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RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
Co-pending patent applications assigned to the assignee of the instant
patent application and disclosing related subject matter include the
following:
"System For Printing Encrypted Messages With A Character Generator And Bar
Code Representation", filed July 18, 1983 and having Ser. No. 515,072;
"System Having A Character Generator For Printing Encrypted Messages",
filed July 18, 1983 and having Ser. No. 515,073;
"System For Printing Encrypted Messages With Bar Code Representation",
filed July 18, 1983 and having Ser. No. 515,086;
"System For Printing And Reading Encrypted Messages", filed July 21, 1983
and having Ser. No. 515,760;
"Method And Apparatus For Verifying Postage", filed Mar. 12, 1984 and
having Ser. No. 588,464; and
"System For Detecting Unaccounted For Printing In A Value Printing System",
filed Apr. 17, 1985 and having Ser. No. 724,372; and
"Unsecured Postage Applying System", "Postage Metering Locking System" and
"Remote Postage Meter Inspection System" filed concurrently herewith.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Since the issuance of U.S. Pat. No. 1,530,852 to Arthur H. Pitney, Mar. 24,
1925, the postage meter has had a steady evolution. Postage meters are
mass produced devices for printing a defined unit value for governmental
or private carrier delivery of parcels and envelopes. The term postage
meter also includes other like devices which provide unit value printing
such as a tax stamp meter. Postage meters include internal accounting
devices which account for postage value, which postage value is stored
within the meter. The accounting device accounts for both the recharging
of the meter with additional postage value and the printing of postage by
the meter printing mechanism. No external independent accounting system is
available for accounting for the postage printed by the meter.
Accordingly, postage meters must possess high reliability to avoid the
loss of user or governmental funds.
Throughout the years, two general types of postage meters have been used:
one that uses a rotatable print drum and is referred to as a rotary
postage meter, and the other that uses a stationary print head and a
reciprocating platen and is referred to as a flat bed postage meter. Most
recently, there has been a change from a completely mechanical device to
meters that incorporate electronic components extensively. Although there
have been a number of changes, there are certain elements that remain
constant. For example, the need for security is absolute. In prior postage
meters, such security is applied both to the printing portion of the meter
and to the accounting portion. The reason for the absolute security
requirement is because a postage meter is printing value, and unless
security measures are taken, one would be able to print unauthorized
postage, thereby defrauding the U.S. Postal Service. Most security
measures taken are of a physical nature, but recently there have been
suggestions for the use of encryption to ensure that a postage indicia is
valid. Nevertheless, such encryption merely supplements the physical
security systems that have been used and suggested by the prior art.
Furthermore, the known prior encryption systems attest to the validity of
the indicia but provide no means for determining whether the printed
indicia is just a copy of a valid indicia. Additionally, prior systems
relied upon the post office accounting for postage by monitoring the
number and value of mail pieces sent by a particular meter user.
Another common factor in prior postage systems is the inclusion of a
postage indicia normally placed in the upper right hand corner of one
surface of an envelope or package. This indicia has taken a specific form.
The postage amount is contained in a rectangular border and the date of
the postage impression appears in a circular border. This form has evolved
from the original appearance of a canceled stamp wherein the stamp is of a
rectangular configuration and the cancellation mark included the date
within a circle. Also included in this indicia is the postage meter number
and the city and state from which the envelope was mailed.
Although postage meters have performed satisfactorily in the past and
continue to perform satisfactorily, with the advance of electronics,
postage systems are needed that are less expensive and more flexible while
still providing the serviceability and security required. Additionally, it
would be desirable to have a postage system that is more compatible with
contemporary mail processing systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Encryption is utilized to prevent fraudulent postage taking. An encryption
message is derived from postage information and/or recipient address
information and applied to a mail piece. With the inclusion of recipient
address information in the encryption message, there is a relationship
between authentication and the mail piece that is unique for each mail
piece. In accordance with one aspect of the instant invention, the postage
information and encryption are placed in the address field of the mail
piece along with address information. With the encryption in the address
field, authentication can be made on the fly by an automatic mail
scanning/sorting machine quickly and efficiently.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system that utilizes the instant
invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of an envelope having postage information printed
thereon in the address field in accordance with the instant invention;
FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but with bar codes instead of
alpha-numerics in a portion of the address field;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a mail scanning/sorting machine that would
have application in the instant invention; and
FIG. 5 consisting of 5A and 5B, is a flow chart showing cooperation between
two components shown in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring initially to FIG. 1, a postage and mailing information applying
system is shown generally at 10 and includes a control center 12 and an
accounting unit 14 that are in communication with one another through a
communicating device such as a telephone 16, facsimile machine, telex
machine, and the like.
Located within the accounting unit 14 is a modem or converter 18 which
provides communication between the telephone 16 and a control module 20 of
the accounting unit, which control module may be a CPU such as an Intel
8085 microprocessor available from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Cal.
The control module 20 has a memory 19 and a clock 21 either integral with
or in connection therewith. The memory 19 would store the transaction
number, i.e., a number assigned to the accounting unit of the occasion of
clarifying postage to the system 10, the customer number and the like. In
communication with the control module 20 is an encryption module 22 as
well as an accounting module 24. The encryption module would be any of a
readily available encryption device which may, for example, encrypt in
accordance with the NBS Data Encryption Standard (DES) pursuant to a
preset secure key. An example of a suitable encryption module 22 would be
an Intel 8294 encryptor. The accounting module 24 may be a battery
augmented RAM that incorporates the ascending and descending registers. As
is known from previous postage metering devices, the ascending register is
the register that records the amount of postage that is dispensed or
printed on each transaction and the descending register is the register
that records the value, or amount, of postage that may be dispensed and
decreases from an original or charged amount as postage is printed.
Another modem 26 within the accounting unit 14 provides communication
between the control module 20 and a user computer 28. The user computer
may be any typical computer that has input, logic and output for example,
a personal computer such as the IBM AT available from IBM Corp., Armonk,
N.Y. Connected to the user computer 28 is a user printer 30. Although the
user printer may be of any type that is capable of printing individual
alpha-numerics, a dot matrix printer is preferable since a dot matrix
printer is capable of printing any configuration including bar codes.
In the block diagram shown in FIG. 1, the control center 12 may be a Post
Office which serves as a source of postage value. Systems are known
whereby a postage meter may be charged remotely upon a user providing his
assigned customer number to the Post Office, see for example U.S. Pat. No.
4,097,923. The Post Office, in turn, will provide postage value that is
automatically input to the customer's postage meter, in this case the
accounting unit 14. The postage value will be received within the
descending register portion of the accounting module 24 to increase the
amount to a figure that is the sum of that amount being charged and the
unused amount from previous charging. In the system of FIG. 1, the secure
portion of the postage meter is replaced by the accounting unit 14 that is
a secure unit such that tampering by physical, electronic or magnetic
means is inhibited. Security features such as shields, break away bolts
and the like are well known and the means for securing the accounting unit
14 will not be further described. In a preferred embodiment, the
accounting unit 14 would have no display and would only be accessible by
the user computer 28 upon an assigned code word being received by the
control module 20 of this accounting unit 14 from the user computer. It
will be understood that the user printer 30 is not a secure printer nor
are the links between the user computer 28 and the accounting unit 14 and
the user computer and the user printer. The postage information to be
printed by the user printer 30 would include an encryption number that is
generated by the encryption module 22. Encryption may be based upon any
recognized code such as DES, supra, National Security Agency (NSA) cipher
or Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) cipher. Upon the appropriate
information being supplied to the accounting unit 14 from the user
computer 28, the encryption module 22 would generate an encryption number
which would then be communicated through the user computer 28 and printed
by the user printer 30. This supplied information could include, the
customer number, the value of postage and the like. In a particular
embodiment of this invention, the street address, zip code and the like of
the recipient is included in the encryption for the purposes of
authentication. As used in this disclosure, authentication is defined as
the determining of the genuineness of postage printed upon a mail piece.
