Patent Application
20130226929
The present invention relates to the generation of an e-mail address database, and more particularly to the generation of an e-mail address database that is indexed to the physical postal address of an individual or property associated with the e-mail address.
Using e-mail addresses, individuals are able to quickly transmit various types of electronic information and messages to individuals through their e-mail address. The e-mail message may include text information for transmission to an e-mail recipient and may have various types of electronic files attached thereto to provide further types of information to the e-mail recipient. Present e-mail addresses are associated with individuals but have no particular relationship to the physical address where a person may live or work. Thus, if an individual desires to e-mail information to a particular address area, zip code or physical location, there is no way to tie an e-mail address to a physical mailing address. Thus, there would be a great benefit for having some type of mechanism for associating physical mailing addresses with particular e-mail addresses that may then be utilized for transmitting information to individuals associated with the physical mailing address.
The present invention as disclosed and described herein, in one aspect thereof, includes a system and method for providing a database of physical postal addresses indexed to a general email identifier involves obtaining a plurality of physical postal addresses. The system and method validates whether each of the plurality of physical postal addresses are a valid physical postal address. The system and method next generates a general email address for each of the validated plurality of physical postal addresses and indexes each of the general email addresses to one of the plurality of physical postal addresses.
For a more complete understanding, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings in which:
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers are used herein to designate like elements throughout, the various views and embodiments of a system and method for generating a mailing address indexed e-mail database are illustrated and described, and other possible embodiments are described. The figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and in some instances the drawings have been exaggerated and/or simplified in places for illustrative purposes only. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate the many possible applications and variations based on the following examples of possible embodiments.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
Referring now to
The system generated e-mail ID format of general e-mails may be of the form of [e-mail ID].epm, where the .epm is the top level domain name that is uniquely associated with all e-mail addresses that have been generated according to the present disclosure to be associated with a physical postal address. While the present discussion utilizes the .epm designation as the top level domain name, it will of course be realized that any top level domain name designation that is uniquely associated with e-mail addresses that are associated with the physical postal address as described herein would be applicable.
This address/system generated e-mail ID index 206 may be accessed by individuals through a user registration process 208. The user registration process 208 enables a user to register with the address to e-mail mapping system 106 and validate that they are living at or associated with a particular physical postal address 202. Once the user is validated by the user registration process 208, the user may associate an additional user designated e-mail ID with the address/system generated e-mail ID at 210. This allows the user to receive e-mails associated with the postal address 202 at either of the system generated e-mail ID or user designated e-mail ID that is associated with the system generated e-mail ID. The user may also establish a number of sub accounts including additional user designated e-mail IDs that are also associated with the same physical postal address 202. This enables multiple e-mails to the provided to differing individuals at a same physical address.
Referring now to
Once a general index has been created having the physical postal address associated with the geo code ID and system e-mail ID, customers that have registered with the system may designate their own e-mail IDs that are indexed with the physical postal address. Once the customer e-mail ID is received at step 308, this newly received customer e-mail ID is indexed with the associated physical postal address at step 310. Finally, additional customer e-mail IDs and subaccount e-mail IDs may also be provided, and once received at step 312, are indexed with the physical postal address such that multiple customer e-mail addresses are associated with a single physical postal address location.
Once this process is completed, the indexed table, as illustrated in
Registered users with the system may establish additional e-mail identifiers with the physical postal address 404 including the user e-mail identifier 410 and the sub account e-mail identifier 412. The user e-mail ID 410 is a user e-mail address that has previously been assigned or attributed to the user that may be also associated with the general e-mail ID 408 and the associated physical postal address 404. Additional sub account e-mail IDs 412 may also be associated with the general e-mail ID 408 and physical postal address 402. The sub account e-mail ID 412 comprises additional user e-mail addresses that are associated with the physical postal address 404 for additional users at the address. This would be a case wherein, for example, multiple members of a family were living at a same physical postal address 404. Each sub account ID is associated with a husband, wife, or each of the children within the home. Each individual may also have multiple e-mail addresses associated with them within the sub account e-mail ID 412.
Referring now to
After previously unentered postal addresses have been added to the database at step 510 and 512 or if inquiry step 504 determines that the user entered address is presently located within the database, the association of the user name with the provided postal address is validated at step 514. The validation process at step 514 performs a procedure for confirming that the name that has been provided by the user at step 502 is in fact associated with the address that has been entered. The validation process may be performed in a number of ways such as the user answering one or more questions with respect to the property associated with the address that the user has entered. Additionally, the user may be required to enter information such as their date of birth, a driver's license number, a social security number or some other type of governmental or state issued ID, the name of their spouse and details about their spouse, information with respect to loans and/or mortgages associates with the property at the address, information with respect to a vehicle identification number of vehicles that are owned or leased by individuals associated with the property.
