Mail-Article Tracing Apparatus

The present invention relates to a mail-article processing apparatus, and more particularly to a mail-article tracing apparatus for use in an automatic mail-handling system.

One example of an automatic mail-handling system requiring a mail-article tracing apparatus is a postal code printing apparatus, in which an address described on a mail-article is picked up by an operator or an optical character reader (OCR), and the postal code corresponding to this address is printed on the same mail-article.

In a prior art mail-article tracing method, plural detectors such as photo-electric detectors are provided along a mail transport path such that there is a predetermined distance between adjacent mail detectors, and plural registers are also provided corresponding to the plural mail detectors, respectively. In this method, a letter is traced by shifting a signal showing a mail-article in the series of registers in response to the detection at the series of the mail detectors. In this case, since the register can store only one signal representing one mail-article, a plurality of mail-articles should not be presented in the transport path corresponding to a section between two adjacent mail detectors. This means that the length of the section should be shorter than the minimum transfer interval of the mail-articles. Therefore, a great number of mail detectors must be provided in a mail-handling system which requires a long transport path. The tracing method just described is referred to as the light bar method hereinafter.

There is another prior art mail-article tracing method reducing the number of the mail detectors in the light bar method, in which a series of several mail detectors are omitted, and a timer circuit is provided to produce a psuedo mail detecting signal. In the timer circuit, the psuedo mail detecting signals are produced in substitution for the mail detection signals delivered from the omitted mail detectors by counting the clock pulses generated in response to the transport speed to a predetermined amount which corresponds to the distance between two adjacent mail detectors in the light bar method. This tracing method is defined as a clock method hereinafter. In the clock method, since the timing of the psuedo mail detecting signal outputted from the timer circuit can be considered equivalent to that of the mail detection signal delivered from the omitted mail detector in the light bar method, the transport speed, for example, the transport belt speed must be kept equal to the actual mail transport speed. However, the actual mail transport speed is in practice because of the slippage between the mail-article and a transport path, and this variation in the actual mail transport speed results in a timing error between the psuedo mail detecting signal and the time when the mail-article arrives at the point of the omitted mail detector. With increasing omitted mail detectors, this timing error is extended. Consequently, a mis-tracing operation occurs when the timing error exceeds the transport time corresponding to the distance of one section, i.e., the distance between two adjacent mail detectors in the light bar method. Since the number of mail detectors which can be omitted is limited to several in practice, it is not possible to reduce the system hardware, such as mail detectors, remarkably.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mail-article tracing apparatus which includes only two mail detectors, provided at the entrance and the exit of the transport path.

According to the present invention, there is provided a mail-article tracing apparatus which comprises two mail detectors provided at an entrance and an exit of a transport path, means for producing order codes representing transport orders at the entrance and the exit, respectively, means for measuring transport intervals between two adjacent transported mail-articles at the entrance and the exit, respectively, memory means for storing data expressing the transport intervals as addressed by the order codes at the entrance and the exit of the transport path, respectively, and means for comparing the transport interval data at the entrance of transport path read out from the memory means with that at the exit of transport path. When the transport intervals at the entrance and the exit are substantially equal or within a predetermined allowance, the transport order code produced at the exit of the transport path is outputted as it is. When the transport interval at the exit is shorter than that at the entrance beyond the allowance, the transport order code produced at the exit is shifted to decrease by one and a reject code is assigned to the mail-articles which shorten the transport interval. When the transport interval at the exit is more extended than that at the entrance beyond the allowance, the transport order code produced at the exit is shifted to increase by one.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a postal code printing apparatus to which the present invention is applicable;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of a prior art mail-article tracing apparatus according to the light bar method;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of another prior art mail-article tracing apparatus according to a clock method;

FIG. 4 schematically shows a transport path and two mail detectors of the present invention;

FIG. 5A shows a block diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 5B shows a block diagram of the details of respective portions in the circuit shown in FIG. 5A;

FIGS. 6A and 6B diagrammatically illustrate the contents of memory circuits used in the circuit shown in FIG. 5A;

FIG. 7 shows a timing chart of output signals from mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102 used in FIGS. 4 and 5;

FIGS. 8A and 8B show schematic diagrams for explaining the operation of the present invention, in which mail-articles being transported with overlap and thence separated are illustrated;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are flowcharts for illustrating operation flows of the tracing apparatus of the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for illustrating a comparing process according to the present invention.