Referring now to FIG. 2, a format is shown for applying postage information
and mailing information to the address field of a mail piece such as an
envelope 34. By postage information is meant postage amount, date of
mailing, meter or customer number, transaction number, class of mail and
the like. By address information is meant the house number, name, city,
state, zip code and the like of the mail recipient. In this particular
configuration, an envelope 34 is shown with a label 36 attached in the
address field portion of the envelope. As used in this specification and
claims, the term address field has the meaning as defined in U.S. Postal
Service regulations. Such definition may be found in the U.S. Postal
Service's pamphlet "Guide to Business Mail Properties", page 20,
September, 1984. Although this embodiment is described with the
combination of a label 36 and envelope 34, it will be appreciated that the
characters may be printed directly upon the envelope or upon an insert
that would be placed within a window type envelope. It will be understood
that this label 36 replaces and eliminates the need for the normal indicia
that is applied to the upper right hand corner of a mailpiece. One of the
features of the instant invention is that a standard indicia is no longer
required because the security features provided by such standard indicia
are replaced by the security offered by encryption.
In a preferred embodiment, the first line 38 of the label would have
information relative to the amount of postage and the customer number. The
second line 40 contains the date of the mailing, the time the postage is
imprinted and the class of mail. The third line 42 contains an encryption
message in the form of numbers and letters that may be derived from the
information on the first two lines as well as information from the address
of the recipient of the mail piece that follows this third line. As shown,
the printed lines are parallel to one another to facilitate automatic
reading. It will be appreciated that other conventional machine readable
configurations may be used rather than parallel lines.
The postage amount, customer number, date and class of mail are inputted
through the keyboard of the user computer 28 to the control module 20. The
encrypting module 22 then generates an encryption number or message and
upon the print command being given by the computer operator, the time is
determined and an encrypted message is obtained. This encryption message
42, is then printed by the user printer 30 on line 3 of the label 36. With
this information, a Postal Service representative would be able to input
the encryption message into a suitable computer and determine whether the
postage is genuine by decrypting the information.
Although the system has been shown using alpha-numerics in the address
field, it will be appreciated that bar code may be used to print the first
three lines as shown in Fig. 3. This bar code may be of any form including
the bar-half bar configuration used presently by the Postal Service. The
bar codes could be combined in an indicia for aesthetic purposes and
placed within the address field or in the upper right hand corner of the
envelope 34. Although the bar code is shown extending parallel to the
alpha-numerics, it will be appreciated that the bar codes could extend
perpendicular thereto. The bar code can also appear on the bottom edge of
the envelope as shown at 44 so as to be read by present Postal Service
equipment.
The advantage of the system shown and described is that one is able to
eliminate the standard postage indicia that has been in practice for
decades and still provide the assurance associated therewith. In addition,
by having all the information in the address field, authentication may be
obtained quickly from information appearing on the envelope. Because of
the presence of the recipient's zip code, the encryption message 42 that
appears on the label 36 is unique for that mail piece. More specifically,
there is a connection between the mail piece and the encryption message.
