Patent Application
20070143232
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing an indicium or marking and, more particularly, to an indicium or marking with a hidden key for subsequent processing of an article, such as a mail piece.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Printing indicium, such as linear or 2D bar codes or mail piece indicium, with one ink limits the information capacity of the indicium and also does not allow embedding of covert information. Printing of postage indicium with a color luminescent ink, such as a fluorescent ink or a phosphorescent ink, is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/692,569 filed Oct. 24, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Dark color fluorescent inks (e.g., dual luminescent) are described in U.S. patent application publication Nos. US 2002/0195586 A1, US 2003/0005303 A1, and US 2003/0041774 A1, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/692,570, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes halftone printing and gray scale printing with multi-signal transmission ink. U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,418 discloses multiple resolution machine readable symbols.
Barcodes are used in many applications for the identification, tracking, and tracing of objects, letters, or packages. Some applications require only very basic information about an object (identity or destination) while other applications require detailed information about an object (e.g. postage paid, origin address, postage meter number, sender, addressee, destination address, weight, date, contents, batch number). Barcodes are also used extensively for the identification of objects for sale; for example the Universal Product Code (UPC), and in many other applications. Such barcodes could, in principle, be expanded to include data about batch numbers, production dates, or expiration dates to aid in product recalls and rotation of product inventory.
Introduction of additional indicium information can be hindered by several factors including: real estate available on the object for bar coding; existing standardized barcode specification precluding expansion (e.g., PostNet is set as 12 digits); resolution of existing barcode readers and printers; expense and logistics to retrofit existing readers and printers; need for barcoding schemes to conform to the least common denominator user.
Currently the solution for adding additional information in an indicium is to retain the old scheme (e.g., PostNet barcode) for a period of time longer than desired. When the need becomes acute, then new schemes (for instance PLANET and Universal Postal Union (UPU)/Remote Video Encoding (RVE) barcode supplementary barcodes) can be added to the same object, such as an envelope. This approach is especially unsatisfactory because it drives the adoption of independent/non-integrated indicium rather than driving the adoption of coordinated/integrated indicium solutions with a clear upward migration path. In the retail market place, the problems associated with expansion of barcodes and introduction of new barcode reader standards have precluded the use of these barcodes to aid in the Universal Product Code (UPC) tracking of expiration dates or product batch numbers.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a mail piece indicium for a mail piece is provided including a first section printed with a first ink; and a second section printed with a second different ink. The first and second sections include a substantially same color in normal daylight. The first and second sections are intermixed such that combined reading of the first and second sections conveys a first mail piece indicium information. The second ink is adapted to be machine readable to read a second different mail piece indicium information contained in the second section.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system for processing a mail piece is provided comprising a printer, a reader and a controller. The printer is adapted to print a mail piece indicium on the mail piece. The printer is adapted to print the indicium with a first section printed with a first ink and a second section printed with a second different ink. The first and second inks comprise a substantially same color in normal daylight. The reader is adapted to sense the second ink for reading information printed in the second section of the indicium with the second ink. The controller is adapted to further process the mail piece based upon the information in the second section read by the reader.
In accordance with one method of the present invention, a method of processing a mail piece is provided comprising printing a mail piece indicium on the mail piece, the mail piece indicium comprising first information printed in at least two different ink sections, wherein different respective inks of the at least two sections have a substantially same color in normal daylight, and wherein when exposed to an excitation source a second one of the sections printed with a second one of the inks is separately discernable from a first one of the sections printed with the first one of the inks; reading the second section when exposed to an excitation source to obtain second information contained in the second section; and performing an action on the mail piece based upon the second information read in the second section.
The foregoing aspects and other features of the present invention are explained in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
The mail piece 10 shown in
Referring also to
The first ink 28 preferably comprises a normal printer ink, such as a non-luminescent black ink for example. The second ink preferably comprises a color luminescent ink, such as a fluorescent ink or a phosphorescent ink, such as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/692,569 filed Oct. 24, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,827,769, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,723 which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. In a preferred embodiment, the first and second inks have a substantially same color in normal daylight when viewed by a person, such as black for example. Because the second ink is a luminescent ink, it can be excited by a radiation source, such as an Ultraviolet (UV) light, to read the ink separate from other ink(s).
Referring also to
The first and second sections 32, 34 combine to form the indicium 12 and the first information of the indicium which can be read by a person in normal daylight. In alternate embodiments, the indicium could comprise more than two sections, such as when more than two inks are used to print the indicium. In addition, the inks could have different colors in normal daylight, so long as the first information is preferably relatively easily read or discernable by a person in normal daylight.