The description of a mail-article tracing apparatus according to the present invention, a postal code printing apparatus to which the present invention is applicable will first be described to show the advantage of the invention. In FIG. 1, mail-articles 1 are fed from a feeder section one by one and transported in the direction of an arrow 2. An address written on the mail-article is picked up by a scanner 3, for example, a video camera, and the picked-up image signal from the scanner 3 is distributed to display units 5 through a memory unit 4. An operator reads the displayed address image on the display unit 5 and designates a postal code corresponding to the respective address into a keyboard 6. The postal code keyed by the keyboard 6 is passed through a signal processing unit 7 to a printer 8. The printer 8 prints a code mark, for example, a bar code corresponding to the postal code on the mail-article when it reaches a position in front of the printer 8. The code mark is read by a code reader 9 and the mail-article is sorted into one of stackers 10 to 14 in response to the read code mark.

In FIG. 1, the keying operation for the transported mail-article should be completed before it reaches the printer 8. This necessitates the delay time from a time that the mail-article passes the scanner 3 to the time that it reaches the printer 8. In other words, a long transport path 15 should be provided to cause the delay time. Therefore, a mail tracing operation between the scanner 3 and the printer 8 is necessary to prevent a mis-printing of the code mark.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is shown an arrangement of the light bar method which is one of the conventional tracing methods. As shown, a series of mail detectors PS.sub.i (i=1, 2, 3) are disposed in association with amplifiers AMP.sub.i and registers REG.sub.i, respectively. A series of mail-articles M.sub.p (p=1, 2, 3 . . . , but does not correspond to i) is transported by a transport path 21. In the course of transportation, the mail detector PS.sub.i produces an ON signal when the mail-article M.sub.p passes the mail detector PS.sub.i and the amplifier AMP.sub.i produces a timing signal TS.sub.i. The timing signal TS.sub.i drives the register REG.sub.i to shift a signal C.sub.p corresponding to the mail-article M.sub.p from the register REG.sub.i-1 to the register REG.sub.i. Thus, the signal C.sub.p of the mail-article M.sub.p is successively shifted through the series of registers REG.sub.i from upstream to downstream as the mail-article M.sub.p passes the series of mail detectors PS.sub.i in the same direction. In this way, the mail-article is traced. If the interval between the adjacent mail detectors PS.sub.i-1 and PS.sub.i is longer than the interval between the successive mail-articles M.sub.p-1 and M.sub.p, the signal C.sub.p relating to two mail-articles is loaded into one register REG.sub.i. As a result, the mail-article M.sub.pi-1 can not be discriminated from the mail-article Mp.sub.i and hence the tracing of the mail-article is impossible. It is for this reason that the interval between the mail detector PS.sub.i provided must not be shorter than the minimal transfer distance between the mail-articles.

FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of the clock method which is the second noted conventional tracing method. In FIG. 3, three mail detectors PS are omitted from light bar tracing system shown in FIG. 2. In the drawing, a timer circuit TM is driven by clocks corresponding to the transport speed to produce timing signals TS.sub.i as if the three mail detectors omitted are actually provided. Therefore, the operation of the tracing system using the present clock method is the same as that using the light bar method shown in FIG. 1. Through the registers REG.sub.i, the signal C.sub.p representing the mail-article is successively shifted following the flow of the mail-article M.sub.p, with the result that the mail-article M.sub.p is traced successively.

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 4 for illustrating the principle of the present invention, along the transport path 15, there are disposed only two mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102, which are provided at the entrance and exit of the transport path, respectively, separated by a distance of, for example, about 24 mail-articles arranged in end to end manner.

FIG. 5A shows an embodiment of a mail-article tracing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, signals from the two detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102 are wave-shaped by amplifiers AMP.sub.101 and AMP.sub.102 and then applied to measuring circuits 22 and 24, respectively. The measuring circuits 22 and 24 are each comprised of a counter for generating a transport order code (a transport number) j representing a transport order every time it detects a mail-article, a counter for measuring an ON time corresponding to the length of the mail-article, and another counter for measuring an OFF time corresponding to a transport interval between two mail-articles. In order to measure the ON and OFF times, an output signal from the AMP is sampled and checked to see whether the signal level of the output signal from the AMP is high or low, at a very high frequency rate. Therefore, by sensing the change of the signal level, i.e., low to high and high to low, the leading and trailing edges of the mail-article are detected, and by counting sample points the high and low signal levels, the ON and OFF times are detected. This process is easily performed by a computer technique.

