Patent Publication Number: US-9421579-B2

Title: Method of merging a postal article into sorted mail, the method including assistance via visual designation of the location at which the postal article is to be inserted

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a national stage application of PCT/FR2013/052805, filed on Nov. 20, 2013 and claiming priority to FR 12 61716 filed on Dec. 6, 2012 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The invention relates to the field of postal sorting, and, in particular to the field of assistance in merging postal articles with machine-sorted mail, it being possible, for example, for the postal articles to be mail articles that are not machine-sortable. 
     PRIOR ART 
     Patent Document DE-10 2010 043 389 discloses a method of merging a postal article with machine-sorted mail that is in the form of an ordered sequence of mail articles. In that method, merging assistance is given to the operator who is assigned the task of performing the merging. That operator assistance consists in displaying on a display screen placed next to the operator the image of the reference mail article that, in the sequence, should precede or that should follow the postal article to be merged. For that purpose, a camera is used to take a digital image of the postal article to be merged, and said reference mail article is determined on the basis of the data produced in the sorting machine during the automatic sorting of the mail articles, and also on the basis of the sorting plan that corresponds to the ordering of said mail articles in the sequence. Then the operator looks through the sequence of mail articles until said operator visually identifies the reference mail article, whereupon said operator can insert the postal article at the right place in the ordered sequence of the mail articles. 
     The proportion of automatically machine-sorted mail is increasing relative to the proportion of postal articles to be merged manually because sorting equipment is ever-improving, and the operation of manually looking through the sequence of already sorted mail articles is therefore becoming increasingly lengthy and tedious. 
     In addition, such manual merging is currently performed for preparing delivery rounds or “postman&#39;s walks”. In practice, it is the delivery person who performs the merging because of that person&#39;s knowledge of the delivery plan for the mail articles, and thus the merging is generally performed in an inward delivery post office. There is a need to avoid requiring the operator assigned the task of merging postal articles into already machine-sorted mail to be a specialist, in order to reduce the costs of that manual operation and in order to make it possible for it to be performed in outward sorting centers. 
     An object of the invention is thus to remedy the drawbacks and to satisfy the expectations indicated above. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention therefore provides a method of merging a postal article with machine-sorted mail arriving in a stack and on edge in an ordered sequence of mail articles, the method being characterized in that it consists in forming a digital image of said postal article, the image including a postal delivery address, and, on the basis of data produced in said sorting machine and of said digital image, in determining in said ordered sequence of mail articles a location at which said postal article is to be inserted in order to perform the merging, and in that it further consists in generating an identification signal that visually designates said location directly in the stack so as to assist an operator in performing said merging. 
     The basic idea of the invention is thus to show the operator the place where the operator is to insert the postal article into the sequence of already sorted mail articles, via a signal that visually indicates the place to the operator. 
     The merging-assistance method of the invention may advantageously have the following features:
         data representative of the thickness of each mail article is used to generate said identification signal;   the thickness data is data produced by the sorting machine;   at least one physical magnitude of said stack is used to generate said identification signal;   the identification signal is a light signal;   the light signal is generated by a light source of the laser source type disposed substantially above the mail articles, the light signal being aimed at one of the mail articles marking the insertion location;   the light signal is generated from a strip of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) along which the mail articles are disposed on edge and in a stack, a LED emitting the light signal marking the location in the stack;   the postal article is merged with mail articles in order to prepare a delivery round; and   on the basis of each digital image of an article, an image signature serving as a unique identifier for uniquely identifying said article is computed.       

     It can be understood that the term “postal article” may mean a letter, a magazine, a large-format postal article or “flat”, or indeed a parcel of the packet type. 
     In the meaning of the invention, said postal article has not been machine-sorted automatically, e.g. because of its physical characteristics (too large, too heavy, etc.). But such a postal article may also be a mail article that is machine-sortable but that it has not been possible to sort automatically. The mail articles may be letters, magazines, and the like that are automatically sorted in conventional sorting machines having unstackers and sorting conveyors with sorting outlets. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention can be better understood and other advantages appear on reading the following description and on examining the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows an implementation of the merging method of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  shows another implementation of the merging method of the invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart showing the main steps of the method of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  shows an implementation of the method of merging postal articles with machine-sorted mail by using merging-assistance apparatus indicated by reference  1 . 
