JPH0317791A - Postal matter processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the recognition precision of address information at the time of the classification of postal matter by directing the position and the direction of the address information mentioned on the postal matter to a recognizing means. CONSTITUTION:The address information of the postal matter carried and inserted into an indicator 13 is read by a reading part 17, and is supplied to a recognizing part 16. Information read by the reading part 17 is displayed, and in the case of a printing type, a printing type mode, the direction and the position of the address information, etc., are directed by a control panel 12, and the contents of the directions are directed to the recognizing part 16. The recognizing part 16 recognizes the address information read by the reading part 17 on the basis of the directions, and the address information is discriminated by an address discriminating part 18, and the postal matter is classified by a classifying part 20. Through this configuration, the recognition precision of the address information at the recognizing part can be raised.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a device for reading address information written on, for example, mail and sorting and accumulating it. The present invention relates to a mail processing device that can indicate the location of address information.

(Prior Art) As is well known, a device has been developed and put into practical use that reads and recognizes the postal code written on mail and sorts the mail according to the recognized information.

Incidentally, recently, an apparatus has been developed that reads and recognizes address information written on mail items and sorts the mail items according to the recognized address information.

However, currently, the shapes of mail items are diversifying, and the position and direction of the address information written on the mail items vary.

Moreover, in addition to address information, various advertisements, patterns, etc. are written on the surface of current mail items. For this reason, it has been difficult to read the required address information from the diversified mail items, and it has been difficult to improve the reading accuracy.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) This invention solves the problem of low accuracy in reading address information, and its purpose is to improve the accuracy of reading address information on mail. The purpose is to provide a processing device.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a reading means for reading address information written on mail to be transported, and a method for reading address information written by the reading means. recognition means for recognizing address information; sorting means for classifying mail according to the address information recognized by the recognition means; and instructions for instructing the recognition means as to the position and direction of the address information written on the mail. The means are provided.

(Operation) That is, the present invention improves the recognition accuracy of the address information read by the reading means and recognized by the recognition means by instructing the recognition means about the position and direction of the address information written on the postal item by the instruction means. It is something that can be improved.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the mail processing device. In the figure, the control unit j1 is constituted by, for example, a microcomputer, and the control unit 11 includes an operation panel l2 for instructing reading of address information written on the mail, and an operation panel l2 for instructing the reading of address information written on the mail. An indicator l3 capable of specifying the position and direction of the address information, a memory l4 that stores the operation program of the control unit l1 and the position and direction of the address information instructed by the indicator l3, and inputs various information. A personal computer 15 and an address information recognition unit 1B are connected.

The recognition unit 1B includes a reading unit l that reads character information such as address information from the surface of the mail item being conveyed on a conveyance path (not shown).
7 is connected, and the character information read by this reading section 17 is supplied to the recognition section 16. The recognition section 1B recognizes the character information supplied from the reading section 17, and the recognition result is supplied to the addressee discriminating section 18.

This address discrimination section 18 collates the address information supplied from the recognition section 1B with the address information stored in the memory l9 as a dictionary, and the result of this collation is supplied to the sorting section 2b. Ru. This sorting section 20 includes an address discriminating section l.
According to the determination result supplied from 8, the mail conveyed through the conveyance path is accumulated in the accumulation section corresponding to the address information.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the operation panel 12. As shown in FIG.

This operation panel l2 includes a reading mode designation key 12a.
, digit designation key +2b, direction designation key 12c1 confirmation key 12d. Category specification key 12e, address specification key 12
[', a function switching key 12g, a display section 12h that displays information corresponding to the operation of these keys, etc. are provided.

The reading mode designation key 12a is used to designate a mode for determining an addressee from among all the data read by the reading section 17, and a printing type mode for determining printed characters from among data read by the reading section 17. It is specified. In this printing type mode, the direction in which the addressee is written can be selected from four directions using the direction specifying key 12e. When this direction specifying key 12c is operated, text information 12k "addressee" is displayed on the display section 12h, and the display direction of this text information 12k is set by the key 12c.
It is possible to switch according to the operation.

Furthermore, in the case of print type mode, if the position of the address in the mail is indicated by the indicator 13 and the direction of the address is indicated by the direction specifying key 12c, only the indicated part of the address can be determined. .

The function switching key 12h changes the function of the keys on the operation panel l2.
When operated, the keys on the operation panel 12 act as keys for the registration mode for registering the location of the address information of the mail item.

3 and 4 show the indicator l3.

A storage section L3a for storing mail P is provided on the entire surface of the indicator 13, and the mail P is stored in this storage section 13.
It is set in the accommodating part 13a using the corner 13b of a as a reference. A movable body 13c that is movable along the longitudinal direction of the housing portion 13a is provided inside the housing portion 13a. A cursor 13d is provided.

This cursor 13d is made of, for example, a transparent resin material. This cursor 13d is provided with an instruction frame 13e for indicating the leading position of the addressee written on the postal item P. These moving objects 13c and cursor 13d
The moving position of each is electrically detected by a well-known method.