In the memory circuits 23 and 25, addresses corresponding to the transporting numbers j are designated and the ON time and the OFF time are successively stored in the memory areas defined by the addresses, respectively. The memory circuit 23 successively stores the ON time t.sub.aj and the OFF time t.sub.bj at the entrance (at the position of the detector PS.sub.101) of the transport path 15. The memory circuit 25 successively stores the ON time t.sub.cj and the OFF time t.sub.dj at the exit (the position of the detector PS.sub.102) of the transport path 15.

In FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrating the contents of the memory circuits 23 and 25, S1, S2, S3, . . . in FIG. 6A and Y1, Y2, Y3, . . . in FIG. 6B indicate respectively address numbers in the memory circuits 23 and 25, and are allotted to the transport numbers j two for one; pairs of S1 and S2, and Y1 and Y2 are allotted to j=1.

When a series of the mail-articles M.sub.j (M.sub.1, M.sub.2, . . . ) are transported along the transport path 15, an output signal TS.sub.101 is produced from the amplifier AMP.sub.101 every time a mail-article M.sub.j passes the mail detector PS.sub.101. Through the measuring circuit 22, the ON time t.sub.aj and the OFF time t.sub.bj are successively stored in the memory circuit 23. Then, when the mail-articles M.sub.j are transported on the transport path 15 and pass the mail detector PS.sub.102, an output signal TS.sub.102 is produced from the amplifier AMP.sub.102 and through the measuring circuit 24, the ON time t.sub.cj and the OFF time T.sub.dj are successively stored in the memory circuit 25.

Every time an OFF time t.sub.dj is stored in the memory circuit 25, the comparator 26 successively compares the OFF time t.sub.bj at the entrance with the OFF time t.sub.dj at the exit. If the result of the comparison shows no abnormality, i.e., the OFF time t.sub.bj is nearly equal to the OFF time t.sub.dj, the transport number j is successively applied to the mail-article M.sub.j passing the mail detector PS.sub.102. The state where the OFF time t.sub.dj at the exit is shorter than the OFF time t.sub.bj at the entrance indicates that a doubled mail-article has been separated into individual mail-articles during transportation. In this case, the transport number is changed to the preceding number j-1 at the exit, so as to prevent an error from occuring in the succeeding mail-article. In this case, a reject code is applied to the two mail-articles doubled at the entrance of the transport path. The state where the OFF time t.sub.dj is longer than the ON time t.sub.bj indicates that a mail-article has dropped out during transportion. In this case, the transportation number is changed to j+1 so as to eliminate the error in the next mail-articles. In this way, mail-articles are traced correctly.

FIG. 5B shows a circuit diagram including the measuring circuits 22 and 24, the memory circuits 23 and 25, and the comparing circuit 26. The measuring circuit 22 is comprised of an edge detector 220 for detecting leading and trailing edges, a transport number counter 221 for counting every time a mail-article is transferred, and an ON time counter 222 and an OFF time counter 223 for measuring the ON time and OFF time in response to the output signal from the edge detector 120. The memory circuit 23 is comprised of a memory 224 for storing the ON times and OFF times, and a write address generating circuit 225 for forming a write address of the memory 224 on the basis of the output signal from the transport number counter 221. The measuring circuit 24, like the measuring circuit 23, is comprised of an edge detector 240, a transport number counter 241, an ON time counter 242 and an OFF time counter 243. The memory circuit 25 is constructed of a memory 244 for storing the ON times and OFF times, a write address generating circuit 245, and a read address generating circuit 246 for generating read addresses for the memories 224 and 244. The read address generating circuit 246 generates the address slightly delayed so as not to simultaneously designate the read address and the write address in the memory 244. The delay time is extremely short. The comparing circuit 26, as described above, compares the OFF times read out from the memories 224 and 244. When an abnormality is found in article transportation as the result of the comparison, the comparing circuit 26 serves to correct the output signal from the transport number counter 241.

