EP2083395A1 - Method for accessing digital images of postage items franked by a standard franking machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves franking mail pieces on a franking machine (10) fed with the mail pieces at senders of the mail pieces. A digital image of the mail pieces is acquired by a postal authority at an office by using an optical reader unit. A database is fed with the digital images, and another database is fed with determined portion of the former database. Portions of the latter database determined as a function of an identifier of the sender are transferred to a standard user workstation (18) of the senders. The digital image of the mail pieces is accessed at the workstations of the senders.

Description

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a method allowing the sender of a mail item to access a digital image of this mail item, in particular for the implementation of services. value added postal services.

Prior art

To implement value-added postal services such as the recommended, the follow-up, etc., it is necessary for the operator of a franking machine to carry out several manual seizure operations which besides taking time are sources of frequent mistakes. Also, it is known to accelerate this input process, to integrate in the franking machine a digitizer that associated with specially adapted recognition software and an address database will allow automation of the entry of the identifier. the requested service, the name and postal code of the recipient.

Unfortunately, the addition of such scanning means to a standard franking machine is particularly expensive because it most often requires the use of new mail processing equipment.

Object and definition of the invention

The subject of the present invention is therefore a method for accessing the digital image of a mail item for the implementation of value-added postal services that does not require a modification of the existing equipment configuration of the item. sender of this mail item, including the replacement of his franking machine.

• au niveau de chacun des expéditeurs desdits articles de courrier :
  • . affranchissement desdits articles de courrier sur au moins une machine à affranchir alimentée à partir desdits articles de courrier,
• au niveau d'un bureau de réception d'une administration postale :
  • . acquisition, par des moyens de lecture optique, d'une image numérique de chacun desdits articles de courrier affranchis,
  • . extraction de chacune desdites images numériques d'au moins un identifiant de l'expéditeur et un identifiant d'un concessionnaire de la machine à affranchir ayant affranchie l'article de courrier dont l'image numérique a été acquise,
  • . alimentation d'une première base de données par lesdites images numériques et au moins lesdits identifiants, chacun des enregistrements de ladite base comportant une desdites images numériques et au moins lesdits identifiants qui lui sont associés,
  • . transfert vers chacun des serveurs des concessionnaires des machines à affranchir des expéditeurs de parties de ladite première base de données déterminées en fonction dudit identifiant du concessionnaire,
• au niveau de chacun desdits serveurs des concessionnaires desdites machines à affranchir :
  • . alimentation d'une seconde base de données à partir de ladite partie déterminée de ladite première base de données,
  • . transfert vers un poste de travail de chacun des expéditeurs de parties de ladite seconde la base de données déterminées en fonction dudit identifiant de l'expéditeur, et
• audit poste de travail de chacun des expéditeurs :
  • . accès à l'image numérique de chacun des articles de courrier affranchis sur ladite au moins une machine à affranchir de l'expéditeur.

These goals are achieved by a method of accessing the digital images of mail items from workstations of the mailers of these mail items, comprising the following steps:

• at the level of each of the shippers of said mail items:
  • . postage of said mail items on at least one postage meter fed from said mail items,
• at the reception desk of a postal administration:
  • . acquiring, by optical reading means, a digital image of each of said franked mail items,
  • . extracting each of said digital images from at least one identifier of the sender and an identifier of a franchiser of the franking machine having franked the article of mail whose digital image has been acquired,
  • . supplying a first database with said digital images and at least said identifiers, each of the records of said database comprising one of said digital images and at least said identifiers associated with it,
  • . transferring to each of the vendors' servers the franking machines of the shippers of parts of said first database determined according to said identifier of the dealer,
• at each of said dealer servers of said franking machines:
  • . feeding a second database from said determined portion of said first database,
  • . transferring to a workstation of each of the senders of parts of said second the database determined according to said identifier of the sender, and
• audit workstation of each shipper:
  • . access to the digital image of each of the franked mail items on said at least one franking machine of the sender.

Thus, the sender can have access to a digital image of the mail items he has shipped while his standard franking machine is devoid of digitization means to obtain such a digital image. He can thus access value-added services that were previously prohibited.

According to an alternative embodiment, the step of transferring specific parts of said first database is replaced by a step of providing each of the servers of the franking machines dealers, said determined parts of said first database of data.

According to another variant, the step of transferring specific parts of said second database is replaced by a step of providing a workstation of each of the senders, said determined portions of said second database.

Advantageously, the method of the invention may further comprise a step of extraction, by software recognition means, of at least one postal datum of a recipient address block of said mail items and a step of checking said mail address. minus postal data, correcting it if necessary according to a database of addresses available to the postal administration. It may also include a step of access from said workstation to said at least one postal datum of origin or corrected.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 montre une architecture d'un système de traitement de courrier dans laquelle est mise en oeuvre le procédé de l'invention, et
• la figure 2 est un organigramme illustrant un exemple du procédé d'accès à l'image numérique d'un article de courrier selon l'invention.

The features and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the following description, given by way of non-limiting indication, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

• the figure 1 shows an architecture of a mail processing system in which the method of the invention is implemented, and
• the figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the method of accessing the digital image of a mail article according to the invention.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment

The invention provides a method for accessing the digital image of a mail item necessary for the implementation of postal value added services on mail items printed by a franking machine. For this, the sender who has produced the mail item stamped, the postage stamp with as known identifiers such as the contract number of the shipper and the dealer. The postal administration upon receipt of mail will scan this mail and extract various postal data, including the recipient address. This data is then sent to the dealer or made available on a server so that it in turn addresses each of the senders.

The figure 1 schematically illustrates an architecture of a mail processing system between a sender of mail items and a postal administration responsible for the distribution of mail items (one could of course also consider a private carrier), in which the method of the invention can be implemented.