Further, on the entire surface of the indicator l3, a concentration setting switch Hr configured by, for example, a rotary switch is provided. This density setting switch 13f is used to set the density of address information written on the mail P.

In the above configuration, the operation when sorting mail items using the same type of address writing method, for example, will be explained.

In this case, the printing type mode is set using the reading mode key 12b of the operation panel 12, and in this state, the mail P as a sample is stored in the storage section 13a of the indicator 13.

FIGS. 5(a) to 5(d) show how mail is stored in the storage section 13a. As is clear from the figure,
There are four directions in which the address can be written on the mail P.

With the mail P stored in the storage section 13a as described above, manually move the cursor 13d of the indicator l3,
As shown in FIGS. 5(a) to 5(d), the instruction frame 13e is aligned with the leading position of the address information written on the mail P.

In this state, the direction designation key 12 of the operation panel l2
c to make the direction of the character information 12k of the "addressee" displayed on the display section 12h match the writing direction of the addressee indicated in the instruction frame 13e, and then the confirmation key 12e is operated. Then, the coordinate information of the head position of the address information designated by the indicator l3 and the writing direction information of the address designated by the direction designation key 12c are supplied to the recognition unit 16 via the control unit 11.

The recognition unit 16 recognizes the reading information of the postal item supplied from the reading unit 17 based on the characters in the part corresponding to the coordinate information of the beginning position of the address and the writing direction information supplied from the control unit 11. . The recognition result of the recognition unit l6 is supplied to the addressee discriminating unit 18, and the addressee discriminating unit l8 compares it with the addressee information stored in the memory l9. This verification result is supplied to the sorting section 20, and the mail pieces conveyed through the transport section are stacked in the stacking section corresponding to the verification result.

Next, the operation in registration mode will be explained.

For example, mail items such as direct mail, which are shipped in large quantities, generally have address information printed in a certain format. In the case of such mail, it is convenient to memorize the leading position and writing direction of the address information in advance.

That is, when the function switching key 12h is pressed, the registration mode is set. In this registration mode, as described above, the mail P is stored in the storage section l3゜a, and the cursor 13d of the indicator i3 is manually moved, as shown in Figs. 5(a) to (d).
As shown in the figure, the instruction frame 13e is made to match the leading position of the address information written on the mail P.

In this state, the direction designation key 12 on the operation panel 12
0, character information 12k displayed on the display section 12h
After matching the direction of the address indicated in the instruction frame 13c, the user inputs, for example, the identification name and identification code of this mail piece as comment information from the personal computer 15, and operates the confirmation key 12e. Then, the coordinate information of the head position of the address information designated by the indicator l3 and the writing direction information of the address designated by the direction designation key 12e are stored in the memory 14 together with the identification name and identification code.

It is possible to set a plurality of starting positions and writing directions of the addressee.

Thereafter, the function switching key 12h is operated to switch from the registration mode to the normal mode, and the address designation key 121 is operated. Then, the identification name and identification code stored in the memory l4 are read out. Of the read identification name and identification code, the identification code is displayed at a position corresponding to the digit designation key 12b on the display section 12h, and the identification name is displayed at a position corresponding to the direction designation key 12c on the display section 12h. .

In this way, when a desired identification name or identification code is selected and the confirmation key 12d is operated, the leading position and writing direction of the address information stored in the memory l4 corresponding to this identification name and identification code are recognized. The mail is supplied to section 1G, and the mail is processed according to the leading position and writing direction.

According to the above embodiment, the indicator l3 and the direction specifying key 1
2c specifies the position and direction of the address information written on the mail, and the read information read from the mail is recognized according to the designated position and direction. Therefore, even if address information is written in various positions and directions on the mail piece, and various information other than the address information is written on the surface of the mail piece, the address information can be reliably recognized. It is something.

In addition, by specifying the registration mode, the writing position and direction of the address information can be stored in advance in the memory l4, and after canceling the registration mode, the stored writing position and direction of the address information can be called up as required. be able to.

Therefore, when processing regular mail such as direct mail that is shipped in large quantities, by operating the address specification key 121', you can select the position and direction in which address information is stored in advance and process it easily. It is something that can be done.

Furthermore, by specifying the registration mode, the location and direction of address information can be easily stored in the memory i4. However, this can be easily dealt with by changing the contents of the memory 14.

Note that this invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
Of course, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the position and direction of the address information written on the postal item are instructed to the recognition means by the instruction means, so that the reading means can read the address information and the recognition means can It is possible to provide a mail processing device that can improve the recognition accuracy of address information recognized in the mail processing apparatus.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the configuration of the operation panel, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 3 and 4 each show an indicator, and FIG. 3 is a front view. 4 is a perspective view, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of indicating address information using an indicator. 11...Control unit, 12...Operation panel, t3...
Indicator, l4... memory, 16... recognition unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A reading means for reading address information written on a mail item to be transported; a recognition means for recognizing the address information read by the reading means; and a method according to the address information recognized by the recognition means. A mail processing device comprising: a sorting means for sorting mail; and an instruction means for instructing the recognition means the position and direction of address information written on the mail.