In the postal code printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 incorporating the present invention, a sorting code keyed by an operator is stored linked to the transport code (transport number) determined at the entrance of the transport path 15. The stored sorting code is read out by the transport number produced at the exit of the transport path 15, and the code mark corresponding to this sorting code is printed by printer 12.

When there is an abnormality in doubled transportation, particularly when the mail-articles are separated into individual ones during the transportation, the sorting code read out by the transport number at the exit is not used, but a reject code is assigned in place of the sorting code. In this embodiment, no tracing means, such as mail detectors, are provided between the entrance and the exit of the path 15. Therefore, the transport mail-article tracing apparatus may be extremely simplified in construction.

FIG. 7, which is useful in explaining the operation of the present invention, illustrates relationships between the ON times t.sub.aj and t.sub.cj and the OFF times t.sub.bj and t.sub.dj. In the figure, the waveforms TS.sub.101 and TS.sub.102 correspond to the mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102, respectively. When a mail-article M.sub.j is normally transported between the mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102, the signal produced signal has the waveform TS.sub.102. In this case, the waveform TS.sub.102 is delayed behind the waveform TS.sub.101 by the transport time corresponding to a time duration between the mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102. For those waveforms, the ON times t.sub.aj and t.sub.cj and OFF times t.sub.bj and t.sub.dj remain unchanged.

Let us consider the case where a mail-article M.sub.j transported as indicated by TS.sub.101 has an abnormality during transportation. In FIG. 7, waveforms TS'.sub.102 and TS".sub.102 are the signals output when an abnormality occurs in the transport path between the mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102. In the case indicated by the waveform TS'.sub.102, the mail-article mass M.sub.26 composed of two mail-articles in an overlapped manner as shown in FIG. 8A has been transported by the point of the mail detector PS.sub.101 and later separated into two individual mail-articles M'.sub.26 and M".sub.26 during transportation, as shown in FIG. 8B. Accordingly, the mail detector PS.sub.102 detects two individual mail-articles M'.sub.26 and M".sub.26. In the case of the waveform TS".sub.102, the mail-article M.sub.26 has deviated from the transport path by some reason after passing the mail detector PS.sub.101 but before passing the mail detector PS.sub.102, and has failed to pass the mail detector PS.sub.102.

Let us compare the waveform TS.sub.102 in the normal transportation situation with the waveforms TS'.sub.102 or TS".sub.102 of the abnormal transportation situation. In comparison to the OFF time t.sub.d'26 of the article M'.sub.26 when the overlapped mail-article mass M.sub.26 is separated into two individual mail-articles, the following relation is true for the OFF time t.sub.d26 when the mail-article M.sub.26 is normal.

Where t".sub.c26 and t".sub.d26 are the ON time and the OFF time of the mail-article M".sub.26, respectively. Therefore, since

the OFF time t'.sub.d26 of the mail-article M.sub.26 is at least shorter than the OFF time t.sub.d26 of the mail-article M.sub.26 by at least the ON time t".sub.c26 of the mail-article M".sub.26 or more.

The case where a mail-article deviates from the transport path will now be described. In comparison to the OFF time t'.sub.d25 of the mail-article M.sub.25 when the mail-article M.sub.26 deviates from the transport path, the OFF time t.sub.d25 of the mail-article M.sub.25 when the mail-article M.sub.26 is normally transported is as follows.

Accordingly, the following relation is obtained.

As described above, by using equations (2) and (4), the normality or abnormality of article transportation, i.e., the separation of the mail-articles or the deviation of a mail-article, can be discriminated. As seen from FIG. 7, when an abnormality occurs, the change in the OFF time t'.sub.dj is either about 1/2 or two times the OFF time t.sub.dj of normal transportation. Therefore, any abnormality can be easily discovered.

The speed system variation in a practical transport speed is small and less than .+-.10%. This value indicates that the ON times t.sub.cj and OFF times t.sub.dj measured at the point of the mail detector PS.sub.102 may vary .+-.20% at maximum from the ON times t.sub.aj and OFF times t.sub.bj measured at the point of the mail detector PS.sub.101. Since the maximum normal time variation of 20% is quite small when compared to the time variation of 1/2 or 2 times when an abnormality in mail-article transportation occurs, the discrimination as to whether an abnormality has occured can be reliably carried out.