     The merging-assistance apparatus  1  comprises, for example, a container  2  such as a storage bin designed to store flat the postal articles  3  to be merged. Said postal articles  3  are disposed in a stack  4  in the container  2 . In this example, said postal articles  3  may be flat postal articles of large format or “flats”. The top of the container  2  is normally open so as to allow an operator  5  to take the postal articles  3  one-by-one easily and rapidly from the top of the stack  4 . The postal articles  3  are stored in the container  2  with their faces that bear the postal delivery addresses  6  facing upwards towards a camera or any other equivalent image-taking apparatus  8 , the first postal article  3  of the stack being illuminated by lighting apparatus  7 . 
     The image-taking apparatus  8  is thus normally placed above the container  2  so as to take digital images of each postal article  3  at the top of the stack  4 , each digital image then including the delivery address  6  on the postal article  3 . It should be noted that the image-taking apparatus may also be a movable camera of the handheld barcode reader type. 
     The merging-assistance apparatus  1  also includes a monitoring and control unit  9  that is connected to the image-taking apparatus  8  and that includes an optical character recognition system of the OCR type designed for automatically evaluating the delivery address  6  in the digital image of each postal article  3  as is well known. 
     The monitoring and control unit  9  may be connected to a display screen  10 , e.g. a touch-sensitive screen having a virtual keyboard or a physical keyboard. 
     The merging-assistance apparatus  1  may also include a plane support  11  having a dihedral and on which mail articles  12  that are already sorted in an ordered sequence can be disposed on edge in a stack. In  FIG. 1 , reference  13  designates apparatus making it possible to measure physical size dimensions, in particular the length D of the stack  14  of mail articles  12 . The apparatus  13  may, for example, be a camera that produces an image of the stack and that is placed above the support  11  at a known distance from the monitoring and control unit  9 . By computing and image analysis, the monitoring and control unit  9  is thus suitable for determining an estimate of the length D of the stack  14 . 
     The merging-assistance apparatus  1  may also include identification means  15  suitable for generating a reference signal that visually designates a location at which a postal article  3  to be merged is to be inserted into the stack  14  of mail articles  12 . The identification means  15  may be an angularly positionable laser controlled by the monitoring and control unit  9 . In practice, the laser  15  is suitable for generating a light beam that comes to be placed, for example, on the top edge face of a mail article  12  in the stack  14  so as to designate the insertion location (before or after said mail article  12 ). 
     In  FIG. 1 , reference  16  designates a database that contains the data produced by the sorting machine or equipment while the mail articles  12  are being sorted. Said data includes, for each mail article  12 , an image of the mail article  12  that includes a postal delivery address, physical characteristics of the mail article  12  such as length, height, thickness, plastic wrapping, etc. Said data may also include an indication of rank of the mail article  12  in a sequence of mail articles, an indication of a delivery point in the delivery round, etc. All of this data is archived conventionally while the mail is being sorted in an automatic postal sorting machine. 
       FIG. 3  shows the main steps in the merging method of the invention using the merging-assistance apparatus  1  shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     At the start of the merging process, the operator  5  actuates a cyclical merging process, e.g. by pressing a key. 
     The cycle starts with a step  400  of forming a digital image of the current postal article  3  at the top of the stack  4 . 
     Said digital image is stored in a memory in the monitoring and control unit  9 , which evaluates the delivery address contained in the image via OCR processing. The evaluation may optionally involve remote recognition by video encoding. 
     In step  410 , the monitoring and control unit  9  continues its processing for determining an insertion location for the current postal article  3  in the sequence of the mail articles  12  by using the address recognized for the postal article  3  and the data in the database  16 , and the sorting plan that defines the ordering in the sequence of the mail articles  12 . In particular, the monitoring and control unit  9  is suitable for identifying, on the basis of said information, the reference mail article  12  that should precede or follow the postal article  3  to be merged. 
