Patent Application
20110071944
The present invention relates to the dispensing of postage for a mailpiece, and in particular, to a system and method for dispensing and providing postage for a mailpiece that does not require a printer to print evidence of postage payment.
Postage metering systems are well known in the art, and are often incorporated into mail processing systems, such as mailing machines. A typical postage meter applies evidence of postage, commonly referred to as postal indicia, to envelopes or other mailpieces and accounts for the value of the postage dispensed. As is well known, postage meters include an ascending register that stores a running total of all postage dispensed by the meter, and a descending register that holds the remaining amount of postage credited to the meter and that is reduced by the amount of postage dispensed during a transaction. The postage meter generally also includes a control sum register which provides a check upon the descending and ascending registers. The control sum register has a running account of the total funds being added into the meter. The control sum register must always correspond with the summed readings of the ascending and descending registers. The control sum register is the total amount of postage ever put into the machine and it is alterable only when adding funds to the meter. In this manner, by inspecting the various registers and securing them from tampering, the dispensing of postal funds may be accurately recorded, tracked and accounted for.
More recently, postage metering systems have been developed where the accounting structure described above is no longer resident with the user. Sometimes referred to as a “virtual postage meter,” these types of postage metering/printing systems dispense postage electronically over suitable communication channels (LAN, WAN, telephone lines, Internet, etc.). The user maintains an account with a remotely located data center (typically maintained by an authorized postage meter manufacturer) and receives postage in the form of a postal indicium securely using appropriate electronic data interchange techniques. At a later time, the user is invoiced for the amount of postage dispensed and any other fees associated with maintaining the account with the data center. Typically, a secret code or token is derived from information particular to the mailpiece (the indicated postage amount, date, recipient address information, etc.) and is incorporated or embedded into the postal indicium (e.g., in the form of an encrypted barcode) for later use by a postal authority in verifying the integrity of the postal indicium. Examples of such systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,718 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,038.
In current virtual systems as just described, the received postal indicium must be printed on either the mailpiece itself or a label applied to the mailpiece. When a user is using a PC to dispense postage in this manner, such printing is not an issue as an appropriate printer is typically readily available. However, if the user wishes to use a mobile electronic device, such as a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA), to provide evidence of postage payment, printing an indicium may be an issue as an appropriate printer is often times not readily available.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for dispensing and providing postage for a mailpiece that does not require a printer to be readily available to print evidence of postage payment.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of dispensing evidence of postage payment that includes providing a machine readable mechanism, such as a pre-printed barcode, for being associated with a mailpiece to a customer, wherein the machine readable mechanism includes a first identifier and wherein the customer has a customer identifier. The method further includes receiving first information from a mobile electronic device associated with the customer, the first information including: (i) the first identifier, (ii) the customer identifier, and (iii) mailpiece information relating to the mailpiece, the first identifier included in the first information having been obtained from the machine readable mechanism captured by the mobile electronic device, deducting a postage amount based on the mailpiece information from a postage account associated with the customer identifier, and transmitting the first identifier and verification of payment for postage to a carrier. In one particular embodiment, the mailpiece information includes the postage amount. The mailpiece information may further include recipient address information, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting the recipient address information to the carrier.
The machine readable mechanism preferably comprises a pre-printed barcode (e.g., a 2-D barcode), and may be provided on a label structured to be affixed to a mailing device, such as an envelop or a box, of the mailpiece, or, alternatively, may be pre-printed on the mailing device itself. Alternatively, the machine readable mechanism comprises an RFID tag.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a method of providing evidence of postage payment for a mailpiece that includes obtaining information from a machine readable mechanism using a mobile electronic device associated with a customer, wherein the customer has a customer identifier and the machine readable mechanism includes a first identifier, obtaining the first identifier from the machine readable mechanism, and transmitting first information from the mobile electronic device to a provider maintaining a postage account for the customer, the first information including: (i) the first identifier, (ii) the customer identifier, and (iii) mailpiece information relating to the mailpiece. Preferably, the mailpiece information includes a postage amount for the mailpiece. The mailpiece information may further include recipient address information, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting the recipient address information to the carrier.