Alternatively, the identity of the user can be established using some type of biometric data such as a retinal scan or fingerprint scan. The purpose of the process carried out at step 514 is to confirm in some manner that the user name that has been entered with respect to the address at step 502 is in fact validly associated with the address and entitled to received e-mail associated with the address. After the user match process is performed at step 514, inquiry step 516 determines if a valid match has occurred. If not, an error message is provided at step 518. If a valid match was achieved, the user is able to assign a user elected e-mail identifier with the physical postal address at step 520. This enables the user to receive an e-mail at an e-mail ID of their choosing rather than the general e-mail ID that has been assigned by the system.
Referring now to
Referring now to
Additional information such as longitude and latitude of the address may provide a particular geo location designation for the address. A postal carrier route designator may also be provided such as Route 4, Box 15W. Country names and country codes may also be included within the address designation information for use when the database is used within multiple countries. The congress code indicates the Congressional District Code of that address. The DPV confirm code indicates the Mail Deliverable Flag of that address. A subdivision name may also be included in areas wherein a home is located within a particular sub division having a particular name for further identification of the address.
Each address ID 704 has an entry within the national address table 702 that has some or all of this information associated therewith. The address mapping table 706 includes additional information with respect to the address ID. The address mapping table 706 uses the address ID 704 that references the address ID within the national address table 702. The sub address ID is an incremental number starting with 0 for the primary household member and incrementing by 1 for each additional member of the household. The e-mail ID is a unique user ID that is chosen by the user when they register with the system. Within the address mapping table 706 are an e-mail ID for the assigned general e-mail ID and sub address ID for user designated e-mail IDs. The e-mail ID is the system generated ID that is associated with a particular physical postal address by the mapping system. The sub address ID may also be associated with the e-mail and include information such as user designated e-mail addresses associated with the address and additional user e-mail sub account addresses that are also associated with the address ID.
An address mapping history sub table 703 provides information indicating when the address ID, sub address ID and/or e-mail ID were created providing date specific information with respect thereto. The address mapping future table 710 provides information with respect to the address ID, sub address ID and e-mail ID regarding a new property that the household intends to move to which is equal to the Address relocate service by USPS. The address mapping history table 708 and address mapping future table 710 enable the tracking of user movements.
A user profile 712 associates a user ID with the general e-mail ID that has been generated by the system for registered and validated users. The user profile 712 information will have a listing of user information associated with each user ID such as name, birth date, profession of user, whether or not the user is disabled, phone number, hobbies, marital status, number of children, nationality and ethnicity. The user ID may also include particular information about the property at which the user lives such as flag, household count, porch light, a property ID and move-in date of the property. The user profile table flags designation provides additional information that the system can use to regulate the profile of the individual. The porch light identifier indicates whether the user is socially active. Various types of security information with respect to the user ID may also be included in the user profile 712 such as an indication of whether the user is authenticated, a password, last log-in time, last use IP address, security questions and security answers. Additional contact or alternative e-mail ID information may also be included within the user profile 712 to enable additional e-mail addresses to be associated with a particular address ID.
The property ID 714 within the user profile 712 may additionally have a property table 716 associated therewith. The property table 716 includes a variety of different information about a particular property associated with an address ID. The property ID 714 can include information such as a subdivision name, latitude min value, latitude max value, longitude min value and longitude max value, a predirection value, street name, destinator, post direction, city, state and zip code including both the five digit zip code and four digit zip code.
Additionally, a household ID 718 within the user profile 712 may include various household identification information. The household table 720 includes the various household IDs 718. Each household ID 718 within the household table 720 includes information such as name of the individual in the household, their date of birth, their driver's license, their social security number, their spouse's name, also known as alternative identities, vehicle identification numbers of vehicles driven by the individual. Biometric information such as a retina image or fingerprint image of the individual may also be stored. The household table 720 provides details about individuals obtained from various sources containing personal information enabling the individuals to be uniquely identified. The household table 720 also includes the MyWalletID to enable an individual associated with the postal address to carry out electronic commerce transactions using the generated unique electronic identifier. The property table 716 provides information concerning the property such as each geographic location, type of construction, contents of the property, builder of the property, sub division in which the property is located and any mortgages associated with the property.
Referring now to
Thus, using the above-described system and method, a database having physical postal addresses indexed to a system generate e-mail identifier may be created. E-mails may then be transmitted to this e-mail address that is uniquely associated with the address. A user may register within the system to provide an additional user designated e-mail that may be uniquely associated with the physical postal address rather than using the system generated general e-mail address. Additionally, sub accounts may enable multiple individuals to be associated with the same physical postal address for situations where multiple individuals are living at a same location. This will allow information associated with the address to be e-mailed to individuals that are located at that address providing valuable delivery and potential marketing opportunities utilizing the created database.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that this system and method for generating a database of physical postal addresses indexed to an associated e-mail address provides a convenient method for directing electronic mail to particular geographical areas. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description herein are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner, and are not intended to be limiting to the particular forms and examples disclosed. On the contrary, included are any further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope hereof, as defined by the following claims. Thus, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments.
