Patent ID: 7003133

Claim:
A video-coding station for an installation for automatically processing postal items, in particular packets, the station comprising a central processor unit for holding a digitized image of a postal item in memory, a screen (EC) connected to the central processor unit for displaying said image of a postal item in such a manner as to enable an operator to see a postal address of the postal item in the image, and a keyboard connected to the central processor unit to enable the operator to key in the postal address of the item, wherein said station further comprises a pointing device (JS) linked to the central processor unit and capable of moving a reticule (RE) of rectangular shape (RC) over the image of the item displayed on the screen in such a manner as to enable the operator to circumscribe the postal address within the reticule by maneuvering said pointing device, and in that the central processor unit is programmed to display, in response to a command entered via the keyboard, a field of vectors on said image of the item and to orientate said field of vectors in the plane of the image in response to a maneuver of the pointing device in order to align the field of vectors with the lines in the postal address.