Abstract: This invention relates to a cellular telecommunications systems that records in the cellular telephone all the telephone calls made by that particular cellular telephone. This enables the owner or agent of the cellular telephone to compare the telephone calls made by his cellular telephone with the telephone calls that were charged to his assigned number.

Abstract: A method of selectively printing a Postnet barcode on an envelope which includes conveying an address bearing document from an input module along a chassis from an upstream location to a downstream location. Also including scanning the document at the input module to determine whether or not a Postnet barcode is to be printed on the envelope and printing a Postnet barcode with a printer on the envelope if the scanning process indicates that the document contains data which is valid based on a selected configuration. Further including, changing the font of the printer to print a blank string, if the scanning process indicates that the document contains data which is not valid based on selected configuration.

Abstract: A system that limits the torque of motors and discontinues motion control activity of system components in order to protect electrical and mechanical system hardware. Mechanical stresses are controlled by a microprocessor in a manner that they will not exceed predefined limits so that mechanical components will not be destroyed. Thus, replacement of major system components such as drive electronics and fuses may be avoided. Hence, there will be a reduction in service calls to repair the motors and system components.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an input system for feeding one-up sheets from a paper web to a high speed mass mailing inserter system. The input system includes a feeding module for supplying a paper web having two web portions in side-by-side relationship. A merging module is located downstream in the path of travel from the feeding module and is operational to feed the two web portions in an upper-lower relationship so as to reorient the paper web from the side-by-side relationship to an upper-lower relationship. A separating module is located downstream in the path of travel from the merging module and is operational to receive the paper web in the upper-lower relationship and separate the paper web into individual two-up sheets. In order to separate the two-up sheets into one-up sheets, a stacking module is located downstream in the path of travel from the separating module and is configured to receive the two-up sheets, stack the two-up sheets and individually feed one-up sheets from the stack.

Abstract: A backstop member for use in an insertion station operative to insert an enclosure collation into an open end of an envelope. The insertion station having a deck with a transport mechanism for conveying an envelope, an opening mechanism for opening an envelope and a backstop member mounted below the deck for stopping the envelope in the insertion station preparatory to insertion of the enclosure collation. The backstop member includes an elongate stopping portion having a substantially planar surface configured to abut against and prevent travel of an envelope in the insertion station being driven by the transport mechanism when the elongate stopping portion is caused to extend above the deck. The backstop member also provides a cam portion having an ellipsoid configuration dimensioned to cause a portion of the envelope being driven by the deck transport mechanism to travel over the ellipsoid configuration and away from the deck in the insertion station when the cam portion is caused to extend above the deck.

Abstract: An insertion station for inserting enclosure collations into an envelope, the insertion station including a deck and at least two transport belts having a top surface disposed atop the top surface of the deck for conveying an envelope along a direction of travel. A plurality of vacuum ports are arranged between the at least two transport belts wherein vacuum is continuously present at each vacuum port. An elongate rib member is provided upstanding from the deck and extending between the at least two transport belts and adjacent the plurality of vacuum ports, the rib member being configured to support a portion of the envelope that is disposed between the at least two transport belts.

Abstract: A postal meter is contained in a kiosk. The kiosk also contains a postage meter secure classifier; and a modem link, which communicates with a data center, that is located at a different location. The secure classifier records every time postal funds are dispensed by the postal meter and classifies the postal transactions of the postage meter into various categories, which are then stored in funds registers memory. The modem link communicates with the secure classifier and the data center, during a postage meter refill, by exchanging funds and information so that proper rebates will be applied to the kiosk owner. Thus, the data center may also be used to supply additional funds or refills to the postage meter contained within the kiosk.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for removing fractions of a pixel from bar code bars to maintain the correct distance between adjacent correctly sized code forming bars. Thus, the distance between adjacent code forming bars will be constant and accurate. The foregoing is accomplished by varying a parameter of the beam or ink droplet that is used to produce the bar so that the bar width and space between adjacent code forming bars will be accurately maintained. Hence, bars of a bar code will be accurately reproduced to enable the bar code to be accurately read.

Abstract: This invention relates to a cellular telecommunications systems that utilizes the telephone number the cellular telephone is calling, with the number of telephone calls placed on that cellular telephone, i.e., call count and a seed number to create a digital certificate of the data. The digital certificate is used to make it more difficult to make unauthorized cellular telephone calls. The seed number may be changed after a predetermined number of calls has been made, i.e. one hundred, one thousand, etc. Thus, the transmission of seed numbers between data centers would be substantially reduced.

