Franking system
AssigneeAlcatel Business Systems
InventorDennis T. Gilham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of franking mail items is disclosed in which the franking impression includes a machine readable portion and a visually readable portion. The machine readable portion comprises a data block including at least a postage charge and a pseudo-random number and the data block is encrypted prior to printing. During printing of the franking impression, at least a part of the machine readable portion is read and compared with the data block intended to be printed. If the comparison is satisfactory the printing operation is continued to print the visually readable portion. The pseudo-random number is changed for each franking transaction which may be each item or batch of items. The machine readable portion is read at a mail handling centre to provide an input to a postage charging and accounting function.
Claims19
A method of franking mail items comprising the steps of generating a pseudo-random number relating to a franking transaction;
- forming a data block containing at least said pseudo-random number and data relating to a postal charge for said mail item;
- encrypting said data block;
- printing data representing said encrypted data block together with identification data in machine readable form on a mail item.
A method of franking mail items and accounting for postage value used comprising at a mail item franking location the steps of generating a pseudo-random number relating to a franking transaction;
- forming a data block containing at least said pseudo-random number and data relating to a postal charge for said mail item;
- utilising an encryption key unique to a franking machine to encrypt said data block;
- printing data representing said encrypted data block together with data identifying said franking machine in machine readable form on a mail item;
- and at a postal authority location the steps of machine reading said identification data and printed encrypted data block;
- selecting from a record of decryption keys a decryption key corresponding to said identification data;
- utilising said selected decryption key to decrypt said encrypted data block read from the mail item;
- checking validity of the pseudo-random number contained in said data block and if valid utilising the postage charge data as an accounting input to account for postage value used.
A method of franking a mail item including the steps of generating a different pseudo-random number for each franking transaction;
- printing on the mail item franking data in machine readable form, said franking data including a data block containing data relating to a postal charge for said item and the pseudo-random number applicable to that mail item, said data block being encrypted prior to printing on the mail item.
Franking apparatus including means to generate a pseudo-random number for each franking transaction;
- means to form a data block by combining said pseudo-random number with a postal value selected for franking a mail item;
- and printing means operable to print franking data including said data block in machine readable form on the mail item.
A method of franking mail items comprising the steps of generating a series of pseudo-random numbers, each said random number relating to a specific franking transaction and being independent of postal data relating to any mail item;
- forming a data block containing at least said unique pseudo-random number and data relating to a postal charge applicable to said mail item;
- utilising a stored encryption key to encrypt said data block;
- printing data representing said encrypted data block together with identification data in machine readable form on the mail item.
A method of franking mail items and accounting for postage value used comprising at a mail item franking location the steps of generating independently of postal data relating to any mail item a pseudo-random number relating to a specific franking transaction;
- forming a data block containing at least said pseudo-random number and data relating to a postal charge for said mail item;
- storing an encryption key unique to said franking location;
- utilising said encryption key to encrypt said data block;
- printing data representing said encrypted data block together with data identifying said franking location in machine readable form on the mail item and at a postal authority location the steps of machine reading said identification data and said encrypted data block;
- storing a record of a plurality of encryption keys relating to a plurality of franking locations;
- selecting from said record that encryption key corresponding to said identification data;
- utilising said selected encryption key to decrypt said encrypted data block read from the mail item to reveal said pseudo-random number and said postage charge data;
- checking validity of said revealed pseudo-random number and if valid utilising the revealed postage charge data as an input to an account record to account for postage value used.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.