Patent Grant
7747544
The invention disclosed herein relates generally to mail metering systems, and more particularly to generating and authenticating a fraud-resistant postage indicium for a mail piece.
Currently, one can send a mailpiece (e.g., letter, package, etc.) through the United States Postal Service (hereafter referred to as USPS) using a postage indicium as evidence of postage payment. The sender may employ a postage meter certified by the USPS (or the postal service of another country) to generate the indicium. The indicium is generally printed on a meter tape (which is later attached to the mailpiece) or directly onto the mailpiece itself, using a printer associated with the postage meter, which may be, for example, an inkjet printer, a thermal transfer printer, or a laser printer. The indicium can subsequently be authenticated by the USPS. For example, an optical scanning device may be used to read the indicium and a verification algorithm may be used to verify the authenticity of the indicium (e.g., by decoding and interpreting information contained within the indicium).
As is known, a number of different postal indicia are specified by and permitted by the USPS. One particular type of indicium is specified in the USPS's Information Based Indicia Program (IBIP). An IBIP indicium includes both a machine readable portion and a human readable portion that may contain (without limitation) information related to the paid postage amount, the issuance date, the postage meter identification number, a postal service symbol, and the class of service. The machine readable portion is typically comprised of a Data Matrix symbology (i.e., a two-dimensional barcode) which may carry cryptographically protected information, such as the postage amount and other postal data that relates to the mailpiece and to the postage meter that prints the indicium. The encrypted information, which is usually referred to as a digital token or a digital signature, is used for authentication purposes. The encryption is also used to protect the integrity of the information, including the postage amount, imprinted on the mailpiece for later verification of postage payment. Since the digital token incorporates encrypted information relating to evidencing of postage payment, altering the printed information in an indicium is detectable by standard authentication procedures. Examples of systems that are capable of generating and printing such indicia are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,725,718, 4,757,537, 4,775,246 and 4,873,645, each assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
One security problem that exists with the use of IBIP indicia relates to copying of the indicia for reuse. More specifically, a thief may attempt to re-use an indicium by making copies of an indicium on different pieces of meter tape. The piece(s) of meter tape with the copied indicium is then applied to a mail piece and deposited in the mail, without the thief having paid for the postage. Compounding this problem is the fact that technology has become so advanced that even standard consumer devices, such as photocopiers and printers, are capable of producing credible copies of the indicium (i.e., detection of the copied postage is difficult).
Another security problem relates to a single indicium being printed multiple times. For example, a thief may tamper with the postage meter device such that an indicium is printed multiple times (e.g., on different portions of the meter tape, on different mailpieces, etc.) even though the postage amount paid was intended to be associated with a single use.
Thus, there exists a need for a mail metering system that can generate indicia with suitable security properties to allow detection of fraudulent use of the indicia.
One aspect of the present invention relates to a method for producing a postage indicium on a meter tape including determining a location on the meter tape where the indicium is to be printed, generating the indicium with information related to the location incorporated therein, and printing the indicium on the meter tape at the location.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a mail metering system including a detection device, a processor, and a printing device. The detection device is structured to detect a spatial indicator associated with a meter tape. The processor is in operable communication with the detection device and is adapted to execute a routine to determine a location on the meter tape where an indicium is to be printed and to generate the indicium with information related to the location incorporated therein. The printing device is in operable communication with the processor and is structured to print the indicium on the meter tape at the determined location.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of authenticating a postage indicium printed on a meter tape. The method includes retrieving information stored within the indicium, the information identifying a first location where the indicium is supposed to be positioned relative to some initial point on the meter tape, detecting a spatial indicator to identify a second location where the indicium is actually positioned relative to the initial point on the meter tape, and comparing the first location to the second location.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a mail authenticating system including a detection device and a processor. The detection device is structured to detect a spatial indicator and a postage indicium associated with a meter tape. The processor is in operable communication with the detection device. The processor is adapted to execute a routine to retrieve information stored within the indicium, the information identifying a first location where the indicium is supposed to be positioned relative to some initial point on the meter tape, to retrieve information encoded within the spatial indicator, the information identifying a second location where the indicium is actually positioned relative to the initial point on the meter tape, and to compare the first location to the second location.
Therefore, it should now be apparent that the invention substantially achieves all the above aspects and advantages. Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Moreover, the aspects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.
