US 6,318,856 B1Granted

System for metering and auditing the dots or drops or pulses produced by a digital computer

AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.

InventorRonald P. Sansone

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Abstract

A device in a postage meter that uses dot or drop printing to enhance security. Security is achieved by counting the number of signal pulses that are used to produce ink drops or ink dots that are required to produce the entire document or specific regions of the document. The aforementioned may be accomplished by adding a smart module to digital print head modules. The smart module would capture driver pulses from the print head module and interpret the pulses associated with regions of the image. Thus, the smart module would take data from the printer controller that is used to cut off printing when the ink is consumed and relate “set” values to the drops produced during the production of the document or portions of the document, thereby linking the document to the actual volume of ink produced.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A postage meter that produces a postal indicia, said postal indicia comprises:

a text region that indicates postage that has been paid;
a graphic region that has at least one graphic containing a plurality of pixels, wherein the plurality of pixels form a code that indicates the amount of postage that has been paid, wherein the pixels that comprise the graphic are arranged in columns and rows, and the amount of postage paid is coded by the pixels in the columns, wherein
a portion of one of the columns is coded by the pixels to indicate tens of dollars of postage paid;
a portion of one of the columns is coded by the pixels to indicate dollars of postage paid;
a portion of one of the columns is coded by the pixels to indicate tens of cents of postage paid;
a portion of one of the columns is coded by the pixels to indicate the number of cents of postage paid;
and
a portion of one of the columns is coded by the pixels to indicate tenths of cents of postage paid, wherein the meter includes a printer that produces one or more pulses for each pixel printed, wherein the meter includes a counter that respectively counts:
the number of pulses produced to form the coded tens of dollars of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded dollars of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded tens of cents of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded cents of postage;
and
the number of pulses produced to form the coded tenths of cents of postage.

11 more elements

A postage meter that produces a postal indicia, said postal indicia comprises:

a text region that indicates postage that has been paid;
and
a graphic region that has at least one graphic containing a plurality of pixels, wherein the plurality of pixels form a code that indicates the amount of postage that has been paid, wherein the pixels that comprise the graphic are arranged in columns and rows and the amount of postage paid is coded by the pixels in one or more of the rows,
a portion of one of the rows is coded by the pixels to indicate tens of dollars of postage paid;
a portion of one of the rows is coded by the pixels to indicate dollars of postage paid;
a portion of one of the rows is coded by the pixels to indicate tens of cents of postage paid;
a portion of one of the rows is coded by the pixels to indicate number of cents of postage paid;
and
a portion of one of the rows is coded by the pixels to indicate tenths of cents of postage paid,
wherein the meter includes a printer that produces one or more pulses for each pixel printed;
and
wherein the meter includes a counter that respectively counts:
the number of pulses produced to form the coded tens of dollars of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded dollars of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded tens of cents of postage;
the number of pulses produced to form the coded cents of postage;
and the number of pulses produced to form the coded tenths of cents of postage.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.