Abstract: A printer system is configured as a kit for retrofitting the input consoles of existing letter sorting machines of the type used by the U.S. Postal Service. Such machines require that an operator, stationed at a console, enter sorting information for each mail piece, by way of a manually actuated keyboard. The present invention expands the processing capabilities of the machines by imprinting machine-readable, coded information on the respective faces of the mail pieces simultaneously with the sorting thereof. At the same time, the printing function does not impair or modify the usual operator-controlled console when mail is processed which does not require such coding.

Abstract: An electronic recognition circuit is described for use in bar code reader systems having postal and commercial applications. Such systems may be required to read codes which are of relatively poor print quality. The present circuit utilizes statistical auto-correlation techniques to reject extraneous ink dots and minor print voids commonly associated with such printing. Additionally, the circuit is skew tolerant and both position and velocity independent of the bar code being processed.

Abstract: An optical reader system configured as a kit for retrofitting the input consoles of existing letter sorting machines of the type used by the U.S. Postal Service. Such machines require that an operator, stationed at a console, enter sorting information for each mail piece, by way of a manually actuated keyboard. The present invention expands the processing capabilities of the machines by permitting the machine reading of mail pieces that have had their address information pre-coded in machine readable form on their respective faces. At the same time, the automatic function does not impair or modify the usual operator controlled console operation when non-coded mail is being processed.