The method may further includes steps of obtaining the machine readable mechanism prior to the capturing, and physically associating the machine readable mechanism with the mailpiece and depositing the mailpiece with a carrier for delivery. In one specific embodiment, a barcode is provided on a label, and the physically associating step comprises affixing the label to a mailing device of the mailpiece. In another embodiment, a barcode is pre-printed on a mailing device to be used with the mailpiece, and the physically associating comprises inserting one or more items into the mailing device.
In addition, the invention also provides a mobile electronic device having a processor, a memory, and an information capturing device, wherein the memory has one or more routines executable by the processor, the one or more routines having instructions for causing the mobile electronic device to perform the method described above.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a postal software application for a mobile electronic device, wherein the mobile electronic device is associated with a customer having a customer identifier. The postal software application is stored on a computer readable medium and has a plurality of instructions for causing the mobile electronic device to obtain information from a machine readable mechanism using, for example, an electronic image capture device, the machine readable mechanism including a first identifier, the information obtained including the first identifier, and transmit first information from the mobile electronic device to a provider maintaining a postage account for the customer, the first information including: (i) the first identifier, (ii) the customer identifier, and (iii) mailpiece information relating to the mailpiece. Preferably, the mailpiece information includes a postage amount for the mailpiece. The mailpiece information may further include recipient address information, wherein the transmitting further comprises transmitting the recipient address information to the carrier.
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.
Directional phrases used herein, such as, for example and without limitation, top, bottom, left, right, upper, lower, front, back, and derivatives thereof, relate to the orientation of the elements shown in the drawings and are not limiting upon the claims unless expressly recited therein.
As employed, herein, the statement that two or more parts or components are “coupled” together shall mean that the parts are joined or operate together either directly or through one or more intermediate parts or components. As employed herein, the statement that two or more parts or components “engage” one another shall mean that the parts exert a force against one another either directly or through one or more intermediate parts or components. As employed herein, the term “number” shall mean one or an integer greater than one (i.e., a plurality).
The postage dispensing system 5 includes a provider data center 10 that includes a suitable processing system having a computing device such as a server computer and one or more memory components for data storage. The provider data center 10 is maintained and operated by a service provider such as an authorized postage meter manufacturer or some other agency or entity authorized to dispense postage. The provider data center 10 is in electronic communication with one or more remotely located mobile electronic devices 15 (only one mobile electronic device 15 is shown in
As seen in
The mobile electronic device 15 also includes an electronic image capture device, preferably in the form of digital camera 55, for capturing digital images via an electronic image sensor, such as a charge coupled device (CCD) or a CMOS active-pixel sensor. The digital camera 55 is in electronic communication with the processor 35 for providing the captured digital images to the processor 35 for processing in accordance with the present invention. In the embodiment where the machine readable mechanism is an RFID tag, the mobile electronic device 15 also includes an RFID reading device 57 to enable reading of the information maintained in the RFID tag.
Next, at step 75, the user obtains the identifier from the machine readable mechanism 30. In the case of a pre-printed barcode, the user captures a digital image of the pre-printed barcode obtained in step 60 using the digital camera 25. The captured image is saved in the memory 50. The mobile electronic device postal application then, using well known techniques, reads the pre-printed barcode 30 using the captured image thereof in order to obtain the barcode identifier provided therein. Alternatively, if the machine readable mechanism 30 is an RFID tag, the mobile electronic device is used to obtain the identifier provided therein using the RFID reading device 57. Then, at step 80, the mailpiece information entered and/or generated at step 70, and the barcode or RFID tag identifier obtained at step 75 are electronically uploaded to the provider data center 10 over the communication network 20. Also, unique customer identification information, such as a customer number assigned to the user by the provider, is uploaded to the provider data center 10 along with the mailpiece information and the barcode identifier so that the provider is able to determine the particular customer account that is associated with the current transaction. Then, at step 85, the user applies the mailing label containing the now “activated” machine readable mechanism 30, e.g., pre-printed barcode or RFID tag, to the mailpiece and places the mailpiece in the mail stream with the carrier.
Referring to
Thus, the present invention provides various embodiments of a system and method for dispensing and providing postage for a mailpiece that does not require a printer to be readily available to print evidence of postage payment. As a result, a user of a mobile electronic device that does not have ready access to a printer can easily obtain evidence of postage payment for a mailpiece as desired so that the mailpiece can be entered in the mail stream for delivery by a carrier.
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.
