Patent Document ID: 9037288
Application ID: 13817700
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of processing uniform mailpieces or “runs”, in a mail preparation zone; wherein in the mail preparation zone, the mailpieces of a “run” are prepared in trays or on trolleys; wherein the prepared mailpieces are brought to an inlet of a postal sorting machine for a first sorting pass; wherein the mailpieces are fed in series into the sorting machine comprising a sorting conveyor and sorting outlets; wherein a digital image of each mailpiece is formed in the sorting machine, and processing is applied to each digital image for automatically recognizing address information for the purpose of automatically directing the corresponding mailpiece through the sorting conveyor towards a determined sorting outlet of the sorting machine; and wherein a digital model of the run is built in a database, said digital run model defined by data characterizing the graphical appearance of the mailpieces of the run and associated in the database with setting indications usable by the automatic recognition processing; said method comprising the following steps in advance of the first sorting pass of the mailpieces of the run through the sorting machine: a) using an interactive acquisition terminal that is located remote from the sorting machine to form a digital image of a certain mailpiece of the run, said interactive acquisition terminal including a data-processing unit connected to said database; b) in the data-processing unit and on the basis of this digital image, computing attributes or descriptors of the run to build said digital run model in said database; and c) in said database, associating said digital run model with said setting indications from said interactive acquisition terminal, wherein said indications are also input from said interactive acquisition terminal.