|||||I|||||| US005602382A United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,602,382 Ulvret al. (45) Date of Patent: Feb. 11, 1997 54 MAIL PIECE BAR CODE HAVING A DATA 152648 8/1983 Canada. CONTENT DENT FER 1173962 9/1984 Canada 202929 4/986 Canada. (75) Inventors: Joseph Ulvr, Carp; Adrian T. S. C. E. SN, Kho, Kanata, both of Canada 2019956 12/1990 Canada.a . (73 Assignee: Canada Post Corporation, Ontario, 2006898 6/1991 Canada. Canada (List continued on next page.) (21) Appl. No.: 331,955 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 1. M. Mansour, "Multi-Tiered Condensed Bar Code', vol. 26, (22 Filed: Oct. 31, 1994 No. 2, Jul. 1983 (IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin). (51) int. Cl. ..................................... G06K 19/06 R. E. Blahut, K. Jones, J. A. Fairless, "A Damage Resistant (52) U.S. Cl. .......................... 235/494; 235/463: 235/462; Bar Code for the Royal Mail", pp. 49–54; IBM 156. s 235/456; 235/375; 371/37.1 Primary Examiner-Donald T. Hajec (58 Field of Search ..................................... 235/494, 463, Assistant Examiner-Michael G. Lee 235/462, 456, 375; '65, as Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack (57) ABSTRACT (56) References Cited A bar code for mail pieces uses bars each of which has four U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS possible states. Two different bars indicate the start of the code and the same two bars in the same order indicate the 33,39we-vs Agg Sasreadwell, Jr. III ............................ ... 235/61.12371/37.1 end of the code. Aa data content identifier follows the start 4,742,521 5/1988 Nishida ..................................... 378 bars and this indicates the structure and length of the 4.852099 7/1989 Ozaki. 371/37 following data field so that when the code is read it will be 4,864,112 9/1989 Imai et al. .............................. 235/463 recognized and read properly. The use of the data content 4,874,936 10/1989 Chandler et al. ....................... 235/494 identifier allows the code to be used for different customer 4,896,029 1/1990 Chandler et al. ....................... 235/494 and Post Office applied applications in which the code 4,972,475 11/1990 Sant'Anselmo ........................... 380/54 structure, length and content varies. The data field may 4,998.010 3/1991 Chandler et al............. 235/494. contain a postal code with or without an address locator, a SE 1932; E. o 25. machine ID, customer information and service information. 5070504 12/1991 E. al. ... 371/54 The code may include a country code field for mail pieces 5,095,484 3/1992 Smeiser. "371/3 that are being mailed to a different country. The code may 5,107,503 4/1992 Riggle et al. .......................... 371/37.1 also include a field indicating whether the codeword is - complete or whether it has to be concatenated with a (List continued on next page.) preceding or subsequent codeword. Error protection in all cases is provided by a Reed-Solomon parity field following FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS the data field. For customer applied codes this parity field 984971 3/1976 Canada. may be made shorter than for Post Office applied codes 998.474 10/1976 Canada. because the potential for error in printing the code by the 1003966 f1977 Canada. customer is less in view of the fact that he has more control 1004767 2/1977 Canada. over the paper quality, colour, extraneous markings, etc. 070837 1/1980 Canada. 120884 3/1982 Canada. 1145847 5/1983 Canada. 27 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets Start | DC Postal Code AL Customer information | RSParity Stop N- N- N- N N N-- N-- 2barS 3barS 15 barS 12 bars 33 bars 12 bars 2 bars l l eg. I - C 5,602,382 Page 2 U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,475,716 12/1995 Huang ................................ 371/37.1 X 5,124,536 6/1992 Priddy et al. ... 235/432 5,479,515 12/1995 Longacre, Jr. ...................... 235/463 X 5,126,542 6/1992 Priddy et al. 235/.456 5,153,929 10/1992 Itagaki .................................... 382765 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS yeE. was 1942: Ossenet al. et ....al. ............................... 371/37.7 371/54 2020475 6/1991 Canada. 5,168,509 12/1992 Nakamura et al. ....................... 375/39 2022269 7/1991 Canada. 5,206,490 4/1993 Petigrew et al. .. 235/462 291247 10/1991 Canada. 5,226,932 7/1993 Prasad ......................................... 55/16 1293806 11/1991 Canada. 5,235,172 8/1993. Oehlmann ..... ... 