Optically readable mail system with general and receiver specific information

A mail system includes a selector selectively composing character information, image information and/or audio information; a printer printing the composite information as optically readable bit information in a plurality of recording mediums; a first storage device storing specific information for specifying the receivers of said recording media; a second storage device storing the required items of said receivers; a third storage area storing the information related to the required items of said receivers; a selector selecting information corresponding to the required items of said receivers from the information related to the required items of said receivers; a recorder recording the selected information corresponding to the required items of said receivers as optically readable bit information in at least one of said recording media; and a recorder recording the specific information specifying said receivers in at least one of said recording media.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an individually addressed information 
transmission system for recording data demanded by a receiver in addition 
to general-purpose mass information and, more particularly, to a mail 
system for additionally recording required data suitable for transmitting 
stock or credit information. 
For the direct mails of the prior art, post cards or leaflets have been 
used which are printed with the general information and additionally with 
the address and name of a receiver as the individual data. As in Japanese 
Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 61-15267 (1986), on the other hand, there 
has been reported an example in which are incorporated the individual data 
including the birth day, wedding anniversary, and Buddhist service items 
of a specific customer. However, all of these data are selected merely for 
convenience of the mail sender but not required by the receiver. In order 
to additionally print the personal information in addition to the general 
information printed in a great amount, the data stored in the computer are 
usually printed out by the printer. However, so much data cannot be 
additionally recorded, but it is the current practice to print several 
lines of characters at most especially in case the post cards are used. 
Since much information cannot be additionally recorded, the prior art is 
accompanied by a problem that a sufficient amount of information required 
by the receiver cannot be printed resulting in a failure to attract the 
interest of the receiver. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide a mail system which can 
have a great amount of additionally recorded information to solve the 
above-specified defect. 
This object can be achieved by a mail system which comprises a selector 
selectively composing character information, image information and/or 
audio information; a printer printing the composite information as 
optically readable bit information in a plurality of recording mediums; 
storage storing specific information for specifying the receivers of said 
recording media; a second storage storing the required items of those who 
are to receive the mail; third storage storing information related to the 
required items of those who are to receive the mail; a second selector 
selecting information corresponding to the required items of said 
receivers from the information related to the required items of said 
receivers; a recorder recording the selected information corresponding to 
the required items of said receivers as optically readable bit information 
in at least one of said recording media; and a second recorder recording 
the specific information specifying said receivers in at least one of said 
recording media. 
Since a recording medium stores the general information shared among a 
majority of receivers and additionally the information required by each of 
the receivers, it is possible to increase the interest of the those who 
are to receive the mail thereby enhance the publicity and advertisement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
The present invention will be described below in connection with one 
embodiment thereof with reference to FIG. 1. There is provided a data 
memory 4 for storing information fetched from an input device such as a 
character input device 1, e.g., a word processor or engineering work 
station, an image data input device 2, e.g., a TV camera or an image 
scanner, or an audio data input device 3, e.g., a microphone or 
synthesizer. This data memory 4 further stores another detailed 
information. 
A general information editing equipment 5 combines those data and edits 
them into common information for a number of receivers. The general 
information thus edited is converted into bit information by a typographic 
master film exposure equipment 6, and a typographic master film for mass 
printing is prepared and used by a printing machine 7. 
In a stock company, for example, stock price trends, market outlooks or PR 
scenes to be transmitted to general customers are edited into plain and 
attractive video programs and printed as bit information to be optically 
read out into the general information areas of direct-mail post cards. 
Incidentally, the stock company has to inform its individual customers of 
different pieces of information such as the dealing records of stock held 
by the customer or the detailed data of individual brands, e.g., the 
fluctuations or outlook of the stock. Therefore, the required item 
concerning what data are required by the customer is registered in a 
required specific information input device 8. As one of the required 
items, there are also registered data designating the order of 
reproduction depending upon what item the customer wants to observe at 
first. 
Incidentally, the required items to be stored in the required specific 
information input device 8 can be rewritten or changed by a change device 
(not illustrated) in accordance with the desire of the receiver or 
customer. 
