ) in which the envelopes to be franked 10 which in the application example illustrated will each have preferably been provided with a label carrying a the identifier of the desired value-added service are introduced by battery into the franking system at its power supply module 12 and then a second step 102, in which the envelopes selected one by one are digitized by the optical pickup module 20 An example of the result of this digitization is illustrated by the image of the envelope referenced 22.
- the reference 24B shows for its part the screen of the user interface just before the scanning of the image and therefore still virgin of any Graphic Representation.
- step 104 it is proceeded to the location and reading of the identifier (tracking number) by means of the barcode recognition software and in a step 106 to the location of the address block printed on the envelope by means of an address block search software.
- step 108 an extraction of one or more postal data of the address block thus recognized, for example the name and / or the postal code of the recipient and / or the country of destination (without these data being limiting), using the OCR character recognition software. If the confidence index of the recognition software is greater than a predefined threshold, the envelope continues its path to the printing module where the postal fingerprint is printed in a step 110.
- the envelope is stopped on its transport path at the level of the dynamic weighing module 16 before it arrives at the printing module 18 and it is proceeded in a step 112 to the display on the the user interface 24, as illustrated, of the picture 30 of the address block, and in at least two separate fields 32, 34 on the one hand recognized characters 32 of the postal code of the recipient and on the other hand recognized characters 34 of the Recipient's name.
- other fields could be provided to receive characters recognized from other postal data of the address block such as the street or country of destination.
- the operator can then, in a new step 114 ( figure 5 ), act on the keyboard 24A of the user interface to correct if necessary the fields "postal code" and / or "name” of the recipient according to the postal data of the address block displayed on the screen 24B.
- the figure 270 and the decimal point between the surname and first name of the recipient that are not applicable will be deleted from the "name" field.
- An action on a validation key 36 will confirm the corrections made and the envelope will be able to return to the printing module to be stamped (return to step 110).
- the user can be helped in his correction step.
- the displayed image is not that of the destination address block, it is provided, by means of a determined function key 38, a step of automatic and successive display of other areas of the digital image of the receiver. article of mail that may contain the recipient address block (in practice those containing sets of alphanumeric characters) and previously located by the search software.
- the user can proceed as before to the correction.
- the identifier, the name and the postal code of the recipient will be stored in the database of the franking machine with preferably the digital image of the envelope or simply the digital image of the address corresponding to this envelope.
- the content of this database will be automatically sent to the dealer's server who will retransmit it to the server of the postal administration (or private carrier) or simply put it to provision thereof to allow tracking operations of the mail items associated with the value-added postal service chosen by the sender of these mail items.
- the dealer server also receives updates from the postal administration server on the shipping status for each mail item (eg, pending, shipped, etc.). This way the sender can connect (via a web client in particular) to the server the dealer to know the status of his mail items, by making a request either by tracking number, or by name of recipient, or by date.
- the user correction step may be limited to a correction of the only name of the recipient, especially when the mail item includes a bar code such as POSTNET code. Indeed, in this case, the extraction of the postal code is completely reliable and no manual correction on this postal code is then necessary on the keyboard of the user interface. It is the same when the franking machine integrates one or more databases address and search software that will verify the compliance of the postal code with respect to the city and possibly the country of destination. Any errors can be corrected by redundancy between several fields of the address block.
- this database is a client database that associates the recipient's name with the address
- the conformity of the recipient's name can also be automatically checked by the search software. This situation avoids stopping for verification, and makes the process completely automatic if the software recognizes the "name" and "postal code” fields in the customer database.
- the invention also finds application for other tasks than the mail processing followed and especially in the case where the Reading the elements of the address is necessary, for example, for calculating the postal rate according to the destination (postal code or country).
Abstract
Description
La présente invention se rapporte au domaine du traitement de courrier et elle concerne plus particulièrement un procédé d'affranchissement des articles de courrier comportant des services postaux à valeur ajoutée évitant une rupture dans la cadence réelle de traitement des lots de courrier.The present invention relates to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a method of franking mail items including postal value added services avoiding a break in the actual rate of mail batch processing.
