Patent Application
20080288594
The invention relates generally to world-wide delivery of mail pieces such as post cards or letters and more specifically to methods, systems and devices for reception or creation of a mail piece at one geographical location and delivery of a replica of this mail piece at the mail address of an addressee.
During resent years the availability of personal computers, both stationary and mobile has become widespread and so has the access to the Internet either from personal computers or from other communication units such as mobile telephones provided with for instance Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP) communication means for access to the Internet, thereby enabling flexible communication on a world-wide basis. Also the use of electronic mail (e-mail) has become available to many users, not only for professional purposes but also for private use. Among other applications of e-mail communication, the use of e-mails for sending for instance holiday greetings to friends and family including text messages and various pictures for instance of the sender with a chosen local background has become popular. By this means of communication the addressee can receive said holiday greetings on his own personal computer.
Although the above mode of communication has become quite popular many people still enjoy receiving an actual post card or letter from a friend abroad due to the more authentic and personal appearance of the received mail piece. Also the sender may not have access to means for sending an e-mail or he may have acquired for instance a special post card, the content and appearance of which he thinks the addressee will particularly enjoy. Thus, the sender would like to provide the addressee with this particular mail piece, possibly provided with a personal text message in the sender's own handwriting and still have the advantage of the rapid and flexible mode of delivery provided by communication via the Internet.
On the above background it is a first object of the present invention to provide a method and corresponding system and devices allowing a person to purchase a post card or other mail piece at a first geographical location and at a second geographical location recreate a replica of this post card or other mail piece for delivery to the addressee by the postal system at the second geographical location Thus, according to one embodiment, the present invention simulates the actual physical delivery of for instance a post card purchased at one geographic location at a second remote address for instance in another country.
According to other embodiments of the present invention it is possible to alter the appearance of the original physical mail piece for instance by adding various kinds of graphical and/or pictorial elements to the post card prior to sending it from the first geographical location. A number of ways of modifying the appearance and content of the original mail piece will be described in the detailed description of the invention. According to the invention it may even be possible to add sound and/or still or moving pictures to the original post card as will also be described further below.
Optionally the mail piece delivered at the second geographical location may not be based on an actual physical mail piece provided at the first geographical location, such as an actual physical post card comprising a picture and provided with a text message but may alternatively be based on pictures, text and other data provided by the system according to the invention, access to which can be attained at the first geographical location and which information can be used for creating an electronic version of a mail piece. Both traditional 2-dimensional mail pieces such as post cards and letters may be sent to/delivered to an addressee by the method and system according to the invention, but also more sophisticated kinds of “mail pieces” or communication items may be passed between a sender and an addressee using the method and system according to the invention. Among such more sophisticated communication items 3-dimensional images may be mentioned.
Thus, according to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for delivery of mail pieces at an addressee comprising the following steps:
The above address of the reception and delivery centre/printing facility may comprise only the country and/or postal number (for instance DK 1601 indicating a central postal area of Copenhagen in Denmark), whereas the postal address of the addressee could be contained in the electronic mail piece itself.
Referring to point (e) above, delivery of the hard copy of the mail piece could take place for instance by a special delivery service in stead of the postal service—for instance the local post office—at the site of reception. In such cases it might be necessary to indicate the address of this special service specifically, whereas in case of normal postal delivery the mailing address, for instance comprising the addressee's name, street and street number, postal number or zip code and country, would be sufficient for identifying the proper reception centre for the particular addressee.
Referring to point (c) above, the transmission path could comprise the Internet. As will be described in more detail below, the transmission path could furthermore comprise at least one global centre for providing global facilities which may be shared by all users of a system according to the invention and for control and supervision of the method and system of the invention. Thus, for instance mail pieces generated at one geographical location containing for instance a scenery or other information which could potentially be interesting for senders at other geographical locations could according to the invention be shared between different geographical locations and for instance stored at said global centre. The invention thus provides for the possibility of information interaction between various senders for instance during the creation of the electronic version of a mail piece.
Specifically, although not necessarily, the creation of an electronic version of a mail piece can according to the invention be based on an actual physical mail piece, as for instance a post card purchased at the first geographical location but it can also be based on libraries of pictures or other lay-outs of mail pieces stored in the system implementing the above method and available to the user at the site of creation of said electronic version of a mail piece. In the first of the above cases a step of actually providing a physical mail piece would precede step (a) above.