On the other hand, the specific data for specifying the customer, such as 
the address, name or identification code of the customer necessary for the 
direct mail are stored in a personal data base 9. 
In accordance with the required item specified by the required specific 
information input device 8 in a manner to correspond to the customer data 
of the personal data base 9, a specific data selector 10 selectively 
fetches the information related to the required item such as the detailed 
data related to the brand of a held stock or the dealing data of the 
customer from the data memory 4 and additionally writes it as required 
individual information in an area, other than that for the general 
information earlier printed, by an additional data printer 11. At this 
time, at least a portion of the personal specific data is written in a 
predetermined area such as the edge of paper and is useful for recognizing 
as addressed to the customer in a later-described optical sheet player. 
The paper having its optical recording side totally written by the printing 
machine and the additional data printer is printed at its address column 
with human-readable characters such as the address, name and zip code by 
an address printer 12. The paper thus printed is shaped into the form of a 
post card through the step of applying a protective sheet and the step of 
cutting. 
The paper thus having a post card shape and recorded with much information 
as the bit information like the optical disk will be called the "optical 
post card" in the following. 
When the customer inserts the optical post card received into the optical 
sheet player 13, the image and sounds are reproduced in a display 14 so 
that he can get individual information he requests in addition to general 
information. 
The description thus far covers the whole system. Specific examples of the 
individual parts will be described in the following. FIG. 2 shows the 
system in which the printing machine 7, the address printer 12, a 
protective sheet applicator 16 and a cutter 17 are combined. First of all, 
the general information is transferred from the typographic master film 
recorded in its surface with the bit information by the printing machine 7 
and is printed on a continuous sheet 18 of optical post cards or a 
recording medium being fed continuously from the lefthand side. As a 
result, the continuous sheet 18 is recorded in its surface with white or 
black dots or pits having a depth of about 0.1 .mu.m, as shown in FIG. 3. 
If these dots have a pitch of about 10 .mu.m, for example, as has been 
described hereinbefore, it is possible to print and record information on 
the order of 100 kilobytes per cm.sup.2. This high-precision mass printing 
can be accomplished by a foil transfer method. 
The optical recording is effected by dividing information such as images, 
sounds or characters into bit signals and by recording optically readable 
fine dots in the sheet-shaped recording medium. If a laser diode is used 
as the reading light source, the minimum diameter of the dots can be 
reduced to about 1 .mu.m in accordance with the diameter of the 
condensation limit determined depending upon the wavelength of the laser 
diode. 
This recording method is well known in the art as the optical disk which 
can record information as dense as 10 megabytes per cm.sup.2. 
Even if the dot pitch is set at 10 .mu.m considering that much information 
is copied through the copying or transferring method, the storage capacity 
is as high as 100 kilobytes per cm.sup.2 so that the area of the post card 
can store information on the order of 10 megabytes. 
If, on the other hand, the dot pitch is set at 100 .mu.m only at the 
additional portion considering that the dots are to be additionally 
written by the printer, the recording density can be on the order of 1 
kilobytes per cm.sup.2. 
Therefore, if a sheet of a post card has its half area printed with the 
general information in dots of 10 .mu.m .phi. and its remaining half area 
printed with the additional information in dots of 100 .mu.m .phi., the 
general information area can store two or three color still images and 3 
to 4 minutes of music, whereas the additional area can store character 
information in several tens of A-4 size sheets. 
In FIG. 2, the printed continuous sheet 18 is then written with required 
individual information by the additional data printer 11, which can be 
exemplified by a well-known laser printer, for example. This additional 
area is also printed in the black and white dots, as shown in FIG. 3. If 
this dot pitch is set at 100 .mu.m, for example, as has been described 
hereinbefore, the writing density can be 1 kolobytes per cm.sup.2. Since 
the laser beam printer can have a recording resolution of several ten 
micron meters, it can sufficiently write the dots having the pitch of 100 
.mu.m. If the laser beam printer is thus used as the additional data 
printer 11, the computer output can be directly written without any 
printing typographic master film so that the required individual 
information different among the customers can be written. 