Afin d'appliquer des services postaux à valeur ajoutée comme le recommandé, le suivi, etc... à des articles de courrier, il est nécessaire à l'opérateur d'une machine à affranchir, c'est-à-dire d'un système d'affranchissement de type fermé, d'effectuer plusieurs opérations manuelles successives qui outre qu'elles prennent du temps sont sources d'erreurs fréquentes. En effet, l'opérateur doit tout d'abord coller sur l'article de courrier une étiquette comportant un identifiant (en général un code à barres) du service postal demandé, puis il doit récupérer les chiffres correspondant à ce code par une saisie à l'interface utilisateur de la machine et le mettre en correspondance avec le nom du destinataire pour assurer le suivi de l'article de courrier et enfin il doit saisir le code postal du destinataire. Un moyen connu pour accélérer ce processus de saisie est d'intégrer dans la machine à affranchir un numériseur qui associé à un logiciel de reconnaissance de codes à barres, un logiciel de reconnaissance de caractères OCR et une base de données nationale d'adresses va permettre une automatisation de la saisie de l'identifiant, du nom et du code postal du destinataire respectivement.In order to apply value-added postal services such as the recommended, follow-up, etc. to mail items, it is necessary for the operator of a franking machine, that is to say a closed type postage system, to perform several manual operations in succession which besides that they take time are sources of frequent errors. Indeed, the operator must first stick on the mail item a label with an identifier (usually a barcode) of the postal service requested, then he must recover the figures corresponding to this code by a seizure at the user interface of the machine and match it with the recipient's name to track the mail item and finally enter the recipient's postal code. One known way to accelerate this input process is to integrate in the franking machine a digitizer which associated with a barcode recognition software, an OCR character recognition software and a national address database will allow an automation of the entry of the identifier, the name and the postal code of the addressee respectively.
Malheureusement, cette solution qui apparaît en théorie entièrement « automatisée» ne l'est pas en pratique car la reconnaissance de caractères étant une opération particulièrement complexe, les logiciels de reconnaissance actuels même les meilleurs comportent malgré tout un taux d'erreur de l'ordre de 5%. Or, compte tenu des cadences de traitement existant dans une machine à affranchir, un tel taux entraîne un arrêt de la machine à affranchir toutes les 20 enveloppes pénalisant ainsi très fortement le temps de traitement d'un lot de courrier. En outre, lorsque l'adresse ne peut pas être reconnue, notamment en cas d'absence dans la base de données nationale ou bien dans le cas où cette adresse correspond à une ancienne adresse supprimée de la base mais malgré tout encore valide car présente dans une base de données de déménagement de l'administration postal, il est nécessaire d'interdire l'impression de l'article de courrier correspondant et de prévoir un système d'aiguillage pour sa réorientation vers un bac de rejet spécifique afin d'assurer son traitement manuel.Unfortunately, this solution appears in theory completely "automated" is not in practice because character recognition is a particularly complex operation, the current recognition software even the best still have an error rate of the order of 5%. However, given the processing rates existing in a franking machine, such a rate causes a stop of the franking machine all 20 envelopes penalizing very strongly the processing time of a batch of mail. In addition, when the address can not be recognized, especially in case of absence in the national database or in the case where this address corresponds to an old address removed from the database but still valid because it is present in a moving database of the postal administration, it is necessary to prohibit the printing of the corresponding mail item and to provide a referral system for its reorientation to a ferry of specific rejection to ensure its manual processing.
La présente invention a donc pour objet un procédé d'affranchissement des articles de courrier comportant des services postaux à valeur ajoutée qui ne réduit pas notablement la cadence de traitement de ces articles de courrier. Un but de l'invention est aussi d'assurer ce traitement sans aucune erreur et sans extraire certains des articles de courrier de la machine à affranchir ni procéder à des changements de modes de fonctionnement de la machine.The present invention therefore relates to a franking method of mail items including value-added postal services that does not significantly reduce the processing speed of these mail items. An object of the invention is also to provide this treatment without any error and without extracting some of the mail items of the franking machine nor to make changes in the operating modes of the machine.
Ces buts sont atteints par un procédé d'affranchissement d'articles de courrier dans une machine à affranchir alimentée à partir d'un lot en vrac d'articles de courrier, comportant, pour chaque article de courrier, les étapes suivantes :
- acquisition, par des moyens de lecture optique, d'une image numérique de l'article de courrier,
- localisation, par des moyens logiciels de recherche, d'un bloc adresse destinataire,
- extraction, par des moyens logiciels de reconnaissance OCR, d'au moins une donnée postale dudit bloc adresse destinataire,
- lorsque ladite au moins une donnée postale extraite n'est pas ou mal identifiée, arrêt automatique du transport de l'article de courrier dans la machine à affranchir,
- correction par l'utilisateur, au clavier d'une interface utilisateur de la machine à affranchir, de ladite au moins une donnée postale à partir d'une image du bloc adresse localisé préalablement et affichée sur un écran de ladite interface utilisateur, et
- remise en route automatique du transport de l'article de courrier dans la machine à affranchir une fois la correction validée par l'utilisateur.
- acquisition, by optical reading means, of a digital image of the mail article,
- locating, by search software means, a recipient address block,
- extraction, by means of OCR recognition software, of at least one postal datum of said destination address block,
- when said at least one extracted postal data item is not or incorrectly identified, automatically stopping the transport of the mail item in the franking machine,
- correction by the user, at the keyboard of a user interface of the franking machine, of said at least one postal datum from an image of the address block previously located and displayed on a screen of said user interface, and
- automatic restarting of the transport of the mailpiece in the franking machine once the correction is validated by the user.
Ainsi, avec cette correction en directe par l'utilisateur, il ne peut plus exister d'erreurs dans la reconnaissance des adresses destinataires et le traitement des articles de courrier peut alors être effectué plus rapidement et donc à moindre coût.Thus, with this direct correction by the user, there can no longer be errors in the recognition of recipient addresses and the processing of mail items can then be done more quickly and therefore at lower cost.
Selon une première variante, lorsque l'image affichée sur l'écran de ladite interface utilisateur n'est pas cette du bloc adresse destinataire, il est procédé par l'utilisateur, au moyen d'une touche de fonction déterminée de ladite interface utilisateur, à une étape de visualisation automatique et successive d'autres zones de l'image numérique de l'article de courrier susceptibles de contenir ledit bloc adresse destinataire de ladite interface utilisateur, avant de procéder à l'étape de correction de ladite au moins une donnée postale.According to a first variant, when the image displayed on the screen of said user interface is not that of the destination address block, it is carried out by the user, by means of a determined function key of said user interface, at a step of automatically and successively displaying other areas of the digital image of the mail article that may contain said recipient address block of said user interface, before proceeding to the step of correcting said at least one data item PO.
Selon une seconde variante, lorsque l'image affichée sur l'écran de ladite interface utilisateur n'est pas celle du bloc adresse destinataire, il est procédé par l'utilisateur, au moyen de touches de déplacement de l'affichage de ladite interface utilisateur, à une étape manuelle de recherche du bloc adresse destinataire, avant de procéder à l'étape de correction de ladite au moins une donnée postale.According to a second variant, when the image displayed on the screen of said user interface is not that of the destination address block, it is carried out by the user, by means of the display movement keys of said user interface. at a manual step of searching the destination address block, before proceeding to the correction step of said at least one postal data item.
Selon l'application envisagée, ladite au moins une donnée postale peut être l'une au moins des données postales suivantes : le nom du destinataire, le code postal du destinataire, le pays de destination.Depending on the intended application, said at least one postal data item may be at least one of the following postal data: the recipient's name, the recipient's postal code, the country of destination.
De préférence, ledit code postal peut aussi être imprimé sur l'article de courrier sous la forme d'un code à barres telle code POSTNET.Preferably, said postal code can also be printed on the mail item in the form of a bar code such as POSTNET code.
Avantageusement, chacun des articles de courrier comporte un identifiant relatif au service postal à valeur ajoutée souhaité pour cet article de courrier. Ledit identifiant comporte un code à barres imprimé sur une étiquette collée sur l'article de courrier et lu par des moyens logiciels de lecture de codes à barres de la machine à affranchir ou est imprimé sur l'article de courrier lors de l'impression de l'empreinte postale.Advantageously, each of the mail items includes an identifier relating to the postal value-added service desired for this article of mail. The identifier includes a bar code printed on a label affixed to the mail piece and read by bar code reading software means of the franking machine or is printed on the mail piece when printed. the postal imprint.
Selon un mode de réalisation particulier, l'identifiant et ladite au moins une donnée postale sont stockés dans une base de données de la machine à affranchir ainsi éventuellement que l'image de l'article de courrier.According to a particular embodiment, the identifier and said at least one postal data are stored in a database of the franking machine and possibly the image of the mail article.