A mail piece can be any type of entity, which could be delivered by mail. A post card would be a typical example of a mail piece, which could be delivered by means of the method, system and devices according to the present invention. The electronic version of the post card would in this context comprise an electronic version of the post card itself provided with a text message written by the sender and the mailing address of the addressee. The post card can either be provided with a physical stamp prior to the creation of the electronic version or as an option an electronic “stamp” or code replacing a stamp (for instance the PP-mark in Denmark) can be created along with the creation of the electronic version of the post card. Such alternatives will be described in more detail in the detailed description of the invention.
According to the inventive method, the address of the reception and delivery centre can either be chosen by the sender himself or optionally be automatically chosen by the system carrying out the inventive method based on the mailing address of the addressee provided by the sender.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for delivery of mail pieces to an addressee comprising:
According to one embodiment, the system furthermore comprises at least one global centre for instance for providing common facilities to all of said user interface posts or other input means used by a sender of an electronic mail piece such as pictures for inclusion in electronic versions of mail pieces etc and for control and supervision of the data transmission throughout the system. Thus, according to this preferred embodiment of the invention, the system comprises:
According to a specific embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for producing hard copies of electronic mail pieces at a reception and delivery centre or printing facility for subsequent delivery to an addressee of pick up by the addressee. The system—which will be described in more detail in the detailed description of the invention—comprises:
The print servers ensure among other things that the electronic data forwarded to each individual printing facility are of a form accepted by the particular printing facility, for example relating to the properties of the electronic files making up the electronic mail piece. Thus, different printing facilities may require different data formats and file properties according to the specific types of printers, etc. at these facilities.
According to the invention, the above-mentioned clients could be mobile phones, stands or user interface posts, kiosks or personal computers or other electronic communication means, which may either be stationary or mobile.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system comprises a payment server for management and control of payment for transactions carried out by means of the system.
According to the invention, the above-mentioned storage means/database can be used for storing electronic representations of images, texts, etc. which may be used by all clients of the system for the creation of the finished electronic version of a mail piece. As mentioned previously, different clients may even share information, pictures etc. and interact with each other through the global server application and associated storage means of the system according to the invention. Furthermore, a global back-up copy of a mail piece may be stored.
Furthermore, the storage means/database may be used for temporarily storing electronic versions of mail pieces prior to their provision from said print server to said reception and delivery centres/printing facilities.
According to the invention, the whole application necessary for the creation of said electronic version of a mail piece can be run on the above-mentioned server application, i.e. globally. It may, however, alternatively be run either on a specific client, provided this client possesses enough processing/storage capacity to run the complete application, or the application may be shared between the server application of the system according to the invention and a given client. By running either the complete necessary application or part of this on specific clients, the global functional entities of the system can be relieved of work.
Further details of the preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention will be found in the detailed description of the invention.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to an electronic kiosk or user interface post or stand, i.e. an interface means for creating an electronic version of said mail piece as well as a receiving station for receiving an electronic version of a mail piece and creating a hard copy of this electronic version. As used in the present context, the term “user interface post or stand” is used to indicate a single physical unit at which the user can create or manipulate electronic versions of for instance post cards. The interface means may among other features comprise means for scanning of the mail piece, means for displaying the scanned version of the mail piece, means for providing a hard copy of the scanned and finished mail piece, means for providing the scanned mail piece with text and means for payment for the transaction. Numerous other features may optionally be present in the means and some of these will be described in the detailed description of the invention. The term “kiosk” is in the present context used to indicate a region, for instance a booth, enclosure or dedicated room containing said user interface post but possibly also containing other physical units which can be used during the creation or manipulation of electronic post cards or other mail pieces. Such units could for instance comprise a camera for taking a picture of the user for inclusion on the electronic version of the post card and this camera may advantageously be placed remotely from said user interface post. The kiosk may furthermore comprise a table for initial preparation of a mail piece prior to provision hereof the user interface post.
In a broader sense, the term “kiosk” may also relate to any portable electronic communication unit comprising means for creation and manipulation of an electronic mail piece. As an example of a communication unit, a mobile telephone provided with a camera could also be regarded as a “kiosk” within the context of the present invention.
In the first mentioned case where a kiosk is a region containing a user interface post according to the invention, the kiosk may be provided with a number of such user interface posts. Additionally tables for preparation of post cards could also contain some of the features (described in the detailed description of the invention) of the user interface post so that a part of the preparation of the electronic version of the mail piece can take place from the table rather than from the interface post. In this case the table should be provided with means for communicating with the interface post.