Because the second section 34 is printed with luminescent ink, it can be read separate from the first section 32 when subjected to an excitation source, such as a UV light for example. Referring to
The present invention gives the possibility of adding information seamlessly to printed indicium by adding an additional ink with a same visual color, but with the potential of being read in a fluorescence mode (ON/OFF) and, therefore, automate the process without introducing other major changes in the reader except using an excitation UV lamp. The present invention could be used on all postage meters and all products related to the USPS intelligent mail. The invention can consist of printing with two or more different inks with the same visual appearance, but one with a hidden signal revealed by UV exposure in order to encode variable information by changing in a predetermined way the location of the inks used to print specific characters, modules, pixels. This can be applied to specific symbologies, OCR, alphanumeric characters, etc. The encoded information can be read by using a scanner with an excitation lamp which excites a Black Fluorescent (BF) ink and causes a strong signal that can be read in an “ON”” mode of an UV lamp automatically by a scanner.
The main use of this concept can be in postage meters or addressing machines by creating a secret key, such as in the destination address, by interlacing characters with BF ink in predetermined locations. The key can point (link) to an independent data base that has the rest of the information as well as the last update. A scanner on the postage meter can read the embedded key information, lookup instructions or process the embedded ones, and then take appropriate action such as applying postage and/or postal Value Added Services for example.
The invention can be used in a IBIP bar code, POSTNET barcode, etc. in order to encode secret keys, information about the origin of the piece, payments, etc. Another embodiment can be in the use of intelligent mail by embedding the POSTNET in the Planet code and embedding information in each code separately.
The use of this key can be for one time use and real time refreshing as well, or to pointing to a data base by assigning a unique code to the message. The processes used can be in, for example: storing/retrieving, payments, instructions for mail processing, services, etc. The information included can be, for example,: class of mail, mailer number, batch number.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can use this invention for their intelligent mail as well. The USPS intelligent mail initiative objective is to be able to uniquely identify individual pieces and unit loads. For different types of mail, the Postal Service will use different bar code symbologies because of differences in mailer needs and in equipment used to process the mail. For letters and flats the Postal Service currently uses POSTNET codes for routing and Planet code for identification. These are numeric codes with combinations of five tall and short bars representing different numbers. The USPS is looking at alternative codes including 2D bar codes and 4 state bar codes used in other countries as a means to combine sorting and identification into a single code.
In one embodiment, the present invention can be used to provide operational codes. In this scenario, the destination address can be used as the secret key repository after meter instruction encoding is determined. The base text for the encoding can read characters and wrap around to the next line (and each line thereafter) forming a continuous sequence of characters or tokens.
For Example, the destination address:
Mike Swenson
35 Waterview Drive
Shelton Conn. 06484
becomes:
Mike Swenson 35 Waterview Drive Shelton Conn. 06484
Now that there is a string of tokens, one can apply a set of operation codes to them. In our example case, we have a three part operation code, Postage Class, Value Added Service, and a variable length code for service specific data. In this simple example of an encoding scheme we use 3 bits (or tokens) for postage class. We will use 4 bits (or tokens) for Value Added Service, and the rest for the variable data required by the service or class of postage (as required). A simple table can be used to decode the scheme. For example:
And our operation is the following binary number: 001011000001100101010100
To encode/decode, one can squeeze out spaces: MikeSwenson35WaterviewDriveSheltonConn.06484. And the token string with operation looks like this (bold used to symbolize fluorescent alphanumeric characters):
MikeSwenson35WaterviewDriveSheltonConn.06484
The alphanumeric characters which can be luminesced are “k”, “S”, “w”, “3”, “5”, “t”, “r” and “w”. Expanded back for envelope view:
Mike Swenson
35WaterviewDrive
SheltonConn.06484
A person can create content for the letter (or other object). They can then use a desktop computer and printer with a software plug-in for their address program (such as a software plug-in for MS Word), such as a Pitney Bowes plug-in for creating an envelope, and a luminescent ink cartridge for their printer. Alternatively, the printing and software for printing could be in a separate device, such as a dedicated mailer, rather than a desktop computer. The software could comprise a number of check boxes and services for the user to select. The user selects the features they want to use, inserts an envelope and prints the envelope. The software can calculate which characters will be luminescent, such as fluorescent, and tell the plain ink cartridge and the luminescent ink cartridge to print respective predetermined ones of the characters.
The addressed envelope can then be put in the user's outbox. When the addressed envelope arrives in the mail room, the addressed envelope looks like every other addressed envelope there, and it is fed into a properly equipped postage meter. The meter can have a scanner and can read which characters are excited and which are not (i.e., which characters are printed with plain ink and which characters are printed with luminescent ink). The meter can then decode the instructions or secret key stored in the characters printed with the luminescent ink. The postage meter can then automatically set the appropriate setting, such as postage class, postage value and other services requested for example. The meter can then print the postage meter indicia 18 on the envelope.
One of the features of the present invention is that an increased information density can be provided using differing inks that are not obviously present to a casual observer, but which do not require major changes to a bar code reader.
