System for a recipient to determine whether or not they received non-life-harming materials

• US 20030110145A1
• Filed: 12/12/2001
• Published: 06/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Sansone, Ronald P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,089,210 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/406
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00661 Sensing or measuring mailpieces weighing G01G19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00209 Mailbox, i.e. container for outgoing mail
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00725 Reading symbols, e.g. OCR
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/0083 Postal data, e.g. postage, address, sender, machine ID, vendor

Abstract

A system that enables recipients of letters, flats and/or packages (hereinafter “mail”) that are addressed to a recipient to determine the identity of the person or group that placed a indicia and other information on mail, i.e., the person or group who was issued unique stamps and/or labels by the post. This invention accomplishes the foregoing by storing unique information that is affixed to mail and the identify of the mailer; having a scanner at a receptacle read the unique information before mail is permitted to enter the interior of the receptacle, and communicating to the recipient information regarding the delivered mail.

Claims

1. An incoming mail monitoring system, said system comprises:

one or more data bases that stores unique information affixed to mail and identities of mailers;

a plurality of receptacles that reads and stores the unique information affixed to mail after the mail enters the interior of the receptacle;

a data center that stores the unique information affixed to mail and receives the unique information from the receptacles to determine if the mailer is permitted to enter mail in the receptacle; and

means coupled to the data center and the recipient of the mail for communicating to the recipient, information stored in the data center about the mail.

2. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the means comprises:

a telephone; and

a voice response unit that is coupled to the telephone and the data center.

3. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the means comprises:

a computer coupled to the data center via the Internet.

4. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the recipient transmits recipient and mailer name and address information appearing on the mail to the data center.

5. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the recipient transmits coded information appearing on the mail to the data center.

6. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the receptacle units include a scanner that reads the mail.

7. The system claimed in claim 6, wherein the scanner is located in a control chamber.

8. The system claimed in claim 7, wherein the control chamber has a locked door for isolating suspect mail.

9. The system claimed in claim 7, wherein the interior of the receptacle comprises:

an inner chamber that receives mail from the control chamber that is not suspected of having life-harming material.

10. The system claimed in claim 9, wherein the inner chamber has a locked door in which when open mail may be removed from the inner chamber.

11. The system claimed in claim 7, further including a slot for depositing mail into the control chamber.

12. The system claimed in claim 11, further including means for closing the slot when the mail in the control chamber is suspected of containing life harming substances.

13. The system claimed in claim 12, further comprising means for indicating a message indicating the status of the receptacle.

14. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the receptacles includes the time and date that the mail was deposited in the receptacle.

15. The system claimed in claim 14, wherein the receptacles, includes the location of the receptacle.

16. The system claimed in claim 1, wherein the receptacle unit includes:

means for informing the post of possibility of the presence of life harming material in the mail.