Internet accessible mail box system

• US 20060044139A1
• Filed: 08/24/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Louis A. Hecht
• Original Assignee: Louis A. Hecht
• Inventors: St. Clair, John Quincy, Panzardi, Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/925,195
• Publication Number:
  US 20060044139A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/569
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 8/12 using one transmitter and one receiver

Abstract

An Internet-embedded mail box system which transmits mail and package delivery information to a central server that can be accessed by wireless communication devices to determine if any mail is ready for pickup.

Claims

1. An Internet-embedded mail box system comprising:

a. a rectangular mail box frame;

b. item (a) containing a plurality of individual slide-in rectangular mail boxes made of folded thin aluminum sheet fitted with a swinging key-locked door on one side and open on the other for inserting pieces of correspondence into the boxes;

c. each mail box of item (b) containing two rectangular slots on opposite sides in the center bottom edges or other convenient location in order to provide an optical path from one slot to the other;

d. an electronic circuit board attached by aluminum spacers and screws to the bottom of each mail box of item (b);

e. an electronic circuit residing on item (d) comprising a light emitting diode (LED) on one side and a photocell on the other which provides a means of emitting and detecting a light beam across the mail box using the slots of item (c);

f. item (e) comprising a means of detecting a piece of correspondence in the mail box by interruption of the light beam;

g. item (e) comprising a +5 volt voltage divider consisting of a resistor and resistive photocell;

h. item (g) whose dividing voltage between the two components is measured by the first port on a two port switch, preferably a Maxim DS2406 chip, having a unique access identification number burned into its memory during manufacture, which transmits the logic level of one or zero, corresponding to the measured voltage level, along a 1-wire bus to a microcontroller connected by modem to the Internet;

i. item (h) logic level 1 corresponding to having mail, and logic level 0 to having no mail;

j. item (e) comprising a resistor from the power supply to the light emitting diode (LED) which in turn is connected to the second port of the dual port switch item (h) for the purpose of activating and deactivating the LED by means of the switch'"'"'s unique identification number transmitted through the 1-wire bus by the microcontroller item (h);

k. item (h) microcontroller which transmits, using TCP/IP protocol and an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a record consisting of the microcontroller number (store number), mail box number and date to the mail box server which stores the information on hard disk in a transaction file;

l. item (h) microcontroller connected to liquid crystal display, numeric keypad and printer for the purpose of collecting and printing package delivery information which is transmitted by the microcontroller to the mail box server item (2) below;

m. a Java binary-tree search program used during manufacture to relate the mail box number with the unique identification number of the dual port switch of each mail box for storage in the microcontroller'"'"'s non-volatile memory;

2. a Mail Box server comprising:

a. a multi-processor RAID computer system connected to the Internet by modem;

b. a database system running on item (a) consisting of the following files;

1. client master file,

2. mail delivery transaction file,

3;

package delivery transaction file,

4. billing file;

c. a Java listener software program which listens for and processes transactions transmitted over the Internet by the microcontrollers;

d. a Java software program which processes client mail delivery inquiries through the Internet, using a client identification number and password, and displays the information on the client'"'"'s screen in order for the client to know if any mail is ready for pickup.