Patent ID: 8036994

Claim:
A method of processing, through a postal system, a mail piece exhibiting at least a destination address field, information indicative of the identity of the sender and an indication as to a level of delivery service requested, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining, in computer memory, postal-customer account data uniquely associating the identity of at least one postal customer with an account authorized to have automatically assessed to it postal charges associated with the processing of mail pieces for which no postage-paid indicia; depositing into the postal system a mail piece exhibiting (i) a destination address field, (ii) information indicative of a sender whose identity is associated in the postal customer account data with an account authorized to have automatically assessed to it postal charges associated with the processing of mail pieces, (iii) an indication as to a level of delivery service requested and (iv) no postage-paid indicium; capturing at least one image from a surface of the deposited mail piece and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least (i) a destination address field image corresponding to the destination address field on the deposited mail piece, (ii) data indicative of the identity of the sender of the deposited mail piece, and (iii) an indication as to a level of delivery service requested; maintaining mail-services postage data relating required postage rates to data indicative of a set of mail-piece characteristics; resolving the at least one captured image associated with the deposited mail piece in order to produce a resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece and indicative of (i) the destination indicated in the destination address field and (ii) the level of delivery service requested; consulting the mail-services postage data and comparing the resolved data set to the mail-services postage data; rendering a determination, based on the comparison between the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece and the mail-services postage data, as to the postage required in order to process the mail piece in accordance with the level of delivery service requested; resolving a portion of a captured image including data indicative of the identity of the sender of the deposited mail piece, associating the resolved data indicative of the identity of the sender with the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece, and comparing the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece to the postal-customer-account data in order to identify, through cross-referencing, the account with which the identity of the sender is associated; automatically assessing to the account associated with the indicated sender a postal charge representative of at least the amount of the determined postage required for the level of delivery service requested; and sorting the deposited mail piece for delivery in accordance with the level of delivery service requested.