INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL MAIL HANDLING SYSTEM

• US 20080104179A1
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bodin, William K., AGRAWAL, KAVITA
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,674 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system and method for handling unwanted physical mail pieces having a sorter and imager which intercepts one or more pieces of physical mail, which produces an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail, and which physically retains pieces of mail in temporary physical storage, and which cooperates with an optical recognizer to determine an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail, further cooperating with a server that notifies the intended recipients and receives a choice for disposition of the mail, and including a destruction which destroys said pieces of mail rejected by the intended recipient.

Claims

1. A system for handling unwanted physical mail pieces comprising:

a sorter and imager which intercepts one or more pieces of physical mail, which produces an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail, and which physically retains said pieces of mail in temporary physical storage;

an optical recognizer which determines from said images an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail;

a server which electronically notifies said intended recipients of said retained pieces of mail, and which receives a choice from said intended recipient regarding disposition of said pieces; and

a destruction unit which receives and destroys said pieces of mail indicated by said recipient choice as unwanted, thereby blocking receipt of unwanted physical mail by said intended recipient.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said server is further configured to aggregate acceptance information, rejection information, or both, and to produce a report regarding said information.

3. The system as set forth in claim 2 wherein said report is machine-readable.

4. The system as set forth in claim 2 wherein said report is human-readable.

5. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising an interactive web page through which said intended recipient is notified of retained pieces of mail.

6. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a notification selected from the group of a facsimile transmission, a pager message, a cell phone text message, an email message and an interactive television screen through which said intended recipient is notified of retained pieces of mail.

7. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a set of subscriber preferences, responsive to which said server automatically handles said retained mail.

8. An automated method for handling unwanted physical mail pieces comprising:

sorting and imaging one or more intercepted pieces of physical mail to produce an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail;

physically retaining said pieces of mail in temporary physical storage;

determining by optical recognition of said images an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail;

electronically notifying said intended recipients of said retained pieces of mail, and receiving a choice from said intended recipient regarding disposition of said pieces; and

retrieving and destroying said pieces of mail indicated by said recipient choice as unwanted, thereby blocking receipt of unwanted physical mail by said intended recipient.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8 further comprising aggregating acceptance information, rejection information, or both, and producing a report regarding said information.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein said report is machine-readable.

11. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein said report is human-readable.

12. The method as set forth in claim 8 further producing an interactive web page through which said intended recipient is notified of retained pieces of mail.

13. The method as set forth in claim 8 wherein said step of notifying comprises making a notification selected from the group of a facsimile transmission, a pager message, a cell phone text message, an email message and an interactive television screen through which said intended recipient is notified of retained pieces of mail.

14. The method as set forth in claim 8 further comprising providing a set of subscriber preferences, and wherein said step of retrieving and destroying pieces of mail is responsive to said preferences.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer readable medium suitable for storage of computer program code; and

one or more computer program codes stored in said medium configured to cause a processor to perform the steps of;

(a) sorting and imaging one or more intercepted pieces of physical mail to produce an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail;

(b) physically retaining said pieces of mail in temporary physical storage;

(c) determining by optical recognition of said images an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail;

(d) electronically notifying said intended recipients of said retained pieces of mail, and receiving a choice from said intended recipient regarding

(e) disposition of said pieces; and

(f) retrieving and destroying said pieces of mail indicated by said recipient choice as unwanted, thereby blocking receipt of unwanted physical mail by said intended recipient.

17. The article as set forth in claim 16 wherein said program code further comprises code for aggregating acceptance information, rejection information, or both, and producing a report regarding said information.

18. The article as set forth in claim 17 wherein said report is machine-readable.

19. The article as set forth in claim 17 wherein said report is human-readable.

20. The article as set forth in claim 16 wherein said program code further comprises code for making a notification selected from the group of an interactive web page, a facsimile transmission, a pager message, a cell phone text message, an email message and an interactive television screen.