Protective sheets 19 and 19' are applied to the continuous sheet 18, which 
has been written with the general information and the required individual 
information, so that the continuous sheet 18 may be prevented from being 
blotted. These protective sheets are partially printed with readable 
visible information such as the zip code, address and name of the customer 
by the address printer 12. The protective sheet 19 to be applied to the 
printing front of the continuous sheet 18 can be printed with not only a 
note that it should be peeled before the play but also free patterns so as 
to effect enough publicity and advertisement from appearance like the 
general direct mails. 
The continuous sheet 18 emanating from the protective sheet applicator 16 
is cut to have a length of the post card by the cutter 17. If the 
continuous sheet 18 has its width adjusted to that of the regular post 
card, the cut sheets can be used as they are as the post cards. The cut 
sheets can naturally be delivered as the postal matters, if they either 
use the protective sheet 19 printed in advance with stamps of separate 
payment of postage or are printed with the stamps of separate postage 
payment together with the address by the address printer 12. 
The optical post card 20 thus prepared is shown in FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b). The 
side or back stored with the information is so divided, as shown, that the 
image and sounds are reproduced in the display 14 only both in case the 
post card 20 is inserted into the optical sheet player 13 such that the 
personal data printed area is read in before and in case the code number 
written in the personal specific data is coincident with that stored in 
advance in the optical sheet player. 
An example of the configuration of the optical sheet player is shown in 
FIG. 5. When the optical post card 20 is inserted into the player, feed 
rollers 21 convey it over guide shoes 22. While moving below a contact 
line sensor 23, the optical post card 20 has its recorded bit information 
read out and reproduced in the order of the personal data printed area, 
the required specified information printed area and the general 
information printed area. The contact line sensor 23 is so highly fine as 
to read out the bit information from the side printed with the general 
information and is suitably exemplified by a CCD line sensor having a 
pitch of 10 .mu.m. This line sensor is equipped with an imaging optical 
system, by which the real image of the printed front is projected upon the 
photosensitive face of the line sensor so that the printed information is 
detected in terms of changes in the current of the photosensitive element. 
The information thus detected is once stored in a memory 24 and is 
reformed by discriminating means 25. Since the general information is 
recorded in the fine dots having a pitch of 10 .mu.m, the detected signals 
are as they are the reproduced information if the general information is 
read out by the line sensor having the same pitch. On the contrary, the 
additional data printed area requires the memory 24 and the discriminating 
means 25 because signals having a pitch of 100 .mu.m have to be 
discriminated from the detected signals and reproduced in case the 
additional data are recorded with a coarser pitch of 100 .mu.m, for 
example, than that of the general information. With this construction, it 
is possible to reproduce both of the data which are recorded in the dots 
having different pitches. 
The reproduced signals are transformed by a video signal transformer 26 
into video signals, which can be reproduced by an existing display 27, so 
that their image and sounds are reproduced. 
Incidentally, the discriminating means 25 can have a function to compare 
for judgment the identification code of the specific personal data written 
at first with the code stored in advance and to reproduce all the data, if 
the data are surely addressed to the receiver, but otherwise to display 
the message for reproduction inhibition and stop the operation. With this 
function preset, the optical post card can not be reproduced by another 
optical sheet player if it is misdelivered to another customer, to keep 
the privacy. 
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the case in which the system of the 
present invention is developed to incorporate an automatic sorting device. 
The portions of the system upstream of the cutter 17 are similar to those 
of the case of FIG. 1, and their descriptions will be omitted. 
The completed optical post card 20 has the structure shown in FIG. 4. The 
protective sheet 19 need not be peeled for the reading operation if the 
protective sheet 19 is transparent at the portion covering at least the 
edges and the personal data printed area. Especially the personal specific 
data are additionally printed and are recorded in the dots having the 
pitch of 100 .mu.m so that they can be easily read out through the 
protective sheet. Those optical post cards can always be either rearranged 
in the order of customers listed or distributed according to districts by 
reading out the personal specific data through a sorting device 28 even if 
they are cut out of order by the cutter 17. 