As noted above, the information of the second information contained in the second section 34 could comprise identification of Postage Class, a Value Added Service, and/or a variable length code for service specific data. These are only examples of information which might be contained in the second information. Any suitable type of information could be provided. Referring also to
The invention can be used with Multi-ink Metameric Codes for Optimal Information. Metamerism is the property where two objects with different spectra produce in the same visual effect. The human-visual system (HVS) sees color through a set of three filters. Any images whose spectra produce the same three signals through these three filters produce the same signal in the HVS. The spectrum of an image depends on the illuminating spectrum. Reflection spectra that are metameric under one lighting source can be distinguished under a different lighting source. Therefore, metamerism should be referred to a particular illumination. An example is black pigment ink and black dye-based ink. The dye-based ink generally has higher reflectance in the red and infrared. In the following, metameric inks refer to two or more inks that appear the same under normal daylight or room illumination. Inks can also differ in their luminescent spectrum. The term luminescence includes phosphorescence and fluorescence. The definition of metameric used here includes inks that differ in luminescence such as a non-luminescent ink and a luminescent ink with the same apparent color under normal lighting. An example is black ink and black fluorescent ink.
Encoding in a metameric image can be, for example, used in a multi-level barcode encoding scheme. A metameric encoded image hides information using a set of metameric inks. The metamerism is detected using a set of sensors with different spectral characteristics that respond differently to the different metameric inks. There is a range of possible encoding schemes. A naive scheme simply uses two (or N) metameric inks and encodes information using any standard two-level (or N-level) barcode such as PostNet, DataMatrix or PDF417. In the two-level case, one ink is used for the normally black portions and a second metameric ink is used for the normally white areas. In the N-level case, ink n is used to encode level n, where n ε {1, 2 . . . N}.
A more sophisticated approach would encode information in linear combinations of multiple metameric inks. Consider an image with N metameric inks. There is a relationship f(σ1, σ2, . . . σN)=c describing the combinations of densities of inks that produce the same visual effect, where σ1 is the surface density of ink i. In a simple case this relationship is approximately linear, with a vector of weights wi so that the metameric combinations satisfy Σiwiσi=c. The weights and surface densities are all positive. Information can be encoded in an image in the combination of σ1's used to reach c.
It is desirable to allow c to be a predetermined function c(x, y) of position in the image, so that the image as seen in the HVS is recognizable. Define s1(x, y)=wiσ1(x, y)/c(x, y). The set s1(x, y) defines a direction independent of c(x, y) in the space spanned by the metameric inks at each point in the image. The sum over the inks satisfies Σisi=1. The naive encoding scheme represents each level by a different ink, that is, simply set sn=1 for the n that corresponds to the encoded information level, and sj=0 for the n≠j. A more complex and higher density encoding can be achieved for two inks by selecting the value s1 in {0, 1/M, 2/M, . . . (M−1)/M, 1} and setting s2=1−s1. Now M values can be encoded. For more than two inks, the number of combinations can be increased. For example with three inks and M=3 there are nine combinations of the three s's: (1 0 0) and two permutations, and (2/3, 1/3, 0) and 5 permutations. For 4 metameric inks and M=3 there are 20 combinations so each position can encode over 4 bits. The data can be arranged in a pattern like a barcode.
Continuous watermark encoding can be provided. The phase space watermark is an example of a quasi-continuous grayscale watermark created by adding a linear combination of wavepackets based on some data to an image. A disadvantage of the phase space watermark is that when the image is examined closely, the wavy noise can be seen. The watermark tends to degrade the image quality. Employing two metameric inks allows an improved watermark. Represent the image c(x, y)=c(x, y)·(s1(x, y)+s2(x, y)). If the watermark is δ(x, y) then set s1(x, y)=0.5+δ(x, y) and s2(x, y)=0.5−δ(x, y). The HVS sees c(x, y), while a detector designed to see the difference between ink 1 and ink 2 sees a signal proportional to δ(x, y).
Instructions are provided to the printing device 20 (see
After the mail piece indicium is printed or applied to the mail piece substrate or label, the mail piece can be further processed. Referring also to
The reader 52 generally comprises an excitation source 58 and a scanner 60. The mail piece can be passed by the excitation source 58 and exposed to an energy source, such as UV light for example, to excite the ink of the second section 34. The scanner 60 is adapted to read the image produced by the luminescent second section 34. A corresponding signal is sent from the reader 52 to the controller 54. The controller is adapted to send a signal to the further processor 56 based upon the signal received from the reader 52 and programming or a data base of the controller. The further processor can include, for example, a postage meter which can print the postage indicium 18 on the mail piece 10 or a label to be applied to the mail piece. The value of the postage indicium 18 could be at least partially selected based upon the information of the second information in the second section 34. For example, if the second information contains postage class information, the postage indicium 18 would be selected based upon the postage class information contained in the second section 34.
The further processing could comprise additional or alternate further processing of the mail piece. For example, if the second information contained a value added service, such as email tracking notification or certified mail for example, the further processor 56 could print additional information on the mail piece substrate or attach a label or tag to the mail piece substrate 11. These are only some examples, any suitable further automatic processing based upon the second information stored in the mail piece indicium could be provided. The mail piece could have multiple mail piece indicia with stored second information as well as their first information.
Referring now to
Similar to the embodiment described above in
Referring now to
It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the invention. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims.