As illustrated, the sender is provided with at least one franking machine 10 for enveloping and franking mail items to be shipped. This franking machine is connected via a communication network, preferably the Internet network 12, to a server 14 of the dealer of this machine to which is connected a postal database 16. This server is also accessible by the sender via a post standard user work 18 advantageously provided with a web browser.

Once cleared by the sender, the mail item is deposited in a receiving office of the postal administration which includes classically a sorting station 20 mail items in connection with a computer server 22 connected to a postage database 24. The computer server of the postal administration is also connected to the server server of the franking machine through of the communication network 12. As is known, the sorting station includes a digitizer 20A for acquiring an image of each item of mail received and extracting various postal data useful for its validation, such as the identifiers of both the sender and the dealer, the receiving address or the amount of postage.

The method according to the invention implemented in the aforementioned mail processing system is now more particularly described with regard to the figure 2 .

In a first step 100, the sender postpones an item of mail at his franking machine 10, this franking consisting of the printing of a postal imprint comprising in the form of a bar code (for example of type datamatrix), as is known, at least one identifier of the sender (customer ID), the dealer of the franking machine (FM manufacturer ID) and possibly the item of mail (letter ID) when present . In a next step 102, the mailpiece is delivered to a receiving office of a postal administration at the sorting station 20 from which is carried out, in a step 104, the scanning of this article of mail . This step consists of a complete scanning of the mail item to extract the recipient address and verify it by correcting if necessary based on a database of addresses available to the postal administration. If necessary, this scanning can be assisted by an operator so that it is possible to assign all mail items a barcode (POSTNET type for example) to facilitate processing by sorting machines for view from the distribution to the recipient. This digitization also allows retrieve the various postage data constituting the postal imprint and in particular the identifiers of the sender and the dealer.

In a next step 106, at least the captured image of the mail item but also preferably the address extracted from this image and the corrected address are stored in the database 24 of the postal administration with the data. sender and dealer identifiers extracted from the postal footprint. To these data is added a time stamp corresponding to the moment of the scanning of the article of mail. Each of these six elements then constitutes a separate field of the database, namely: a field for the identifier of the dealer, a field for the identifier of the sender, a field for the moment of the digitization, a field for the extracted initial address, a field for the corrected address and a field for the captured image.

Alternatively, only the corrected address can be stored and the original address field is then replaced by another field having a marker signifying that the registered address is a corrected address. This marker then advantageously comprises three states (Y; N; U) respectively corresponding to a corrected, uncorrected and invalid address (the latter state resulting in non-processing of the mail piece).

In a step 108, this database of the postal administration which includes a new record for each new article of mail digitized is made available to each of the franking machine dealers who can extract the data concerning them personally, it is those for which the identifier associated with the first aforementioned field corresponds to them, and in particular to extract the images captured by the sorting station of the postal administration and available in the last field mentioned above to feed their own database 16.

In a variant, it is the postal administration which transfers to each dealer on his own server 14 the data corresponding to his franking machines, thus enabling him to feed his own database 16.

Note that if the postal administration only authorizes the recovery of images of mail items, the dealer's server will then be advantageously provided with recognition means, preferably of the OCR type, to extract the destination address from this image.

Once these data in his possession, the dealer can in a step 110, in turn make them available to each shipper who can access from one of their workstation 18 or even transfer them to this workstation for the shipper can dispose of it as it sees fit, for example in the context of the operation of value-added services.

Thus, with the present invention, the sender does not need to supplement his equipment to access these value-added services that can be implemented on current franking machines.

For example, he may create a database of mail sent as proof of postage or shipping. He may return to the sender the amount of postage for possible billing. He may also correct his own address database with the corrected addresses received from the postal administration. In addition, when the database is directly accessible on the dealer's site, no particular software infrastructure is required at the shipper's workstation.

Claims (6)

A method of accessing digital images of mail items from workstations (18) of the mailers of these mail items, comprising the steps of: at the level of each of the shippers of said mail items: . franking of said mail items on at least one franking machine (10) fed from said mail items, at the reception desk of a postal administration: . acquiring, by optical reading means (20A), a digital image of each of said franked mail items, . extracting each of said digital images from at least one identifier of the sender and an identifier of a franchiser of the franking machine having franked the article of mail whose digital image has been acquired, . supplying a first database (24) with said digital images and at least said identifiers, each of the records of said database comprising one of said digital images and at least said identifiers associated with it, . transferring to each of the servers (14) of the franking machine operators of the shippers of parts of said first database determined according to said dealer identifier, at each of said dealer servers of said franking machines: . feeding a second database (16) from said determined portion of said first database, . transferring to a workstation (18) from each of the senders of parts of said second the database determined according to said identifier of the sender, and audit workstation of each shipper: . access to the digital image of each of the franked mail items on said at least one franking machine of the sender. A method of accessing digital images of mail items according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of transferring specific portions of said first database is replaced by a step of providing each of the dealers' servers franking machines for senders, said determined parts of said first database. A method of accessing digital images of mail items according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of transferring particular portions of said second database is replaced by a step of providing a workstation (18) from each of the senders, said determined portions of said second database. A method of accessing digital images of mail items according to claim 2 or claim 3, characterized in that it further comprises a step of extracting, by software recognition means, at least one postal data item a destination address block of said mail items. A method of accessing digital images of mail items according to claim 4, characterized in that it further comprises a step of checking said at least one postal data item by correcting it if necessary according to a database addresses available to the postal administration. A method of accessing digital images of mail items according to claim 4 or claim 5, characterized in that it further comprises an access step from said workstation to said at least one original postal data item or corrected.

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