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US 7,003,471 B2Granted
Method and system for accepting non-toxic mail that has an indication of the mailer on the mail
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorRonald P. Sansone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system that determines if mail contains life-harming materials before the mail enters the interior of a receptacle, i.e., mail box. This invention accomplishes the foregoing by issuing stamps that uniquely identify the stamp and identify the mailer to whom the stamp was issued; having a scanner at a receptacle read the stamp and send the unique identifying code contained in the stamp to a data center that checks if the stamp is genuine; and stores the stamps unique code before mail is permitted to enter the interior of the receptacle.
Claims11
An incoming mail monitoring system, said system comprises:
- a sticker that is issued to mailers that is placed on mail to identify the mailer to whom the sticker was issued;
- a receptacle that reads and stores the identifying information contained in the sticker before the mail enters the interior of the receptacle;
- a data center that receives information contained in the sticker and the receptacle to determine if the mailer is permitted to enter mail into the interior of the receptacle;
- a scanner that reads the sticker;
- wherein the scanner captures and interprets the information contained in the sticker;
- wherein the scanner is located in a control chamber;
- wherein the control chamber has a locked door for isolating suspect mail;
- wherein the interior of the receptacle comprises an inner chamber that receives mail from the control chamber that is not suspected of having life-harming material;
- and
- wherein the inner chamber has a locked door in which when open mail may be removed from the inner chamber.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.