As employed herein, the term “number” shall mean one or more than one and the singular form of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
An apparatus and method for preventing postage fraud is discussed herein. More specifically, a meter tape having a symbology which identifies specific locations on the meter tape is employed in a mail metering system. The mail metering system detects the symbology, uses the symbology to determine a specific location on the meter tape where an indicium is to be printed, generates an indicium which includes the specific location information encoded therein, and prints the indicium at that specific location on the meter tape. The portion of the meter tape having the indicium is then applied to a mailpiece which is deposited into the mail. Once received, a postal authority may scan the indicium and the symbology from the meter tape that was placed on the mailpiece. The postal authority may then compare the specific location information encoded in the indicium to the actual location of the indicium relative to the symbology to verify that the indicium is authentic. The term location refers to coordinates in one or two dimensions with a margin of error determined by the equipment used to produce the meter tape with the symbology, and the metering equipment used to produce the indicium. It should be noted that while the following description is provided with respect to a mail metering system and authentication system for generating and verifying postage indicia that evidences payment of postage for mail pieces, the present invention is not so limited and can be used with any type of system in which an indicium is generated and printed to verify payment or other types of information.
Detection device 2 is structured to detect any number of markings present on a medium that is examined. For example (and without limitation), detection device 2 is structured to detect one or more spatial indicators associated with the meter tape. As employed herein, the term “spatial indicator” (and all derivatives thereof) refers generally to any symbology which corresponds to and/or identifies unique positions on a medium. For example, a spatial indicator may refer to a symbology which corresponds to one or more coordinates that specify the location of a point, line, area, etc. on a meter tape. Although the preferred embodiment shows a one-dimensional spatial indicator running parallel to the length of the indicium, the orientation of the spatial indicator may be perpendicular to the long side of the indicium. A two-dimensional coordinate of the indicium can be used as an input or an indicium printed on a sheet. An example of a symbology that provides a two-dimensional coordinate to locate a point on a sheet is the symbology as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,548,768. Detection device 2 can be any conventional detection device such as, for example, a scanner.
Processor 3 is in operable communication with detection device 2 and is structured to execute any number of routines for, without limitation, generating and printing postage indicia. For example, processor 3 is structured to execute a routine that is adapted to receive information related to the detection of a spatial indicator on a meter tape; responsive to receipt of that information, to determine a location on the meter tape where an indicium is to be printed (e.g., a location where a particular portion of the indicium is to be located); to generate an indicium which incorporates the determined location information therein; and to cause the printing device 4 to print the indicium on the meter tape at the determined location. It should be noted that processor 3 may execute other routines while remaining within the scope of the present invention. For example, processor 3 is structured to execute routines related to other cryptographic processing of information contained within the indicium.
It should be noted that the mail metering system 1 may also include other components, the discussion of which have generally been omitted for clarity. For example, mail metering system 1 may include a number of input devices (not shown) which are in operable communication with processor 3 and which permit a user to interface with the mail metering system 1. The input devices may include a keyboard, mouse, and/or postage scale, among others.
Printing device 4 is in operable communication with the processor 3 and is structured to print the indicia generated by processor 3. In the exemplary embodiment, for example, printing device 4 is structured to print indicia on the meter tape. More specifically, printing device 4 is structured to print, at a specific location on the meter tape, an indicium which contains encoded location information identifying that specific location.
Generally, mail metering system 1 is employed to print postage for a mailpiece. It should be noted that a separate device may be used by a postal authority, for example the USPS, to verify that the postage printed by the mail metering system 1 is authentic by determining whether the indicium is printed in the proper place. This separate device may include a scanner structured to scan the printed postage and symbology on the meter tape and a processor structured to execute a routine adapted to decode the information within the indicium that identifies where the indicium is supposed to be positioned on the meter tape, determine where the indicium is actually positioned on the meter tape, and compare the supposed position of the indicium to the actual position of the indicium on the meter tape.
Although the spatial indicator 6 is discussed in the context of a number of blocks 6a arranged in a serial fashion, it should be apparent that other symbologies may be used while remaining within the scope of the present invention. More specifically, the symbology can be any type of one-dimensional code that holds sufficient information to ensure that the various portions along a meter tape may be uniquely identified. For example, PostNet code, OCR, and 4-state barcode symbologies (among others) are contemplated. Meter tape 5 may also incorporate additional security features. For example, meter tape 5 may include forensically verifiable features such as fluorescence, special security inks, a watermark, and/or unusual spacing of the symbology that makes undetectable copying difficult.