235/494 1295744 2/1992 Canada. 5,280,488 1/1994 Glover et al. 37/37.1 1305257 7/1992 Canada. 5,288,976 2/1994 Citron et al. .. ... 235/375 1306807 8/1992 Canada. 5,298,731 3/1994 Ett ................. ... 235/494 311842 12/1992 Canada. 5,304.786 4/1994 Pavlidis et al. ... 235/462 2063.03 9/1993 Canada. 5,324,927 6/1994 Willians ....... ... 235/494 2095508 11/1993 Canada 5,420,403 5/1995 Allum et al. ............................ 235/375 2140948 12/1984 United Kingdom. U.S. Patent Feb. 11, 1997 Sheet 1 of 5 5,602,382 FIG.1b) U.S. Patent Feb. 11, 1997 Sheet 2 of 5 5,602,382 FIG.2b Start | DC Postal Code RSParity Machine ID Stop S-- -- N- N- N- -- 2barS 3barS 15 barS 30 bars 4 barS 2 barS li llllllllllllllllllllllllll ill eg. I - 7 KAOB1 O97 W FIG. 3 Start DCI Postal Code AL Customer Information RSParity Stop N- N- N- -- N- N- S-- 2barS 3barS 15 barS 12 bars 33 bars 12 bars 2 bars l l |al Illllllllllllllll te l eg. - C L3B 49 1420 CFFMPLXF6V m ma FIG. 4a U.S. Patent Feb. 11, 1997 5,602,382 U.S. Patent Feb. 11, 1997 Sheet 4 of 5 5,602,382 | Start CC CC Postal Code RSParity Stop -- N- S-- N- N- N 2barS 3 barS 6 bars 24bars 12 bars 2 bars awal |al18O Allel91266 m FIG. 5 | Start DCI CC Postal Code Customer Information RSParity Stop N- -- N- -- N-- N- N 2barS 3barS 6 barS 24bars 30 bars 12 barS 2 bars l C Ill216 IslinHA97PP FFMPL659W l m F.G. 11 | Start | BC: I BCS Service information | RSParity Stop N-- N- N- -- N- N 2barS 3 barS 3 barS 57 bars 12 bars 2 bars an lS |O It allABCDEFGH123456789 m a FIG. 6 U.S. Patent Feb. 11, 1997 Sheet 5 of 5 5,602.382 Start | DC Postal Code RSParity Stop N- N- N- N- N 3 bars 3 bars 15 bars 12 bars 2 bars li || || ||||Ill th l eg. I - A K1A7R8 maa FIG. 7 | Start DCI Postal Code AL | Space RSParity Stop -- N- N- N- N- -- N 2 bars 3 barS 15 barS 12 barS 3 barS 12 bars 2 bars || ||||Illlllllll || |al l eg. I - I B K1A 4S2 1234 - I - I - FIG. 8 Start | DC SI RSParity Stop S-- N- N- N- S-- 2barS 3 barS 15 barS 12 barS 2 bars eg. I - lU ABC12 |al l FIG. 9 Start | DCI Service information RSParity Stop N- N- -- N- N 2bars 3 bars 30 bars 12 barS 2 barS li | | | ||||Illllllllll |al l eg. third T ABCDE12345 w s FIG. 10 5,602.382 1. 2 MAL PECE BAR CODE HAVING ADATA cessing of the mail piece, the bar codeword having a CONTENT DENTIFIER plurality of parallel bars each of which has a state selected BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION from a plurality of possible states. The bar codeword com prises a start field followed by a data content identifier (DCI) This invention relates to bar codes used in the processing field specifying the structure of the codeword followed by at of mail pieces. least one data field, followed by a Reed-Solomon parity In many countries a postal code is used to facilitate field, followed by a stop field. automation in sorting. In Canada, the postal code contains In one embodiment of the invention, as in Blahut, bars three alphabetic characters (letters) interleaved with three which have four possible states are used but the invention is numeric characters (numbers) while in the U.S.A. the zip 10 code consists of five numbers. If a customer has applied the not limited to the use of a four state code. postal code to an envelope this is converted by an optical The data field may contain different types of information character reader (O.C.R.) and computer in the Post Office to depending on the application. For example, it may contain a a bar code which is then printed on the envelope. If the postal code in the ANANAN format where A is an alpha customer has not applied the postal code, this will be betical character and N is a numerical character. The A's are generated in the Post Office and the bar code will be printed each represented by three bars and the N's are each repre on the envelope as before. sented by two bars. It is also becoming more usual for the large corporate The use of the start and stop bars provides an indication customer to apply the postal code in bar code format. A bar of correct orientation and direction of reading in a single code is used because it is easier to read automatically than 20 efficient manner. alphanumeric characters. Not only postal (sortation and sequencing) data can be The British Post Office (BPO) has developed a 4 state bar encoded but also customer data to support the creation of code. The four possible states are one which comprises only value added products and services selectable by the cus a tracker element, one which comprises a tracker element tomer at the time of printing the mail pieces.