Next, one embodiment of the automatic sorting device 28 will be described 
with reference to FIG. 7. The address codes of a person are printed in the 
personal data printed area and read out by an optical reader (e.g., an 
optical system using a laser or a CCD array sensor) 29. The address data 
thus read out are the inputs to an automatic sort controller 30. Control 
signals emanating from this controller 30 control an automatic sort driver 
31. In case the control signals of the address data of a specific district 
come, the corresponding automatic sort driver 31 operates to drive the 
optical post card 20 into a box designated for the specific district. By 
the use of the sorting device, the optical post cards can be sorted more 
precisely than by reading the numerical symbols of the prior art. 
FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) show another mode of the optical post card to be used 
in the present invention. Since the post card is allowed to use its lower 
half below the address area as a space for message, the lower half is 
provided for the additional recording whereas the back is recorded all 
over the area with highly fine general information. 
Thus, the amount of information to be recorded can be dramatically 
increased, and the optical post card can have its one side made of a foil 
suited for printing fine dots and its other side made of paper suited for 
the additional printing so that the two sides can be recorded and 
reproduced with respectively high S/N ratios. 
Next, another embodiment of the optical sheet player will be described with 
reference to FIG. 9. This player is modified by assembling the information 
reader, the display 14 and an audio converter 32 altogether so that it can 
be compact and freely portable. In this player, moreover, the directions 
of inserting and drawing out the sheet-shaped recording medium are 
opposite to each other. This makes it feasible to draw out the recording 
sheet. 
Next, one embodiment of the optical information reader will be described 
with reference to FIG. 10. The optical beam emitted from a light source 33 
is collimated by a collimation lens 34 into parallel rays. These parallel 
rays are guided through a polarization beam splitter 35 and a .lambda./4 
plate 36 and condensed into a spot of 5 to 15 .mu.m on the aforementioned 
optical post card 20 by the action of a condenser lens 37. The spot is 
reflected by the optical post card 20 and is guided again through the 
condenser lens 37 and the .lambda./4 plate 36 into the polarization beam 
splitter 35. This beam has its optical path changed at a right angle by 
the polarization beam splitter 35. The beam thus turned is guided into a 
condenser lens 38 and an optical detector 39. The information can be read 
out in dependence upon the amount of light having entered the optical 
detector. The aforementioned information reader may be multiplexed to 
raise the information transfer rate. On the other hand, the optical post 
card 20 may be of a both-side reading type by forming the information 
readers at the front and back sides thereof. For the data of the two sides 
of the optical post card 20, in this case, the post card 20 need not be 
turned upside down after it has been drawn out from the aforementioned 
optical sheet player. 
Next, another embodiment of the optical information reader will be 
described with reference to FIG. 11. The optical post card 20 is wound on 
a rotating drum 40 and is optically read out by a CCD sensor array 41. 
This CCD sensor array 41 is driven at a right angle with respect to the 
rotating direction of the drum 40 by a driver 43 through a position 
controller 42. As a result, the signals can be stably read out to transfer 
the information at a high speed. Alternatively, the rotating drum 40 may 
be made of a transparent material, and another CCD sensor array may be 
disposed in the drum 40. Then, the data of the two sides of the 
sheet-shaped recording medium can be simultaneously read out. 
According to the present invention, the general information recorded in the 
recording medium having the post card shape can be printed in a great 
amount, and the required individual data suited for the respective 
receivers can be additionally printed. Thus, it is possible to realize 
direct mails which have different contents and much information. 
For example, both a video program for several minutes containing four or 
five still color images and voices and music for several minutes and 
several thousands of characters can be simultaneously recorded as the 
general information and the required individual information, respectively. 
As a result, it is possible to send information answering the requests of 
the customers and to increase the interests of the receivers more than the 
mere direct mails to thereby enhance the publicity and advertisement.