Les caractéristiques et avantages de la présente invention ressortiront mieux de la description suivante, faite à titre indicatif et non limitatif, en regard des dessins annexés sur lesquels :
- les
figures 1 à 4 montrent des configurations successives de fonctionnement d'une machine à affranchir des articles de courrier, et - la
figure 5 est un organigramme illustrant un exemple du procédé d'affranchissement d'articles de courrier selon l'invention mis en oeuvre dans la machine à affranchir desfigures 1 à 4 .
- the
Figures 1 to 4 show successive configurations of operation of a franking machine of mail items, and - the
figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the franking method of mail items according to the invention implemented in the franking machine ofFigures 1 to 4 .
L'invention se propose de réduire notablement le temps de traitement des articles de courrier notamment ceux comportant un service à valeur ajoutée (sans toutefois être limité à cette application particulière) et à éliminer les erreurs humaines liées à une procédure purement manuelle en mettant en oeuvre un procédé qui peut être qualifié de « semi-automatique» applicable aux machines à affranchir classiques et dans lequel toute enveloppe placée dans son module d'alimentation sera obligatoirement affranchie. Autrement dit, elle ne sera en aucun cas extraite de la machine pour être traitée manuellement. Avec l'invention, les erreurs n'existent plus car la transition entre le processus automatique et le processus manuel est géré par une interface utilisateur spécialement conçue.The invention proposes to significantly reduce the processing time of mail items including those comprising a value-added service (but not limited to this particular application) and to eliminate human errors related to a purely manual procedure by implementing a method that can be described as "semi-automatic" applicable to conventional franking machines and in which any envelope placed in its power supply module will be stamped. In other words, it will not be extracted from the machine to be processed manually. With the invention, the errors no longer exist because the transition between the automatic process and the manual process is managed by a specially designed user interface.
La
Selon l'invention, ce système de traitement de courrier comporte en outre un module 20 de lecture optique (dont le capteur 20A avantageusement linéaire du type dit « à contact », ce qui permet une parfaite intégration et un faible coût, est représenté à l'extérieur du module pour la seule compréhension de l'invention), disposé en amont du module de pesée dynamique (mais le recours à un module intégré en sortie du module de sélection ou en entrée du module de pesée est tout à fait envisageable), pour faire l'acquisition d'une image numérique 22 de l'article de courrier et en extraire l'identifiant relatif au service à valeur ajoutée souhaité pour cet article de courrier et l'adresse du destinataire portée sur l'article de courrier. Pour ce faire, ce module d'acquisition d'images est associé à des logiciels de reconnaissance de codes à barres et de reconnaissance OCR. Selon l'invention, la machine à affranchir comporte en outre une interface utilisateur perfectionnée 24 avec un clavier 24A permettant l'affichage sur un écran 24B de tout ou partie de l'image de l'article de courrier ainsi numérisée et, si nécessaire, la correction des données postales extraites de cette image. Le clavier 24A peut être un clavier physique ou un clavier virtuel sur l'écran 24B qui est alors avantageusement de type tactile.According to the invention, this mail processing system further comprises an optical reading module 20 (including the advantageously
La machine à affranchir peut aussi comporter des moyens de stockage (non représentés) du type base de données pour stocker l'image de l'enveloppe ainsi numérisée. A cette image, sera associé dans la base de données l'identifiant correspondant porté sur l'article de courrier et les données extraites de l'adresse du destinataire. Ces moyens de stockage pourront intégrer avantageusement une ou plusieurs bases de données (non représentée) contenant la liste des adresses des articles de courrier à expédier lors d'une session d'affranchissement donnée et mise à jour pendant leur élaboration (par exemple au moyen d'un logiciel de traitement de documents) voire une liste complète de l'ensemble des adresses des contacts de l'utilisateur (base de données client).The franking machine may also include storage means (not shown) of the database type to store the image of the envelope thus digitized. In this image, will be associated in the database the corresponding identifier on the mail item and the data extracted from the address of the recipient. These storage means may advantageously integrate one or more databases (not shown) containing the list of addresses of the mail items to be sent during a given franking session and updated during their preparation (for example by means of a document processing software) or even a complete list of all the addresses of the user's contacts (client database).
Le procédé d'affranchissement selon l'invention mis en oeuvre dans la machine à affranchir précitée est maintenant plus particulièrement décrit en regard de la
Les étapes suivantes du procédé de la
Comme le montrent les
On notera que l'utilisateur peut être aidé dans son étape de correction. Notamment, lorsque l'image affichée n'est pas celle du bloc adresse destinataire, il est prévu, au moyen d'une touche de fonction déterminée 38, une étape de visualisation automatique et successive d'autres zones de l'image numérique de l'article de courrier susceptibles de contenir le bloc adresse destinataire (en pratique celles comportant des ensembles de caractères alphanumériques) et préalablement localisées par le logiciel de recherche. Une fois le bloc sélectionné, l'utilisateur pourra procéder comme précédemment à la correction. De même, il est prévu des touches de déplacement de l'affichage 40 de ladite interface utilisateur, pour, lorsque la recherche successive des blocs aura échouée, procéder manuellement à cette recherche du bloc adresse destinataire, avant de procéder ici encore à l'étape de correction de la donnée postale erronée, par exemple du nom et/ou du code postal du destinataire.It should be noted that the user can be helped in his correction step. In particular, when the displayed image is not that of the destination address block, it is provided, by means of a
De préférence, à l'issue de cette étape de correction, l'identifiant, le nom et le code postal du destinataire (éventuellement aussi le pays de destination) seront stockés dans la base de données de la machine à affranchir avec de préférence l'image numérique de l'enveloppe ou simplement l'image numérique de l'adresse correspondant à cette enveloppe. De façon périodique, et au plus tard au moment du ramassage du courrier, le contenu de cette base de données sera envoyé automatiquement au serveur du concessionnaire qui le retransmettra au serveur de l'administration postale (ou du transporteur privé) ou simplement le mettra à disposition de celui-ci pour permettre les opérations de suivi des articles de courrier associées au service postal à valeur ajoutée choisi par l'expéditeur de ces articles de courrier. Le serveur du concessionnaire reçoit également des mises à jour du serveur de l'administration postale sur l'état d'expédition pour chaque article de courrier (par exempte : en attente, expédié, etc.). De cette façon l'expéditeur peut se connecter (via un client web notamment) au serveur du concessionnaire pour connaître l'état de ses articles de courrier, en faisant une requête soit par numéro de suivi, soit par nom de destinataire, soit par date.Preferably, at the end of this correction step, the identifier, the name and the postal code of the recipient (possibly also the country of destination) will be stored in the database of the franking machine with preferably the digital image of the envelope or simply the digital image of the address corresponding to this envelope. Periodically, and at the latest at the time of mail collection, the content of this database will be automatically sent to the dealer's server who will retransmit it to the server of the postal administration (or private carrier) or simply put it to provision thereof to allow tracking operations of the mail items associated with the value-added postal service chosen by the sender of these mail items. The dealer server also receives updates from the postal administration server on the shipping status for each mail item (eg, pending, shipped, etc.). This way the sender can connect (via a web client in particular) to the server the dealer to know the status of his mail items, by making a request either by tracking number, or by name of recipient, or by date.
On notera que l'étape de correction par l'utilisateur peut être limitée à une correction du seul nom du destinataire, notamment lorsque l'article de courrier comporte un code à barres tel le code POSTNET. En effet, dans ce cas, l'extraction du code postal est totalement fiable et aucune correction manuelle sur ce code postal n'est alors nécessaire au clavier de l'interface utilisateur. Il en est de même lorsque la machine à affranchir intègre une ou plusieurs bases de données d'adresses et un logiciel de recherche qui permettra de vérifier la conformité du code postal par rapport à la ville et éventuellement le pays de destination. Les éventuelles erreurs peuvent être corrigées par redondance entre plusieurs champs du bloc adresse.Note that the user correction step may be limited to a correction of the only name of the recipient, especially when the mail item includes a bar code such as POSTNET code. Indeed, in this case, the extraction of the postal code is completely reliable and no manual correction on this postal code is then necessary on the keyboard of the user interface. It is the same when the franking machine integrates one or more databases address and search software that will verify the compliance of the postal code with respect to the city and possibly the country of destination. Any errors can be corrected by redundancy between several fields of the address block.
Dans le cas où cette base de données est une base de données client qui associe le nom du destinataire à l'adresse, la conformité du nom du destinataire peut aussi être vérifiée automatiquement par le logiciel de recherche. Cette situation évite l'arrêt pour vérification, et rends le processus complètement automatique si le logiciel reconnaît les champs « nom » et « code postal» dans la base de données client.In the case where this database is a client database that associates the recipient's name with the address, the conformity of the recipient's name can also be automatically checked by the search software. This situation avoids stopping for verification, and makes the process completely automatic if the software recognizes the "name" and "postal code" fields in the customer database.
Avec l'invention, en cas de non reconnaissance, il n'est plus nécessaire d'extraire de la machine l'enveloppe non reconnue pour en lire l'adresse, de saisir à l'interface utilisateur de la machine le nom et le code postal et de recharger l'enveloppe dans son module d'alimentation après avoir changé le mode de fonctionnement de la machine (passage du mode traitement par lots au mode standard) pour qu'elle soit affranchie individuellement. L'affichage du bloc adresse directement à l'écran de l'interface utilisateur permet en effet d'effectuer la correction nécessaire sans changer le mode de fonctionnement de la machine qui repartira comme avant (donc dans le même mode de fonctionnement) une fois la correction validée. Cet arrêt éventuel pour correction n'est pas réellement pénalisant pour la cadence de traitement des articles de courrier qui, même avec ces arrêts, est bien supérieure celle antérieure pour laquelle un traitement manuel de chaque enveloppe non reconnue est nécessaire.With the invention, in the event of non-recognition, it is no longer necessary to extract the unrecognized envelope from the machine in order to read the address, to enter the name and the code at the user interface of the machine. postal code and reload the envelope into its power supply module after changing the operating mode of the machine (changing from batch mode to standard mode) to be individually franked. The display of the address block directly on the screen of the user interface makes it possible to carry out the necessary correction without changing the operating mode of the machine which will start as before (therefore in the same operating mode) once the validated correction. This possible stop for correction is not really penalizing for the rate of processing of mail items which, even with these stops, is much higher than the previous one for which manual processing of each unrecognized envelope is necessary.
On notera que l'invention trouve aussi application pour d'autres taches que le traitement de courrier suivi et notamment dans le cas où la lecture des éléments de l'adresse est nécessaire, par exemple, pour le calcul du tarif postal en fonction de la destination (code postal ou pays).It should be noted that the invention also finds application for other tasks than the mail processing followed and especially in the case where the Reading the elements of the address is necessary, for example, for calculating the postal rate according to the destination (postal code or country).
Claims (11)
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
FR0756386A FR2918782B1 (en) | 2007-07-10 | 2007-07-10 | POSTALIZATION METHOD WITH CORRECTION OF ERRORS. |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
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EP2017793A1 true EP2017793A1 (en) | 2009-01-21 |
Family
ID=38779863
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP08159724A Withdrawn EP2017793A1 (en) | 2007-07-10 | 2008-07-04 | Franking method with error correction |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
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US (1) | US20090018977A1 (en) |
EP (1) | EP2017793A1 (en) |
FR (1) | FR2918782B1 (en) |
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2007
- 2007-07-10 FR FR0756386A patent/FR2918782B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
-
2008
- 2008-07-04 EP EP08159724A patent/EP2017793A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2008-07-08 US US12/169,026 patent/US20090018977A1/en not_active Abandoned
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EP0589119A1 (en) * | 1992-09-25 | 1994-03-30 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method for improving processing of OCR scanned mail |
US5697504A (en) * | 1993-12-27 | 1997-12-16 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Video coding system |
US6178411B1 (en) * | 1996-05-28 | 2001-01-23 | Joshua J. Reiter | Interactive process for applying or printing information on letters or parcels |
US6520407B1 (en) * | 1997-11-04 | 2003-02-18 | Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Method and system for recognizing routing information on letters and parcels |
FR2872612A1 (en) * | 2004-06-30 | 2006-01-06 | Neopost Ind Sa | SUPPLY DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED DIFFERENTIAL WEIGHTING MODULE |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
FR2918782B1 (en) | 2009-10-30 |
FR2918782A1 (en) | 2009-01-16 |
US20090018977A1 (en) | 2009-01-15 |
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