In prior systems, there was no relationship between the code or encryption
and the mail piece, but rather a seed number or the like was used in
conjunction with sender information such as the sender's zip code, meter
number, and the like. Present high speed automatic scanning/sorting
machines incorporate OCR readers capable of reading the information in the
address field of an envelope 34 and sorting in accordance therewith. An
example of such an automatic scanning/sorting machine is the Pitney Bowes
Optical Character Reader described in publication 150 of the United States
Postal Service entitled "Automatic Mechanization for Mail Processing
Systems", page 14, May, 1985. A decryption module could be added to such
an automatic sorting machine by which the encrypted line 42 would be read
as well as the address line by the OCR reader. This encryption module
would determine the authenticity of the postage not only on the basis of
the visual tests, postage, date, meter number and the like, but on the
basis of the recipient address. In this manner, not only is a check made
for authenticity of the postage but also for the fact that the encrypted
line belongs to that particular piece of mail and only that piece because
of the recipient address. More specifically, what is contemplated is a two
way encryption scheme where the decryptor has a "key" to determine
authenticity based upon information on the face of the envelope 34. This
is in contrast to a two way scheme where seed numbers are used and
encryption is performed twice and compared.
Referring now to FIG. 4, such an automatic scanning/sorting machine with
deciphering capability is shown. The machine includes a mechanical
transport unit 48 that singulates batches of mail into a stream of mail
pieces that are conveyed with a predetermined separation past the various
stations of the machine including a scanner 50, a line finder 54, a
segmentation block 56, a normalizer 58, a simularity measurer 60 and a
contextual analysis block 62. Each envelope 34 is conveyed past the
scanner 50 which produces digitized binary images of the address field
consisting of black and white pixels. The line finder 54 finds the lines
in the address field which are to be read. The segmentation module 56
separates the lines into characters. The normalization block 58 transforms
the segmented characters into a predetermined size. The standardized
character images are then transferred to a similarity measurement block 60
where they are compared against stored known character templates to obtain
character recognition. The results of these comparisons are sent to the
contextual analysis unit 62 where the final decision is made for the
address portion of the information while the encryption portion passes
through. An ASCI1 code representation of the recognized characters is then
sent to both a buffer 64 that simply stores the address information and to
a decipher 66 that decrypts the encryption line 42. The information from
the buffer 64 and decipher 66 is then sent to a computer 68 where the
information from each is compared. The results of the comparison are sent
to a sensor 70 where a determination is made as to the authenticity of the
postage on the mail piece. If it is found to be authentic, the envelope 34
is routed to a sorting stack module 72, but if it is deemed to be
fraudulent, this envelope is sent to a rejection bin 74. In this way,
genuineness of the postage on an envelope can be determined on the fly.
Obviously, this process is enhanced because the printed information on the
envelope 32 is applied in a parallel fashion thereby facilitating fast,
automatic processing. If authentication is made, the encryption message
may be printed in bar code form at the bottom edge of the envelope 32 as
is now done with the address information by a bar code printer 76 of an
automatic mail sorter. It will be understood that this bottom edge bar
printing of the encrypted message may be performed alternatively by the
user's printer 30 upon it's being programmed to do so.
Referring now to FIG. 5, a flow chart is shown wherein the cooperation
between the accounting unit 14 and the user computer 28 is shown. The
system is initialized 76 and a request is made 78 by the accounting unit
14 as to whether the user is properly identified. If the user is
identified, a request is made by the accounting unit 14 for address and
postage information 80 for the purpose of generating the encryption
message. The information is received 82 and a check for funds is requested
84. A determination is made if funds are available 86 and if sufficient
funds are available, the information is combined 88 with the internal
time, date, ascending registers and the other information in the
accounting unit 14. The encryption message is generated 90 and the plain
text and encrypted text are sent 92 to the user computer 28. As the plain
text and encrypted text are sent, the transaction is accounted for 94 and
the system is returned to its starting point. On the other hand, if funds
are not available 86, then a message is sent to the user computer 28 that
there are insufficient funds.
The user computer 28 initially receives the request 100 from the accounting
module 14 for the address and postage information 10. With this request,
the user would enter the appropriate address and postage information 102
and this would be sent 104 to the accounting unit 14. After the address
and postage information are conveyed, the question is asked whether
sufficient funds were received 106. If sufficient funds were received,
then the plain text and encrypted text are received 108 from the
accounting unit 14 and the command is given 110 to print the information
on a mail piece 34.
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