     In step  420 , on the basis of the identification of the reference mail article  12  and on the basis of the data in the database  16 , the monitoring and control unit  9  is suitable for computing the distance d between said reference mail article  12  and a reference end of the stack  14  of mail articles  12 . In particular, computing this distance uses the data relating to the thicknesses of the mail articles  12 , which data is stored in the database  16 . 
     In step  430 , on the basis of the distance d and of the distance D, the monitoring and control unit  9  angularly positions the laser  15  so that the laser signal points to the reference article, designated by AR in  FIG. 1 , so as to designate visually to the operator  5  the location at which the current postal article  3  is to be inserted. For example, the laser signal may be pointed at the top edge face of the reference mail article  12 . This laser signal is a light signal that is white, red, or of some other color so as to be readily identified by the operator  5 . 
     In step  440 , the operator  5  takes hold of the current postal article  3  in the bin  2  and, merely by moving an arm, inserts it into the stack at the insertion location designated by the laser signal. The data concerning the article  3 , and in particular its thickness, is added to the database  16 . 
     A new merging cycle then starts for a new postal article  3  to be merged; 
     Naturally, the light signal may also be generated by some other laser source without going beyond the ambit of the invention. Instead of using physical magnitudes that are measured for the mail articles  12 , in particular measured thicknesses, the monitoring and control unit  9  may be adapted to estimate the distance d on the basis of a standard thickness for the mail articles  12 . Naturally, the merging location, or the reference mail article  12 , is then designated approximately. 
     Naturally, as the postal articles  3  are merged into the stack  14  of mail articles  12 , the monitoring and control unit  9  determines, every time, a new distance D, and, by taking the difference, the thickness of the postal article  3  that has been merged. 
     The monitoring and control unit  9  may be designed to detect, by comparing two successive images taken by the first camera  8 , the change in current postal article  3  at the top of the stack  4  so that the merging cycles follow on from one another without any interruption. 
     It can be understood that the container  2  is preferably placed in the vicinity of the support  11  in order to facilitate handling by the operator  5 . 
     It is also possible to consider displaying the image of the reference mail article  12  on the screen  10  for each merging cycle. In addition, it is also possible to consider displaying the image of the stack  14  of mail articles  12  on the screen  10  in three dimensions (3D) with the identification signal. It is also possible to use virtual reality glasses or goggles with which the image of the stack  14  is superimposed on the direct view seen by the operator  5 . 
     It is understood that, when the merging process starts, the stack of mail articles already put in place by the operator  5  on the support  11  is correctly positioned relative to a three-dimensional reference frame. 
     It is also understood that the keyboard of the monitoring and control unit  9  may serve to input indications for evaluating the delivery addresses of the postal articles  3  if it has not been possible for them to be read automatically. 
     Finally, it is understood that the merging method of the invention is compatible with the postal articles  3  previously passing through an encoding or sorting machine, during which pass their destination addresses have been evaluated, and then stored in a database in relation either to image signatures of the postal articles  3  or to bar codes of the ID tag type that have then been printed on said articles. In which case, the step  400  of the processing described above is supplemented by generating an image signature (or by reading back the ID tag bar code), and by accessing the database in order to retrieve the destination address and in order to continue the step  410 . 
       FIG. 2  shows another embodiment of the merging-assistance apparatus  1  that uses a support  11  for supporting a stack  14 , which support is provided with a strip of LEDs  17  that can be selectively switched on or off by the monitoring and control unit  9 . This strip replaces the laser  15  in its function of designating the location at which a postal article  3  is to be inserted. As can be seen in  FIG. 2 , the LEDs  17  are lined up along the length of the stack of mail articles  12  disposed on edge. Therefore, the monitoring and control unit  9  causes the LED that is positioned facing the reference mail article AR to be switched on. In  FIG. 2 , this LED is symbolized by a black circle. 
     The invention makes it possible to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. The identification signal physically and directly designating the insertion location makes it possible to accelerate the rate at which the flows of postal articles are merged by the operator  5 . 
     Naturally, the present invention is in no way limited to the above description of one of its implementations, which can undergo modifications without going beyond the ambit of the invention.