It should be noted that in the exemplary embodiment, the meter tape 5 is processed by the mail metering device 1 in a serial fashion. For example, the meter tape 5 is passed through the detection device 3 and/or printing device 4 from right to left as illustrated by arrow 24 in
In an exemplary embodiment shown in
In the current embodiment, an N-bit LFSR is selected so that the cycle is (2N−1) bits. As a result, a 32-bit LFSR would repeat after approximately four billion bits, whereas a 64-bit LFSR would not repeat for any reasonable estimate of usage. The LFSR uses an array of N+1 registers R0(t) . . . RN(t) and N taps C1 . . . CN. At each step, R0(t) is the output bit. The update for step “t” is RN(t+1)=XORj=0 . . . N−1 (Rj(t) AND CN−j). For i from 0 to N−1, set Ri(t+1)=Ri+1(t) and output R0(t). There is no need to parse the output because each bit is the next in sequence generated by the same algorithm.
It should be noted that mail metering system 1 in the embodiment of
Although discussed in conjunction with an LFSR, it should be noted that a routine adapted to employ another algorithm may be employed while remaining within the scope of the present invention. For example, each inch (or other unit of measure) may be labeled using a Fibonacci representation of the distance from the origin 6d in inches (or other unit of measure). The Fibonacci sequence is [F0, F1, . . . ]=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . Fn=Fn−1+Fn−2 . . . ]. The Fibonacci representation of a number N is constructed by finding the largest element Fn of the Fibonacci sequence smaller than N. The nth position in the expansion of the number is set to 1. The procedure is repeated with N−Fn until there is zero remainder. One advantage of using a Fibonacci representation is that it is binary (0's and 1's) but there are never two 1's in-a-row. Thus, two 1's in-a-row appearing in the bit stream 23 can be used to help parse the stream of bits into locations. The first few natural numbers are represented as [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]=>[1, 10, 100, 101, 1000, 1001, 1010, 10000, 10001].
It should also be noted that the printer 4 may be instructed to randomly advance the meter tape 5 prior to executing operation 13 (i.e., effectively changing the origin 6d for that portion of the meter tape). The random advance makes it more difficult for a thief to predict the supposed location of the next indicium when a number of meter tape segments having the same lengths are printed in sequence.
Other alternatives may also be used. For example, a random or pseudorandom stream of data may be generated and used; any systematically generated stream of data may be used; and/or a stream of data may be generated using a key such that each sequence in the stream can systematically be checked for authenticity. As yet another example, detection device 2 may be placed at a distance sufficiently upstream of the printing device 4. Accordingly, the detection device 2 can detect the spatial indicator 6 such that the processor 3 knows the bit stream (i.e., does not need to predict which bits will be seen). Thus, processor 3 can determine which portion of the meter tape 5 is currently being processed within the mail metering system 1. The processor 3 can generate an indicium incorporating the specific location on the meter tape 5 where the indicium is to be printed. Accordingly, when that portion of the meter tape 5 reaches the downstream printing device 4, the printing device 4 can print the indicium at that specific location.
After the location as to where the indicium will be printed on the meter tape 5 is determined with reference to the spatial indicator 6, operational control is passed to operation 14 shown in
After the indicium is generated in operation 14, the indicium is printed on the meter tape 5 in operation 15. More specifically, printing device 4 prints the indicium at the location on the meter tape 5 that was determined in operation 13. In the current example, printing device 4 prints the indicium such that the leading edge 7a of bar code 7 (which is the beginning of the indicium) is located on the surface 5a of meter tape 5 at the position corresponding with block 6b (i.e., the starting location as determined in operation 13).
Operational control then passes to operation 18 where the spatial indicator 6 on the surface 5a of meter tape 5 is detected. In general, the actual location of the indicium is determined in operation 18. More specifically, in the embodiment shown in
A determination is made at operation 19 as to whether the supposed location of the indicium (i.e., as retrieved from the indicium in operation 17) is the same as the actual location (i.e., as detected in operation 18). In the embodiment shown in
Unlike stock mailing labels which are of fixed length, the length of the meter tape 5 may vary. As will be shown in
While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated above, it should be understood that these are exemplary of the invention and are not to be considered as limiting. Additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
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