Abstract: This invention includes a voice response unit that communicates rapidly and directly with a system with minimum human intervention and minimizes the number of retransmissions of information due to errors. The rapid communication is achieved by knowing the question or prompt posed by the voice response unit and preparing a response which is speed dialed to the voice response unit. The voice response unit also examines an error correction code, i.e., Reed-Solomon, to determine if there is an error in the information transmitted to the voice response unit. The timing information enabled the voice response unit to determine whether or not one or more tones are missing from the transmitted information or one tone became two tones. The voice response unit determines if the information it received is correct based upon the error correction code. If, the information is incorrect the voice response unit uses the error correction code to determine and correct certain errors.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a sheet material feeder apparatus that includes a first feeder assembly positioned on an exit area of a sheet material storage compartment, which first feeder assembly is operative to provide a first driving force to a sheet material disposed in the storage compartment so as to convey the sheet material from the exit area of the storage compartment onto the main deck of an inserter system. The feeder apparatus further includes a second feeder assembly positioned on the main deck of the inserter system, which second feeder assembly is operative to provide a second driving force to the sheet material conveying through the first feeder assembly such that the sheet material is combined with the other sheet materials conveying along the main deck of the inserter system.

Abstract: An apparatus for accumulating sheets from a secondary source and changing their conveyance direction 90.degree.. The accumulator is a group of vertically stacked bins that discharge batchwise and are loaded from the secondary source alternately by way of a diverter. Discharge is synchronous with a directionally constant primary sheet source.

Abstract: This invention utilizes a simple mechanical buffer that will hold material and a two stage software buffering technique that controls the mechanical buffer to act as a First In First Out mechanical mechanism that allows other system events to be triggered off of dynamic thresholds. The two stage software buffering technique consists of a simple software FIFO with rule based logic to control input into a primary queue input and a secondary reserve queue which holds information as soon as it arrives. The decision to move information from the secondary reserve queue into the primary queue is based upon specific rules that are dynamically executed. This permits the creation of a dynamic threshold and allows the reliable triggering of the systems events. The foregoing permits material that is being produced at one fixed speed to be synchronized with material that is produced at variable speeds.

Abstract: This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a cellular telephone metering systems that allows phone calls to be made as long as sufficient funds or call units reside in the phone. The apparatus of this invention also utilize encryption and employ seed numbers for the addition of funds or call units to the cellular phone.

Abstract: A web guide particularly adapted for mail handling systems is positioned between the mail handling system form feeder and separating device. The web guide provides a surface to guide and control the web during its travel between the feeder and separating device so as to avoid or minimize premature tearing of the web, particularly during web acceleration caused by the separating device.

Abstract: A method of customizing application software in an inserting system includes the steps of providing a system baseline program for operating the inserting system in a standard baseline mode, and providing a dynamic link library (DLL) including a table of features to be included in the inserting system and an application routine corresponding to each of the features. A call table in the system baseline program is linked with an address for each feature corresponding to the location of the application program for the feature. The DLL is customized based on information received from the baseline program. Each of the features is called when indicated in the system baseline program and information is provided to each DLL application program corresponding to the feature. The information is modified to make the system baseline program execute a different set of logic corresponding the customization of the machine. A sub-dynamic link library (sub-DLL) is provided for further customization.

Abstract: In the field of mailpiece handling apparatuses, it is known to provide machines having DC drives for all components thereof. However, the use of DC drives exclusively is expensive. On the other hand, AC drive frequently do not provide a sufficient degree of precision in the controlling of mailpieces in the machines. The disclosure relates to a folder-inserter-sealer machine (10) having a first, AC electric motor (28) connected to drive a first set of driveable components on the apparatus: and one or more further, DC electric actuators (18;27) operatively connected to drive a further set of driveable components of the apparatus. An advantage of the arrangement is that precise control of components may be obtained in a comparatively low-cost machine.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus for aligning the leading and trailing edges in abutting relationship of two adjacent webs preparatory to splicing the abutting edges together with adhesive tape, and for perforating the tape subsequent to being applied to the adjacent web wedges along the seam formed by the web edges. The apparatus comprises a fixture adapted to lie on a flat surface for holding the trailing and leading edge portions of a pair of preceding and succeeding tapes securely in place with the end edges thereof abutting so that a piece of adhesive tape can be applied thereto. The apparatus also comprises a device which cooperates with a guide on the fixture for perforating the tape along the seam formed by the aforementioned edges so that the web sheets can be separated by feeding the web into a bursting machine or otherwise.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for cropping an image in digital form. The image to be cropped is represented as a first digital array which is operated on by an edge enhancement transformation to generate a second, binary digital array wherein edges of the image are emphasized. The second digital array is then partitioned into predetermined segments which are typically rows and columns of the array and the pixel values of each row and column are summed to generate brightness sums. The second digital array is then partitioned into a first, brighter, central group of rows and a second, less bright group consisting of upper and lower borders of rows; and a third, brighter, central group of column and left and right borders of columns in accordance with predetermined criteria relating to the brightness sums.

Abstract: This invention relates to a system for identifying, authenticating and tracking articles of manufacture throughout their manufacturing and distribution channels. The foregoing system utilizes: manufacturing meters that are located at authorized manufacturing locations and produce encrypted data that is uniquely associated with each manufactured article; a printer located at the authorized manufacturing locations so that the printer will print the information encrypted by the meter, which encrypted information is affixed to the manufactured article; a data center coupled to the manufacturing meters and located at a site remote from the manufacturing meters; means for producing information that identifies the manufactured articles; and a plurality of means located where the authenticity of the manufactured articles are checked by comparing the encrypted information on the article with the information produced that identifies the article.