A number of embodiments of the above method, system and devices are described in the detailed description of the invention and defined by the corresponding dependent claims.
Application of the method, system and devices according to the invention as defined above can be exemplified by the following series of events, but it is understood that this is only one specific example of an application of the method, system and devices according to the invention. Further details will appear from the detailed description of embodiments of the invention.
A person attending an international convention has during the interval between successive presentations of papers at the convention centre found time to visit the picturesque old castle of the town in which the convention takes place and has in fact been able to purchase a post card of the castle. He wants to send this post card provided with a greeting to a friend living abroad. He knows that his friend is particularly fond of getting personal greetings, in the senders own handwriting, from travelling friends and in fact he values the authenticity of the received post card including the proper stamp of the country from which the post card is sent provided with the proper postmark. Time is short, however, and the sender has no time for visiting a post office to get a stamp and he is at any rate leaving the country of the convention in a few hours. It would be out of the question to take the post card with him on leaving the country and post it at a later opportunity.
The convention centre is, however, provided with a post or kiosk according to the present invention where the post card can be scanned (and provided with pictures etc.) either provided with the text in the senders own handwriting prior to the scanning process or optionally provided with means for handwriting on the scanned image of the original post card. As mentioned previously, not only traditional 2-dimensional post items but also more sophisticated items comprising 3-dimensional images and/or post items, video sequences and audio sequences may according to the invention be generated at the post/kiosk. The post furthermore provides for the possibility of establishing the image of the post card with a picture of a stamp from the country where the user interface post is situated and means for writing the mailing address of the addressee on the image in case the sender has not already written the mailing address on the original post card. Optionally the sender is also able to provide the post with information relating to the nearest post office for delivery of the post card in the country of the addressee for the purpose of ensuring that the post card be delivered to the addressee as soon as possible. Thus, the actual sending of the original, authentic post card requires very limited time and can easily be carried out at the convention centre. The sending of the post card can furthermore be charged on the post by a number of means for instance either by payment by cash or by means of the sender's credit card or other electronic payment means. Soon the next day the addressee receives his mail piece, the appearance of which can resemble an original post card or other mail piece very closely.
The present invention offers a number of advantages for a user wishing to communicate world-wide with an addressee in cases where the addressee desires to receive a mail piece, i.e. physical entity corresponding to what he would have received in case of actual world-wide postal delivery.
The invention will be more fully understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention in conjunction with the drawings, where:
In the following detailed description of the present invention, embodiments of the system and associated devices according to the invention are shown and described in detail but it is understood that other embodiments of the underlying concept of the invention are also possible and comprised within the scope of the present invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
Referring to
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system is provided with a global system (indicated schematically by reference numerals 8 and 9 in
It is understood that the subdivision of the global portions of the system according to the invention into two centres, i.e. the global interface post server 8 and the global control and supervision centre 9 is not in principle necessary for the functioning of the system according to the invention. A specific embodiment of the system according to the invention, showing among other things more details of the global portion of the system will be described in connection with
A “second geographical location” can for instance be region (for instance a country or a specific region within a country or a large city etc.) as indicated schematically by reference numeral 4 comprising a regional post office serving as a central reception and distribution centre, and provided with means such as a network server indicated schematically by 12 for communicating with the Internet 5 and furthermore via a local network with a number of local post offices indicated by 7, 11 in
Now referring to
Various means for providing the scanned post card with text can be provided. In the embodiment shown in
Using the reader indicated by 21 or 22 on
Although not shown in
Apart from creating an electronic post card from a scanned version of an actual physical post card, the interface post (or an associated server etc.) may also be provided with a library of pictures for use during the creation of the electronic version of a post card. Furthermore, pre-recorded pictures and/or text may be loaded into the interface means as indicated at 21 or 22 of
Now referring to
In the interface post, cursor means (for instance a computer mouse or optionally a touch on the touch screen in case the display screen 16 is actually of this type) can be provided for indicating the various lines of the address field. Thus, in case of using the keyboard 24 for entering text to the address field 33, the sender may point to the uppermost line of the address field and then enter the name of the addressee. On the other lines of the address field, the street name and number, the zip code and the country of the addressee can be entered using the keyboard.
Using the Bluetooth pen 26 shown in
Furthermore, the interface post or the local server can be provided with commercials, for instance the logo or trademark of a travelling agency or a local sponsor for inclusion in the post card. This option is indicated in
A mode of payment for the transmission of the electronic version of a post card which is an alternative to those described previously consists of applying a label comprising a PDF-417 bar code to the stamp field 34 or elsewhere on the post card. The user interface post must be provided with means for reading the bar code, for instance a suitable laser scanner and corresponding decoding software. When the information contained in the bar code has been read, the image of the bar code is removed prior to transmission of the electronic version of the mail piece and it can if desired be replaced by an image of for instance a stamp from the geographical location (country) of the user interface post.
Alternatively, payment may by effected by application of a PP-mark or similar on the mail piece as mentioned above.
Occasionally an actual physical post card or other mail piece can be provided with a storage medium, for instance a CD, DVD or memory card for delivery together with the mail piece. This is indicated schematically in
Now referring to
It is envisaged that the system according to the present invention in its broadest set-up comprises a large number of user interface posts/kiosks or other input means such as mobile phones as shown in
According to the embodiment shown in
The user interface post 10 communicates with the external world via a local server 6 providing access to the Internet 5 through a chosen Internet provider.
As already described in connection with
A picture on the mail piece may be composed of several pictures digitally combined or superimposed on each other. Thus, the finished picture may comprise several “layers” of partial images superposed on each other. The creation of the final picture to be transmitted through the system according to the invention may be aided by means of suitable guide or wizard functions, for instance of the kind described in connection with
Referring to
The printed post card is according to the invention provided with either a local stamp or a specially designed “stamp” or digital post mark or label for instance bearing the mark “XXXX”, the latter indicating that the system according to the invention has been used in order to effect the delivery of the post card from the first to the second geographical location. Alternatively, the electronic version can already at the user interface post at the first geographical location be provided with a picture of a stamp included in the electronic version of the post card. Finally, the receiving centre provides the post card with the date of reception of the post card, which due to the electronic transmission will equal the date of sending of the post card from the remote location. After finishing the hard copy of the post card this can eventually be delivered to the addressee by ordinary mail service. For this purpose, the reception and delivery centre/printing facility may furthermore be provided with an enveloping device.
An exemplary embodiment of the system according to the invention will now be described in even more detail with reference to
The system shown in
The system basically comprises a number of input means, or “clients” 55, 56, 57 and 58 allowing a user to create an electronic mail piece. The system furthermore comprises a global data processing/storage and management block 65, a part of the functional units of which may however be allocated to the different input means or “clients” as described below. The last stage of this global block 65 is according to the shown embodiment a print server 69, which transmits the electronic mail piece to a number of reception and distribution centres or printing facilities 72, where actual physical copies/versions of the mail pieces are created for delivery or distribution to the recipient. Data transmission between the various input means 55, 56, 57 and 58 and the global block 65 takes place via a transmission network 59 of any suitable kind, for instance a WAN (wide area network) using suitable network protocols. Also the transmission of the final electronic mail piece from the print server 67 to the reception and delivery centres or printing facilities 72 takes place via a suitable data transmission network 71.
The system basically comprises a number of input means which may be of the kind actually shown and described in connection with
Data processing and storage capabilities differ for different kinds of clients. Thus, for clients with limited processing/storage capabilities, for instance the mobile phones 55, some of the total required data processing/storage application will be provided at the client itself and some of the application be provided by a server application 66 communicating with the client 55 via a suitable communication network, such as the WAN 59 shown in
Clients with more processing/storage capacity, such as a stand 56 or a personal computer 58 may run the total application and transmit the resulting electronic version of a mail piece directly to the print server 69, thus relieving the global block 65 of some of the necessary work load.
An important functional unit of the system according to the invention is the storage means or database 68. The database 68 manages and controls the whole system and contains all common features of the system, i.e. the features that all clients 55, 56, 57, 58 may use for instance for preparation of a given mail piece. The database may also store finished mail pieces for a specific printing facility 72, for instance if the connection via the communication network 71 to the printing facility is interrupted for a period or if it is beneficial to forward the mail piece to a particular printing facility during certain time intervals, for instance due to lower transmission costs in those intervals. The database 68 is administered by a global manager 70. Some of the clients with more processing and storage power may comprise a smaller, local database (as shown by reference numerals 47 to 51 in
All clients must according to the shown embodiment of the invention contact the server application 66 via the corresponding interface application in order to up-date the database 68.
