System and method of identifying and sorting response services mail pieces in accordance with plural levels of refinement in order to enhance postal service revenue protection
First Claim
1. A method of identifying and sorting a mail piece having a front face exhibiting at least one of a destination address field and a business reply license plate as one of (i) business reply mail and (ii) non-business-reply mail, the method comprising the steps of:
- capturing at least one image of the front face and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least one of a (i) destination address field image corresponding to any destination address field on the mail piece and (ii) a business reply license plate image corresponding to any business reply license plate on the mail piece;
algorithmically analyzing the at least one captured image in order to detect one of (i) the presence and (ii) the absence of data indicative of at least one business-reply-mail signature on the corresponding mail piece, the algorithmic analysis yielding an analyzed-image data set;
determining, based on the algorithmic analysis of the at least one captured image, and in accordance with a set of preliminary business-reply-mail-identifying criteria, whether the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one captured image corresponds is business reply mail exceeds a predetermined preliminary-threshold probability;
maintaining reply-services-customer data relating the identity of each business reply postal customer account of a selected set of business reply postal customer accounts with data indicative of at least one of (i) a business reply license number, (ii) a business reply postal code, (iii) a street address corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (iv) a post office box corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (v) a recipient-entity name, (vi) the postal facility that issued the license number, (vii) a class of business reply mail that the postal customer is entitled to receive and (viii) one of a (a) dedicated and (b) shared business-reply-mail-piece collection point; and
one of(i) regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined not to exceed the predetermined preliminary-threshold probability, and sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail; and
(ii) if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined to exceed the predetermined preliminary threshold probability, resolving, at least partially, the at least one captured image associated with the mail piece in order to produce a resolved data set associated with the mail piece and indicative of information exhibited in at least one of (a) any destination address field and (b) any business reply license plate on the corresponding mail piece and consulting the reply-services-customer data in order to determine, by the detection of correspondence between the data therein and the resolved data set, whether the probability that the mail piece is business reply mail exceeds a verification-threshold probability;
wherein(i) as to a mail piece relative to which the verification-threshold probability is not exceeded, the method further comprises regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail and sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail; and
(ii) as to a mail piece determined to be business reply mail in accordance with the verification-threshold probability, sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as business reply mail.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method to reduce lost postal revenue by identifying and sorting a mail piece by determining whether algorithmically-resolved image data corresponding to the mail piece indicates that the mail piece is business reply mail. The method is facilitated in part by maintaining data related to each business reply customer account. The business reply customer data is consulted and compared to a predetermined set of criteria to ascertain if the possibly incomplete, incorrect, or ambiguous data discernable from the captured image of the mail piece is indicative of, at a minimum, that the mail piece is business reply for the purpose of sortation to an appropriate business reply collection point, and in addition, that a high-confidence match to a customer account can be obtained for the purpose of automated charge assessment. Machine-readable sortation signals are generated in accordance with the most refined level of sortation indicated by the consultation.
56 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of identifying and sorting a mail piece having a front face exhibiting at least one of a destination address field and a business reply license plate as one of (i) business reply mail and (ii) non-business-reply mail, the method comprising the steps of:
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capturing at least one image of the front face and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least one of a (i) destination address field image corresponding to any destination address field on the mail piece and (ii) a business reply license plate image corresponding to any business reply license plate on the mail piece; algorithmically analyzing the at least one captured image in order to detect one of (i) the presence and (ii) the absence of data indicative of at least one business-reply-mail signature on the corresponding mail piece, the algorithmic analysis yielding an analyzed-image data set; determining, based on the algorithmic analysis of the at least one captured image, and in accordance with a set of preliminary business-reply-mail-identifying criteria, whether the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one captured image corresponds is business reply mail exceeds a predetermined preliminary-threshold probability; maintaining reply-services-customer data relating the identity of each business reply postal customer account of a selected set of business reply postal customer accounts with data indicative of at least one of (i) a business reply license number, (ii) a business reply postal code, (iii) a street address corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (iv) a post office box corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (v) a recipient-entity name, (vi) the postal facility that issued the license number, (vii) a class of business reply mail that the postal customer is entitled to receive and (viii) one of a (a) dedicated and (b) shared business-reply-mail-piece collection point; and
one of(i) regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined not to exceed the predetermined preliminary-threshold probability, and sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail; and (ii) if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined to exceed the predetermined preliminary threshold probability, resolving, at least partially, the at least one captured image associated with the mail piece in order to produce a resolved data set associated with the mail piece and indicative of information exhibited in at least one of (a) any destination address field and (b) any business reply license plate on the corresponding mail piece and consulting the reply-services-customer data in order to determine, by the detection of correspondence between the data therein and the resolved data set, whether the probability that the mail piece is business reply mail exceeds a verification-threshold probability;
wherein(i) as to a mail piece relative to which the verification-threshold probability is not exceeded, the method further comprises regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail and sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail; and (ii) as to a mail piece determined to be business reply mail in accordance with the verification-threshold probability, sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as business reply mail. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of sorting, within a postal system, a mail piece identifiable as business reply mail in accordance with one of at least two predefined levels of sortation refinement, the mail piece having a front face including at least one of (i) a destination address field and (ii) a business reply license plate, the method comprising the steps of:
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capturing at least one image of the front face and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least one of a (i) destination address field image corresponding to any destination address field on the mail piece and (ii) a business reply license plate image corresponding to any business reply license plate on the mail piece; marking the mail piece with a unique identification mark representing its identity and storing a computer memory record of the identification mark in association with the at least one stored image from the front face; maintaining reply-services-customer data relating the identity of each business reply postal customer account of a selected set of business reply postal customer accounts with data indicative of at least one of (i) a business reply license number, (ii) a business reply postal code, (iii) a street address corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (iv) a post office box corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (v) a recipient-entity name, (vi) the postal facility that issued the license number, (vii) a class of business reply mail that the postal customer is entitled to receive and (viii) one of a (a) dedicated and (b) shared business-reply-mail-piece collection point; resolving, at least partially, the at least one captured image associated with the mail piece to produce a resolved data set associated with the mail piece and indicative of information exhibited in at least one of (i) any destination address field and (ii) any business reply license plate on the corresponding mail piece; providing a sortation protocol including at least a first condition set and a second condition set, the first condition set corresponding to a first level of sortation refinement such that, if at least one subset of conditions within the first condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set associated with the mail piece, a first set of sortation signals is generated indicating that the mail piece is to be sorted in accordance with the first level of sortation refinement and the second condition set corresponding to a second level of sortation refinement such that, if at least one subset of conditions within the second condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set associated with the mail piece, a second set of sortation signals is generated indicating that the mail piece is to be sorted in accordance with the second level of sortation refinement, the second level of sortation refinement being less refined than the first level of sortation refinement; consulting the reply-services-customer data and comparing the resolved data set to the reply-services-customer data in accordance with the sortation protocol in order to determine whether at least one subset of conditions within at least one of the first condition set and the second condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set; causing the generation of one of (i) a first set of sortation signals in response to the satisfaction, by the resolved data set, of at least one subset of conditions within the first condition set and (ii) a second set of sortation signals in response to the satisfaction, by the resolved data set, of a least one subset of conditions within the second condition set, but not within the first condition set; rendering accessible to predetermined, signal-responsive sortation apparatus the generated set of sortation signals prior to the arrival of the corresponding mail piece at the signal-responsive sortation apparatus; and sorting the mail piece to a collection point in response to the generated set of sortation signals. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of identifying and sorting a mail piece having a front face exhibiting at least one of a destination address field and a business reply license plate as one of (i) business reply mail and (ii) non-business-reply mail, the method comprising the steps of:
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capturing at least one image of the front face and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least one of a (i) destination address field image corresponding to any destination address field on the mail piece and (ii) a business reply license plate image corresponding to any business reply license plate on the mail piece; algorithmically analyzing the at least one captured image in order to detect one of (i) the presence and (ii) the absence of data indicative of at least one business-reply-mail signature on the corresponding mail piece, the algorithmic analysis yielding an analyzed-image data set; determining, based on the algorithmic analysis of the at least one captured image, and in accordance with a set of preliminary business-reply-mail-identifying criteria, whether the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one captured image corresponds is business reply mail exceeds a predetermined preliminary-threshold probability; maintaining reply-services-customer data relating the identity of each business reply postal customer account of a selected set of business reply postal customer accounts with data indicative of at least one of (i) a business reply license number, (ii) a business reply postal code, (iii) a street address corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (iv) a post office box corresponding to the physical location at which the associated postal customer receives non-business-reply mail, (v) a recipient-entity name, (vi) the postal facility that issued the license number, (vii) a class of business reply mail that the postal customer is entitled to receive and (viii) one of a (a) dedicated and (b) shared business-reply-mail-piece collection point; regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined not to exceed the predetermined preliminary-threshold probability and sorting the mail piece to a location designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail; and preliminary regarding the mail piece as business reply mail if the probability that the mail piece to which the at least one analyzed image corresponds is determined to exceed the predetermined preliminary-threshold probability;
wherein, as to a mail piece preliminary regarded as business reply mail, the method further comprises;resolving, at least partially, the at least one captured image associated with the mail piece in order to produce a resolved data set associated with the mail piece and indicative of information exhibited in at least one of (a) any destination address field and (b) any business reply license plate on the corresponding mail piece and consulting the reply-services-customer data in order to determine, by the detection of correspondence between the data therein and the resolved data set, whether the probability that the mail piece is business reply mail exceeds a verification-threshold probability, and wherein (i) as to a mail piece relative to which the verification-threshold probability is not exceeded, the method further comprises regarding the mail piece as non-business reply mail and sorting the mail piece to a collection point designated for the collection of mail pieces regarded as non-business reply mail and (ii) as to a mail piece determined to be business reply mail in accordance with the verification-threshold probability, the method further comprises; providing a sortation protocol including at least a first condition set and a second condition set, the first condition set corresponding to a first level of sortation refinement such that, if at least one subset of conditions within the first condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set associated with the mail piece, a first set of sortation signals is generated indicating that the mail piece is to be sorted in accordance with the first level of sortation refinement and the second condition set corresponding to a second level of sortation refinement such that, if at least one subset of conditions within the second condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set associated with the mail piece, a second set of sortation signals is generated indicating that the mail piece is to be sorted in accordance with the second level of sortation refinement, the second level of sortation refinement being less refined than the first level of sortation refinement; consulting the reply-services-customer data and comparing the resolved data set to the reply-services-customer data in accordance with the sortation protocol in order to determine whether at least one subset of conditions within at least one of the first condition set and the second condition set is satisfied by the resolved data set; causing the generation of one of (i) a first set of sortation signals in response to the satisfaction, by the resolved data set, of at least one subset of conditions within the first condition set and (ii) a second set of sortation signals in response to the satisfaction, by the resolved data set, of a least one subset of conditions within the second condition set, but not within the first condition set; and rendering accessible to predetermined, signal-responsive sortation apparatus the generated one of the first and second sets of sortation signals prior to the arrival of the corresponding mail piece at the signal-responsive sortation apparatus and sorting the mail piece to a collection point in response to the generated one of the first and second sets of sortation signals. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification