POSTAGE VALUE CALCULATION SYSTEM AND MAILING SYSTEM

Abstract: In a microprocessor based mailing system, postal rate charts (Figure 2A) are provided on portable media such as floppy disks, having the capability to update such postal rate charts. The mailing system includes a microcomputer sys­ tem made up of microprocessor 22, a CRT display 30, a keyboard 40, a dual disk drive 24 and a printer 26. The mailing system also has a scale for determining the weight of items to be mailed, and an optional postal meter. The microprocessor determines the appropriate postage for items to be mailed in accordance with (a) the item's weight, (b) postal information input by an operator and (c) postal rate charts stored on a first disk in one of the disk drives. To update the postal rate charts a second disk may be substi­ tuted for the first while the first disk is shifted to the other drive. The second disk contains updating information and an updating program to update the rate charts. Upon initializa­ tion of the system the updating program is loaded and executed. After updating the first disk the information on the second disk is destroyed, preferably by copying the updated first disk onto it.

Description: The invention relates to a postage value calculation system capable of updating postal rate charts used to determine the applicable postage value for an item to be mailed, the determination being based on the weight of that item and the postal rate charts. Mailing systems, in general, are known and a typical such mailing system is described in U.S. -A- 4,286,325 for System and Method for Computing Domestic and International Postage, issued August 25th, 1981 to Dlugos, et al. The system disclosed in this reference is dedicated to carrying out the above described postage value computation functions and, though including a number of processors, is not a general purpose data processing system. Because of the dedicated use of the system described in U.S. Patent 4,286,325 it was feasible to include both the system programs for computing postage values from weights and other postal information relating to items to be mailed, as well as rate charge defining postage rates, in read-only-memory (ROM's) incorporated in such system. Thus, in the system of U.S. -A-4,286,325, as postage rate charts needed to be updated, new ROM's would be distributed by the supplier of the system. Since these ROM's were physically incorporated in the system the problems of improper copying and distribution of postage rate charts were minimized. Recently it has become desirable to incorporate more computing power into such mailing systems in order to handle additional functions, such as the generation of journals, charge back accounting and the generation of manifests. As the result, recent systems have incorporated more powerful general purpose microprocessors not only to compute applicable postage values but also to handle other functions such as those described immediately above. In mailing systems based on general purpose microprocessors, an effective way to provide systems programs, rate charts and other postal data, such as zip to zone charts has been to use the portable storage media generally provided with such microprocessing systems. Typically this portable storage media might be a floppy disk. However, when a floppy disk is used for storing systems programs and postal data, problems arise in distributing updating information, since floppy disks may be readily reproduced using the general purpose processor and associated drives incorporated in the mailing system. This reduces the supplier's control over the distribution of such material. Another problem arises from the fact that users who do not make use of a particular postal service desire that the rate charts for services not used be not included in their system, so as to avoid mistakes by mailing room personnel inadvertently using the wrong service. As a result, numerous variations of rate charts are to be found in the field with different mailing systems and the supplier of the mailing system must keep track of these variations when updating the postal rate charts. This imposes a considerable inventory burden on the supplier. IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 10 (March 1980), p. 4351/4352 discloses a dual-drive workstation and an updating technique. The arrangement is a general purpose data processing system and is not concerned with mailing applications. A main diskette is used to load a memory in the workstation. An update diskette is used to update the memory when necessary. However, the update diskette can be used many times, to update many different workstations. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a postage value calculation system comprising: (a) a processor; (b) a processor memory operatively associated with said processor for storing programs to be executed; (c) a scale operatively associated with said processor for determining the weight of an item to be mailed; (d) first portable medium drive means operatively associated with said processor for providing access to a portable medium; (e) second portable medium drive means operatively associated with said processor for providing access to a portable medium; (f) initializing means for, in response to an initializing signal, controlling the transfer of program data from a predetermined location on a portable medium mounted in said first drive means to predetermined locations in said memory, and for transferring control of said processor to the program defined by said program data; (g) a first portable medium for storing data, said first medium data including a boot loader program in said predetermined location, an operating program, and postal rate charts for use in the execution of said operating program, whereby said system may, by mounting said first medium in said first drive means and generating said initializing signal, be operated in a normal mode to execute said operating program to determine the applicable postage value for said item to be mailed in accordance with the weight of said item, as measured by said scale, and said postal rate charts; (h) a second portable medium for storing data, said second medium data including data for updating said postal rate charts and said second medium data further including data defining an updating program for controlling the updating of said postal rate charts when said first medium is mounted in said second drive means and for destroying said updating data after updating said postal rate charts, said updating program data being stored so as to be loadable by said initializing means, whereby said system may be operated in an updating mode to update said postal rate charts by mounting said first medium in said second drive means, mounting said second medium in said first drive means and generating said initializing signal. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mailing system comprising a postage value calculation system in accordance with the first aspect of the present invention and a postage meter operatively associated with said postage value calculation system for printing said postage value determined by said operating program. The invention as particularly described herein prevents an unauthorised further distribution of the updating data stored on the second medium. The invention will be better understood from the following non-limiting description of an example thereof given with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a mailing system in accordance with the subject invention. Figure 2 shows floppy disk portable storage media for use with the system of Figure 1. Figure 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a mailing system in accordance with the subject invention. The system comprises scale 10, microcomputer system 20 and postage meter 50. The meter 50 also includes tape base 52. Preferably, meter 50 is a Model 6500 electronic postage meter produced by Pitney Bowes Inc. of Stamford, Connecticut 06926. Scale 10 comprises a conventional load cell 12 which produces an analog signal proportional to the load on the cell, conventional analog circuitry 14 which senses, amplifies and digitizes the analog signal to produce a periodic digital signal representative of the analog signal, and CPU 16 which receives the digital signal and processes it to determine the weight of the item to be mailed. Construction of such a processor controlled digital scale is well understood in the art and forms no part of the novelty of the present invention. A typical example of such a digital processor controlled scale is shown in U.S. -A- 4,236,222 to Loshbough, et al ., issued November 25th, 1980. The microcomputer system 20 comprises microcomputer 22 operatively connected to a dual floppy disk drive 24, a printer 26, a display CRT 30 and a keyboard 40. Microcomputer system 20 is substantially similar to any number of commercially available microcomputer systems such as the Altos Microcomputer System produced by the Altos Corporation of San Jose, California. Preferably, computer system 20 will have a modified keyboard 40 including special function keys defining various postal information, such as class of service or special rates. A typical set of such special function keys is taught in U.S. Patent Number 4,286,325 to Dlugos, et al., issued August 25, 1981. Microcomputer 22 is operatively connected to scale 10 through RS 232 port 18A. RS 232 port 18A provides a standard serial interconnection protocol well known and understood by those skilled in the art and a description of the interconnection process is not necessary for an understanding of the subject invention. Electronic postage meter 50 is operatively connected to scale 10 through meter interface 18B. Because operation of postage meter 50 is equivalent to spending money to buy a stamp, interface 18B is specially designed to be secure and have a low error rate. Such an interface is described in U.S. Patent Number 4,301,507 to Soderberg, et al., issued November 17, 1981, which is hereby incorporated by a reference. The weight of an item to be mailed is transmitted from CPU 16 through RS 232 port 18A to microcomputer 22. Microcomputer 22 computes the appropriate postage value in accordance with the weight and postal information entered through keyboard 40, as will be described further below. The appropriate postage value is transmitted back to CPU 16, which in turn transmits the information to postage meter 50 through meter interface 18B as described in the above Soderberg patent. Meter 50 functions conventionally to print appropriate indicia on a meter tape for application to the item to be mailed and to record and account for the postage expended. Alternatively, the appropriate postage value may be printed by printer 26 in conjunction with item identification information to generate a manifest which may be used by a commercial delivery service such as UPS. For simplicity the description of the operation of the mailing system of the subject invention given below will be in terms of a manifest system for use with commercial delivery system such as UPS. In the normal mode of operation a floppy disk such as that shown in Figure 2a is mounted in drive A of dual disk drive 24. In response to an initialization, or power-up signal microcomputer 22 executes a brief program stored in a ROM which is an integral part of microprocessor 22 to load a boot loader program stored in a predetermined location of the disk of Figure 2a. The boot loader program then loads the systems program stored on the disk of Figure 2a into the memory of microcomputer 22 and transfers control to the systems program. The systems program operates on weight data for items to be mailed received from scale 10 and other postal information, such as destination and class of service, received from an operator through keyboard 40 to compute appropriate postage values in accordance with postal rate charts stored on the disk of Figure 2a. In a preferred embodiment the systems program will display prompts on CRT 30 to elicit the required information from the operator. Having determined the appropriate postage value for an item to be mailed microcomputer 22 prints out the appropriate value in conjunction with information identifying the item to be mailed on the manifest sheet in printer 26. The invoice sheet can then be used to determine the total amount to be paid to the UPS driver when a shipment is picked up and as the invoice for that shipment. Methods for computation of postage values are known and are described in U.S. Patent Number 4,286,325 to Dlugos, et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference. In another preferred embodiment of the subject invention, drive B of dual drive 24 may be used to mount a second floppy disk which may be used to record a daily, or longer, record of transactions. In order to update the postal rate charts of the disk of Figure 2a, the system of Figure 1 may be placed in an update mode by mounting the disk of Figure 2b in drive A and the disk of Figure 2a in drive B. In response to the initialization signal microcomputer 22 would then load the update program, which is stored in locations corresponding to the boot loader on the disk of Figure 2a. (equivalently a boot loader in the corresponding locations on the disk of Figure 2b may be used to load the update program). The update program then reads identification data from the disk of Figure 2a which identifies the particular postal rate charts that are available on that disk and are associated with particular postal services used by that system and updates those postal rate charts in accordance with the update data on the disk of Figure 2b. After the postal rate charts are updated the program then copies the disk of Figure 2a, in its updated form, back onto the disk of Figure 2b, thereby simultaneously providing a back-up system disk while destroying the update data to prevent unauthorized re-use of that data. Preferably the update data may include data defining a check sum which may be used by the update program to validate the data on the systems disk after updating. The updating program would generate a check sum from the updated data on the systems disk in accordance with any of several well known techniques and compare it with the stored check sum. Additionally, the generated check sum could be displayed on CRT 30 for visual verification by an operator. It will be seen that the invention particularly disclosed and illustrated herein provides an updating method and apparatus in a manner which reduces cost and decreases inventory control problems; and moreover permits the supplier of a mailing system to control the distribution of such updating information. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiment described above and illustrated in the attached drawings is intended for purposes of illustration only and that the subject invention may be implemented in various ways.

Claims: A postage value calculation system comprising: (a) a processor (22); (b) a processor memory operatively associated with said processor (22) for storing programs to be executed; (c) a scale (10) operatively associated with said processor (22) for determining the weight of an item to be mailed; (d) first portable medium drive means (A) operatively associated with said processor (22) for providing access to a portable medium: (e) second portable medium drive means (B) operatively associated with said processor (22) for providing access to a portable medium; (f) initializing means for, in response to an initializing signal, controlling the transfer of program data from a predetermined location on a portable medium mounted in said first drive means (A) to predetermined locations in said memory, and for transferring control of said processor (22) to the program defined by said program data; (g) a first portable medium for storing data, said first medium data including a boot loader program in said predetermined location, an operating program and postal rate charts for use in the execution of said operating program, whereby said system may, by mounting said first medium in said first drive means (A) and generating said initializing signal, be operated in a normal mode to execute said operating program to determine the applicable postage value for said item to be mailed in accordance with the weight of said item, as measured by said scale (10), and said postal rate charts; (h) a second portable medium for storing data, said second medium data including data for updating said postal rate charts and said second medium data further including data defining an updating program for controlling the updating of said postal rate charts when said first medium is mounted in said second drive means (B) and for destroying said updating data after updating said postal rate charts, said updating program data being stored so as to be loadable by said initializing means, whereby said system may be operated in an updating mode to update said postal rate charts by mounting said first medium in said second drive means (B), mounting said second medium in said first drive means (A) and generating said initializing signal. A postage value calculation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system further comprises means (40) for entry by an operator of additional postal information, said information including information defining the desired class of postal service, and said operating program is arranged to select the appropriate postal rate chart in accordance with said desired class of service. A postage value calculation system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said first medium data further include identification data identifying the particular postal rate charts available on said first medium. A postage value calculation system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said updating data include data for updating said particular and other postal rate charts and said updating program is arranged to update only said particular postal rate charts in accordance with said identification data stored on said first medium. A postage value calculation system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said updating program is arranged to destroy said updating data by copying said first medium data, after updating of said postal rate charts stored on said first medium, onto said second medium, so as to provide a back-up copy of the updated first medium while destroying said updating data. A postage value calculation system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said updating program is arranged to control said processor (22) to check the validity of said first medium data stored on said updated first medium in accordance with a check sum algorithm. A mailing system comprising a postage value calculation system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 and a postage meter (50) operatively associated with said postage value calculation system for printing said postage value determined by said operating program.

Inventors: FIELD, MICHAEL E.
Applicants: PITNEY BOWES, INC.
Application year: 1984
Main classification: G07B17
IPC codes: G07B17, G06Q50