Each of the interface applications 60, 61, 62, 63 facilitates the access of each of the corresponding kinds of clients to the system. The functions necessary for the communication between each particular client and the system may be suitably divided between the clients' own hardware/software or be comprised totally in the particular interface application. Each of the interface applications may also contain filters dedicated to the particular kind of client, and each interface application may furthermore control up-dating of the clients' own database from the global database 68.
The interfaces furthermore communicate with a payment server 67, which facilitates payment for instance by credit card, etc. Different clients may require different forms of payment and this may be controlled and managed through co-operation of the particular interface application and the payment server. The payment server 67 manages and controls all functions necessary for payment of the transactions from a client. However, at least some of the clients may additionally contain means for storing information relating to payments during communication interruptions. For instance the payment server may control the sending of a mail piece by the clients' interface application asking the payment server whether a credit card used for payment of a transaction from the particular client is authorised for payment of a particular amount. The electronic mail piece is processed and sent through the system to the particular printing facility. When the print server receives information from the particular printing facility that the print file is actually being processed by the printing facility, the print server orders the appropriate parts of the global system, for instance the payment server 67, to effect payment for the transaction.
The server application 66 runs all functions, which the individual clients are not to perform themselves. The server application 66 furthermore manages and controls up-dating of the global database 68 in co-operation with the particular interface application and runs all common functions for the processing of incoming mail pieces from the clients. The incoming mail pieces may for instance be postcards, facsimiles (FAX) or letters with envelopes and may contain text messages written by means of a suitable word-processing program. The mail pieces may contain images, both stills and video sequences and even sound files. In this connection it is emphasised that the printing facilities 72 may not only comprise means for printing a document on a suitable material but also means for preparing CD's and DVD's, etc as mentioned previously.
The print server 69 is one of the key features of the system, and it manages and controls all functions for printing the finished mail pieces. The different printing facilities may require different forms of text files, etc. representing the mail pieces, received by that printing facility and the print server may for instance create the finished mail piece in the form of a PDF-file. Any filters necessary for optimising the printing quality attainable by a particular printing facility may also be run on the print server. A given printing facility may comprise a number of printers, printing different kinds of mail pieces. The transfer from the print server to the particular printing facility may take place using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or POP3 (Post Office Protocol) or other means preferred by the particular printing facility.
The provision of the global database 68 makes it possible as mentioned above temporarily to store electronic versions of mail pieces created through interaction between the particular client (via his corresponding interface application) and the server application in the database 68, and this stored mail piece may be retrieved by the printing facility in case the corresponding print file sent from the print server contains errors. Thus, electronic versions of mail pieces may be kept in the database 68 for a period of for instance 24 hours. All electronic mail pieces are provided by a unique identification (ID) and can be traced if lost anywhere in the transmission path between the client and the printing facility. The number of electronic mail pieces actually sent from clients of the system can be cross-checked with the number of mail pieces actually printed by the printing facilities. Loss of mail pieces may thus be detected.
Any number of printing facilities 72 may be provided in the system according to the invention and any of the printing facilities may comprise several printers and additional means for preparing CD's, DVD's, etc., as mentioned above. For instance a given country may be served by a single or a number of printing facilities/reception and delivery centres.
In
According to a specific embodiment of the system according to the invention, at least some of the clients may be provided with printer driver means for setting and controlling different parameters relevant to the actual printing of the mail piece at a printing facility and/or for actually choosing a particular printing facility. Such printer driver means may for instance be provided in clients comprising a personal computer, i.e. a client indicated by 55, 58 in
The system according to the invention can be controlled and managed centrally as indicated by reference numeral 84 in
Further details of the system according to the invention shown and described above in connection with
Referring to
Finally,
A further option (C), a mail piece comprising several pictures each provided with individual texts may be provided. Initially a suitable font is chosen and an overall text message consisting for instance of a maximum of 1500 characters is written. Any number of pictures may then be added to the preceding text message, some of these pictures for instance taken by means of a camera provided in the mobile phone or anywhere else and some of which are downloaded from the global database 66, and the individual pictures provided with dedicated text messages/picture captions. As in the above options, the resulting electronic mail piece will be provided with a To-address and a From-address prior to sending to the global system of the invention.
The To- and From addresses might comprise the name, address and number, postal number (zip code etc.) and country.
It is understood that further functions which may aid a user of a mobile communication device in forming an electronic mail piece may be incorporated into the auxiliary function (wizard) of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04028711.2 | Dec 2004 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB05/54026 | 12/2/2005 | WO | 00 | 8/1/2008 |