Turning now to FIGS. 9A and 9B, there are shown flow diagrams of an embodiment of the present invention, where the process corresponding to FIGS. 5A and 5B is performed by a computer technique. In FIG. 9A, when the output signal TS.sub.101 from the mail detector PS.sub.101 is checked and indicates the detection of a leading edge, the transport number j of the passed transport mail-article M.sub.j is counted. The OFF time t.sub.bj-1 is measured and is stored in the memory circuit 23 at an address S x (S x indicates address numbers 2, 4, 6, . . . , 2j, . . . in the memory circuit) corresponding to the transport number j, to thereby clear the measured OFF time t.sub.bj. When the output signal TS.sub.101 indicates the trailing edge, the ON time t.sub.aj is stored at the address Y x (1, 3, 5, . . . , (2j-1), . . . ) in the memory circuit 23 corresponding to the transportation number j counted in the case of the leading edge, to thereby clear the measured ON time t.sub.aj. When the output signal TS.sub.101 is in an ON state (high level), the ON time t.sub.aj is counted. When the output signal TS.sub.101 is in an OFF state (low level), the OFF time t.sub.bj is counted. The procedure diagrammed in FIG. 9A is cyclicly repeated at very high frequency.

In FIG. 9B the state of the output signal TS.sub.102 of the mail detector PS.sub.102 is also checked. Then, like the output signal TS.sub.101, the ON time t.sub.cj and OFF time t.sub.dj are counted and stored in the memory circuit 25. When the output signal TS.sub.102 indicates a leading edge, a comparison is performed in addition to the above processing, so that the transport numbers j are successively allotted to the transported mail-articles M.sub.j passing the mail detector PS.sub.102. The comparison process will further be described referring to FIG. 10, which illustrates the details of the comparison process. The comparator compares the OFF time t.sub.bj and the OFF time t.sub.dj which are stored in the addresses S x and Y x of the memory circuits, corresponding to the transport number j.

When the result of the comparison shows that those OFF times substantially equal each other, it is determined that the transport article M.sub.j has been normally transported through the transport path 15 between the mail detectors PS.sub.101 and PS.sub.102. Therefore, the transport number j is allotted to the transport article M.sub.j at the exit of the transport path.

When the result of the comparison shows that the OFF times are not substantially equal to each other, it is judged that there is an abnormality in the transported mail-article M.sub.j. In the situation where t.sub.bj >t.sub.dj, it is judged that two overlapped mail-articles at the entrance of the transport path have been separated into two individual ones during transportation along the path 15. Conversely, in the situation where t.sub.bj <t.sub.dj, it is judged that the mail-article transported through the path 15 has deviated from the transport path 15. Therefore, in order to correctly trace the mail-article even under the occurrence of abnormalities, when the comparison result shows t.sub.bj >t.sub.dj, the transport number at the photoelectric switch PS.sub.102 is increased by one, the transport number j is set to -1 once and the reject code is allotted to the mail-articles separated into two individual ones. When t.sub.bj <t.sub.dj, the transport number is increased by one and the increased transport number is allotted to the mail-article at the mail detector PS.sub.102.

To detect the transporting condition, the OFF time was used in the above description. The ON time stored simultaneously with the OFF time is used for detecting a jam or the like in such a way that when the ON time is sufficiently long, it is judged that a jam has occured. In practice, the memories for storing the ON and OFF times are designed so as to be cleared at a predetermined timing. For example, with a memory circuit capable of storing data on 200 mail-items, after 200 mail articles are continuously conveyed, the transportation of the mail-articles is stopped for a short period and the memories, the comparing circuit, and the like are cleared in this short period. If a double memory method is used for the memory circuits 23 and 26, such interruption of the mail transportation is not necessary. This may be achieved by storing the ON and OFF times into two individual memories, alternatively, after 200 mail-articles are transported.

As described above, the mail-article tracing apparatus of the present invention can monitor mail transportation on a long transport path without a great number of mail detectors and any without restriction of the relation between assignment of mail detectors and mail interval.